CHRISTMAS CARD MURDER

Three Christmas greetings bring clues to murder.

Meier’s title story presents Lucy Stone on the verge of realizing a lifelong dream. Since three of their four children are grown and living on their own, she wants her carpenter husband, Bill, to knock out the wall between their cramped bedroom and an adjacent room to create a luxurious master suite. As Bill bangs away at the lath and plaster, Lucy finds an antique Christmas card with a nasty message hidden in the baseboard. Lucy’s search for the sender circles back to the long-ago murder of a high school student. Although her inquiry has moments of high drama, including a blizzard that shuts down the town, the solution is a letdown. The miserable missive in Hollis’ Death of a Christmas Carol is sent by Carol Waterman to three friends: Hayley Powell, food writer for the Island Times; Rosana Moretti, wife of the Times’ publisher; and Hayley’s friend Mona Barnes, a lobsterwoman. Borrowing from the classic film A Letter to Three Wives, Carol’s card reveals her plans to run off with the husband of one of the friends, plans that are foiled by her death. Neither the solving of the mystery nor the unmasking of the errant spouse offers any holiday cheer. Ehrhart’s Death of a Christmas Card Crafter tells the sad tale of popular high school art teacher Karma Karling, whom readers never meet before her body is found in a local Christmas tree lot. She leaves behind the last of a Twelve-Days-of-Christmas–themed series of cards featuring not 12 but 13 drummers drumming. Neighbors Pamela Paterson and Bettina Fraser use that extra image to track down Karma’s killer—a solution that comes so far out of left field it could have been sent there by Willie Mays.

Three tepid treats for the holiday season.