Slay Bells

From Publishers Weekly At the start of Kingsbury's 14th Pennyfoot Hotel mystery, series heroine Cecily Baxter is looking forward to a peaceful Christmas without any of the tragic events that marred the previous holiday season (detailed in 2003's No Clue at the Inn ). When a footman breaks his neck falling off the roof, the village drunkard is stabbed and stuffed down the chimney in his Father Christmas suit, and Cecily's husband begins to avoid her questions about why he's spending so much time with a beautiful French singer, she reluctantly turns detective once more, determined to solve the mysteriesand somehow still help her guests have a happy Christmasbefore the local constables can bungle the chase or shut down the hotel. The author draws as much from Fawlty Towers as she does from Agatha Christie, crafting a charming but entirely predictable cozy delicately flavored with period details of pre-WWI rural England. (Nov.) Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Product Description Cecily Sinclair Baxter hosts a holiday party at the Pennyfoot Hotel where the children of Badger's End can meet Father Christmas. Unfortunately, the jolly old man is found dead along with one of his helpers. The role of St. Nicholas had previously been played by a notorious village drunkard, and the police believe the two men killed each other. But Cecily has her doubts, as the murder weapon was never recovered. And since no one has left the hotel since the crime, she's making a list of suspects-and checking it twice. During a holiday party at the Pennyfoot Hotel during which the children of Badger's End can meet with Father Christmas, the man playing the role of St. Nicholas turns up dead, along with one of his helpers, and Cecily Sinclair Baxter, suspicious about the police version of the crime, undertakes her own investigation into the killing The second Pennyfoot Hotel Christmas reunion.Cecily Sinclair Baxter's Christmas becomes a working holiday when the man playing Santa Claus for her hotel is found murdered.