Decked with Folly by Kate Kingsbury
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(Paperback)
- Pub. Date: November 2009
- 304pp
- Sales Rank: 5,031
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Product Details
- Pub. Date: November 2009
- Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
- Format: Paperback, 304pp
- Sales Rank: 5,031
- Series: A Special Pennyfoot Hotel Myst Series
- ISBN-13: 9780425230015
- ISBN: 0425230015
Synopsis
Make room for murder with all the trimmings in the latest of the Pennyfoot Hotel Christmas mystery series.
It's the holiday season and the Pennyfoot staff is brimming with anticipation. The scents of the season overflow from the kitchen and the country club's halls are decorated with festive displays thanks to Cecily's dear friend Madeline. But when one of Cecily's candlesticks disappears, she realizes someone is lacking in Christmas spirit.
Petty thievery seems the least of Cecily's problems after she learns a former employee has been found dead in her duck pond. He hasn't worked at the Pennyfoot in years, but his ex-wife is still their head maid-and now she heads the list of suspects. And when Madeline has a vision of more misfortune to come, Cecily starts feeling more jinxed than jolly. Now a killer and a thief must be taken off the guest list in order to put the merry back into Christmas.
Publishers Weekly
The Christmas curse (that is, “something quite dreadful happen[ing] to put a dampener on things”) strikes again in Kingsbury's diverting fifth holiday Pennyfoot Hotel mystery set in Edwardian England (after 2008's Ringing in Murder). Cecily Sinclair Baxter, the Pennyfoot's proprietress, immediately suspects foul play after the body of Ian McBride, the estranged husband of her chief housemaid, Gertie, surfaces in the hotel duck pond. While Gertie emerges as the prime suspect in her husband's demise, Kingsbury expertly strews red herrings to suggest plenty of others had reason to wish Ian dead. Subplots involving Ian's first wife and what various members of the household staff were up to on the eve of the murder add intrigue. This makes the perfect stocking stuffer for the cozy fan in your life. (Nov.)
More Reviews and RecommendationsBiography
Kate Kingsbury is the author of the Pennyfoot Hotel and Manor House mystery series.
Customer Reviews
Readers will enjoy the latest Pennyfoot holiday mysteryby harstan
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September 13, 2009: It is the Christmas season and the Pennyfoot Spa is having its usual holiday celebration. Manager Cecily Sinclair Baxter prays they get through the Yuletide period without a murder as seems to be the tradition (see SHROUDS OF HOLLY, SLAY BELLS and NO CLUE AT THE INN - not a safe place for the holidays). Alas the homicidal jinx remains intact as a drunken man is found dead in the pond; they discover he is Ian Rossiter who used to work there and once was bigamously married to still-employed head maid Gertie. They also had a fight on the hotel's grounds in which she attacked him with a knife.
The local constable Northcott believes Gertie killed her former spouse, but Cecily thinks differently; the cops do not arrest her head maid, but remand her into her employer's custody. The Pennyfoot repairman saves Gertie's life twice, which has Cecily pondering the connection to Ian's death beyond the obvious. When Ian's current wife Gloria arrives looking for him only to learn he is dead, she goes hysterical; Cecily puts her in a guest room. Meanwhile someone watches the activity waiting for the opening to make a move while Cecily wonders what had Ian done to bring such misfortune to him and his family.There are numerous suspects besides the ex wife whose motive is the most obvious as Ian wants to see his twins, but others also have powerful reasons to kill the rogue. Cecily is more of a modern woman than an early twentieth cnturty female as she refuses to let her husband Baxter or any male dictate how she is to behave especially when he pleads with her to stay out of the murder investigation. The story line has the "Upstairs, Downstairs" feel that enhances the whoudnit as there is a wide schism between the classes as World War I had not started leveling the playing field yet. Readers will enjoy the latest Pennyfoot holiday mystery as a terrific historical amateur sleuth.Harriet Klausner
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