Grievance in Gingerbread Alley by Leighann Dobbs

Grievance in Gingerbread Alley by Leighann Dobbs
Series: Christmas Village Cozy #2
Published by Leighann Dobbs Publishing on November 21, 2019
Source: Purchased
Genres: Novella, Cozy Mystery, Christmas
Pages: 76
Format: eBook
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When Augusta (Gus) Chance takes a break from her duties as Sheriff of Mystic Notch to indulge in her hobby of playing jazz piano in Christmas Village she never imagines that a surprise from her past will cause her to become embroiled in the investigation of a suspicious death.

She soon discovers that Christmas Village isn’t the idyllic holiday retreat that it appears to be. Something sinister is lurking beneath all that Christmas cheer and the village regulars are harboring dangerous secrets.

What does the murder have to do with the maids-a-milking, the swans-a-swimming and the partridge in the pear tree? Gus is on a mission to find out, but she soon discovers that solving a murder is not so easy when you don’t have the benefit of a sheriff’s badge.

This humorous Christmas cozy mystery novella features Sheriff Gus Chance from Leighann Dobbs’ Mystic Notch series in a twisty old-fashioned who done it in a warm and cozy Christmas village setting.

Grievance in Gingerbread Alley is the second of the Christmas Village Cozies. They’re both quick fun reads and I read this one right after the first.

Gus is on vacation in Christmas Village, playing jazz piano at the North Pole Lounge. She knows Christmas Village can’t be as perfect and cheery as it seems. While she’s out and about she watches as a protester keels over, obviously poisoned, and she can’t help investigating. The woman was protesting the treatment of the birds in Christmas Village: the partridge, French hens, geese, swans, turtle doves. There are lots of suspects in her death with the birds’ caretakers and the philandering husband and his mistress, at the top of the list.

The problem, at least for Gus, is that the local detective in charge was one of her teachers at the police academy. They apparently never got along well, and not Detective Winters is insisting Gus stay out of the way. So Gus, and her sidekick Ivy, have to find out their answers by sneaking around and asking unofficial questions. The residents are all a bit quirky, and there’s at least a bit of magic going on, but the murder is a good old-fashioned mystery.

This was a good addition to my Christmas reading. It was cute and a good book to read while hubby was watching hockey on tv.