Holidays Are Murder
Charlotte Douglas
Harlequin Next, Dec 2005, $5.50
ISBN: 0373880715

In Pelican Bay, Florida overworked Detective Maggie Skerritt knows she could use a break, but hides behind her work to avoid the holiday pressures on her from her family and to a lesser degree her lover and former law enforcement partner Bill Malcolm. Maggie tells everyone who ignores her ramblings that she will get into the spirit as soon as she solves a series of commercial robberies.

However, before resolving the thefts, Maggie begins working on a homicide that to her chagrin gets her socialite mother on her back. The victim is the son-in-law of her mom's best friend and in spite of mother's insistence otherwise the prime suspect is the wife. Bill helps her with her inquires even as he pressures his beloved to marry him.

The latest Skerritt mystery (see PELICAN BAY) is a fabulous police procedural due to the lead character who knows she needs R&R, but fears that rest does not include relaxation as her mother and her lover have demands on her time. Thus she is motivated to work the robberies and the murder investigations to avoid commitments to her family for the holidays and permanently with Bill. The who-done-it is cleverly devised so that the audience joins the heroine as she follows the clues.

Harriet Klausner