Deck the Halls with Murder

Rating:
Summary: Gender bender Josie solves mysteries and does construction
Review: Christmas is a month away and Josie Pigeon, owner of Island Contracting, wants the current construction finished before the holidays start. Her all female crew are working exceptionally hard to accomplish Josie's quest. However, winter turns extremely cold when one of the carpenters, Caroline Albrecht, becomes ill while eating a sandwich. The ambulance rushes Caroline to the hospital, but she dies from food poisoning anyway.

Law enforcement official Mike Rodney arrests Josie's friend Betty Patrick. Though Josie knows that one of her employees most likely killed Caroline, she refuses to accept that Betty could have done the deed. Instead, she wonders if Caroline's carpentry partner Layne could have done in her buddy or if someone else, with a hidden agenda nobody knows about, be the perp. Josie begins to investigate what happened to her star carpenter even if it means delaying the completion of the project and placing her own life in jeopardy.

The fourth Josie Pigeon amateur sleuth mysteries, DECK THE HALLS WITH MURDER, is a fun to read cozy that highlights that women can skillfully perform tasks that are predominantly found in male jobs. The delightful characters are witty and the island atmosphere adds a feeling of serenity even in the midst of murder. Valerie Wolzien, author of the Susan Henshaw mysteries, continues to provide her fans with interesting gender bending who-done-its that entertain the reader.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: DELIGHTFUL
Review: For the relaxing time of my Christmas holidays, I searched Amazon.com for murder mysteries revolving around the holidays. I found Valerie and ordered this book. I had never heard of her before but took a chance anyway. I found her character to be absolutely delightful and the other supporting characters to be quite good. I liked Sam but felt sorry for him. I'm not too sure about Sam's mother, she seems a little pushy. The murder and the reasons for it were very interesting. Since I love to read mystery books where the authors include cats, I was very pleased that Urchin the cat was in the book and that Josie even befriended a stray cat. Valerie is a keeper for me. I'll add her to my list of authors to read.