I've read at least one other Fixer-Upper mystery and watched the Hallmark shows, but I was looking for something free to listen to and found this one. I didn't love it to be honest. Shannon goes out on a blind date that ends badly, with her kneeing him and threatening to kill him - in front of a beach of witnesses. Of course, the guy later turns up dead - in one of the houses her company is remodeling, killed with one of her distinctive pink tools. She is, of course, a suspect and decides she needs to clear her name. Unfortunately, most of the other suspects are women too. The guy was jerk.
I like Shannon in the tv show, but here she seems young. She doesn't learn and continues to threaten to kill people throughout the book (because doesn't everyone) but then is dismayed when they end up murdered, or almost murdered. She still has some kind...
There are a lot of things I enjoyed about The Knife Before Christmas and a few things I didn't. Shannon and her crew are working on a Christmas carnival at the Cliffs Hotel that has a Victorian flair and a couple of surprises. It sounded fun, but it was hard to picture how it all fit together - the tent, Santa's stall, the carousel. We get introduce to the Garrisons, the family that owns and runs the hotel. There's a lot of family drama, with almost all of them working and living at the hotel, and it's not surprise when one of them ends up murdered. I won't say who because even though it's obvious, it takes the story a while to get there. The killer, once we get to the reveal, isn't much of a surprise either.
We do get a lot of Christmas touched here, plenty of decorations and food and drinks. I like Shannon - she and Mac...
I have not read any of the previous Fixer-Upper mysteries, but I have watched a couple of the Hallmark shows, so I kind of felt like I already knew the characters and town.
Shannon owns a construction company, and she's been hired by a good friend to help renovate one wing of The Gables, a former institution. The entire property is being revitalized, and Rachel is overseeing the project. Rachel has convinced Shannon's boyfriend, Mac, a famous writer, to become one of the investors. When Shannon and Mac do some exploring, they find a mysterious stranger running around the abandoned property. Later on, he shows up as part of a group of protestors against the project. Even later on, one of those protestors ends up dead, the body found by Shannon of course. How are the secrets of The Gables past threatening people now?
The Gables is an interesting location, and I enjoyed all the descriptions and scenes that took place...
