The Twelve Books of Christmas (Bibliophile Mystery, Band 17) - Softcover

Carlisle, Kate

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0593637704 ISBN 13: 9780593637708

Verlag: Penguin Publishing Group, 2024

Inhaltsangabe

The first-ever Christmas mystery in the beloved New York Times bestselling Bibliophile Mystery series!

San Francisco book-restoration expert Brooklyn Wainwright and her hunky security-expert husband, Derek Stone, face a puzzling murder mystery during the holidays in Scotland.

In the middle of a wonderful Christmas holiday in Dharma, Brooklyn and Derek receive a frantic phone call from their dear friend Claire in Loch Ness, Scotland. The Laird of the castle, Cameron MacKinnon, has just proposed to her! Cameron and Claire plan to be married on New Year’s Day, and they want Derek and Brooklyn to be their witnesses. And while they’re visiting, Claire hopes that Brooklyn will be able to solve a little mystery that’s occurred in the castle library—twelve rare, very important books have gone missing.

Once in Scotland, Brooklyn starts working on the mystery of the missing books but is soon distracted by all of the thumping and bumping noises she’s been hearing in the middle of the night. You’d think the Ghost of Christmas Past had taken up residence. But when one of the guests is poisoned and another is killed by an arrow through the heart, Brooklyn and Derek know this is not the work of any ghost. Now they must race to find a killer and a book thief before another murder occurs and their friends’ bright and happy future turns dark and deadly.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Kate Carlisle is the New York Times bestselling author of the Bibliophile Mysteries, including The Twelve Books of Christmas and The Paper Caper, as well as the Fixer-Upper Mysteries, including Dressed to Drill.

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Chapter 1

I stared out the wide kitchen window as a black stretch limousine pulled to a stop in front of our new second home in Dharma. Less than two minutes later, another limo arrived, and I had to take a few bracing breaths. "Have we done the right thing?"

My darkly handsome husband Derek quirked an eyebrow. "Regrets already, darling?"

"God, yes." I tried to laugh, but the sound bordered on hysterical. "We couldn't settle for a cozy dinner for four, could we? No way. We had to invite thirty-four people for dinner on Christmas Eve. Thirty-four people! Or is it thirty-five?" Did it really matter? Either way, we were about to be besieged in our brand-new house. With family and friends, but still. "Are we crazy?"

"Of course not," he said, his distinguished British accent lending extra credibility to the statement. "It's a perfectly respectable thing to invite favorite friends and family members over for Christmas Eve dinner."

"Is it?" I wondered. "We're likely to cause a frenzy."

He laughed. "Would that be so bad?"

I gaped at him.

"Maybe they won't all show up," he said, but he was still laughing.

"Oh, please," I said. "You know they'll all be here."

He gently rubbed my shoulders. "All the people we love best."

His kind words calmed me down a smidge, as they usually did. It would all work out and we would have a good time. After all, this was the reason we'd built our second home in Dharma, the small town in the Sonoma wine country where I'd grown up. We wanted to be close to family, so now we were about to welcome my parents, two brothers, three sisters, various spouses, and lots of children to spend Christmas Eve with us. Derek's parents were coming, too, along with several of his brothers, their wives, and more children. We were also expecting our good friends Gabriel and Alex, along with my parents' guru, Robson Benedict, and Derek's aunt Trudy. It was going to be an interesting evening.

"It'll be lovely," Derek insisted.

"It'll be chaos."

He chuckled and rubbed his hands up and down my arms. "As it should be, darling. After all, it's Christmas."

I tried to remember to breathe. "Christmas. Right." I watched another limo drive up and park. It sounded extravagant, but we had gone ahead and ordered a number of limousines so our friends wouldn't have to drive through the hills after a long night of good food and lots of wine. It just made sense.

Derek kissed me, then slowly let me go and gazed out the window. "Look on the bright side. At least you don't have to cook."

"Good point." I was the absolute worst cook in the world, and everybody knew it. Happily the entire evening was being catered by my sister Savannah's fabulous restaurant in downtown Dharma. Most of her staff had been here all day prepping and cooking a huge feast, using our brand-new clean garage as their backstage area. Across the living and dining rooms, tables had been beautifully set for dinner. Tasting stations had been arranged outside on the terrace, where Savannah's staff would serve cocktails, wine, and a number of yummy hors d'oeuvres and munchies before the dinner began.

The entire house looked festive and smelled wonderful. Our Christmas tree was magical, with flickering fairy lights and at least a hundred handmade ornaments covering its boughs. I had to admit I'd gotten carried away with crafting dozens of tiny three-dimensional books-with tiny first-chapter pages included!-that we would be giving to our guests as Christmas ornament takeaways. As a bookbinder specializing in rare book restoration, I considered it my duty to always give books as gifts, and I tried to be creative about it.

Scattered under the tree and spreading nearly halfway across the living room were oodles of beautifully wrapped gifts. Most were for the children, and yes, we had gone overboard, but why not? This was our first time hosting Christmas Eve, and we wanted it to be special.

When the front doorbell finally rang, I took a few more seconds to silently freak out, then rested my head on Derek's strong shoulder. Smiling bravely, I said, "I'll get it."

He reached for my hand. "We'll go together."


An hour later, the chaos that I’d warned Derek about was upon us. But, okay, it wasn’t quite as horrifying as I’d imagined. People were chatting and laughing while enjoying the wine and appetizers. Christmas carols were playing in the background, and the children were sneaking peeks at all the goodies under the tree. For the most part, everyone was having a lovely time.

My oldest friend Robin held court on the living room couch with baby Jamie, my darling new nephew. There was some minor controversy brewing since Jamie's dad-my brother Austin-had taken to calling the little guy Jake. But whatever they decided to call him, the wee one was constantly being whisked away by anyone with an urge to cuddle an adorable baby boy. And who didn't have that urge once in a while? He was such a good baby and was just one more reason why Derek and I had decided to build a home here in Dharma. I loved all my brothers and sisters and their kids, but I'd especially wanted to be near Robin when she had her first child. Derek and I both wanted to be a part of their lives, and that wasn't always easy to do while living and working in San Francisco. This way, we could have the best of both worlds.

A few years ago, Derek's parents had surprised us all by buying a vacation home in Dharma after we'd introduced them to my parents before our wedding. Now the four of them were best friends and part-time neighbors, too.

My sister China, who was seven months pregnant with her second child, sat down next to Robin, and the two began exchanging childbirth horror stories. Anyone was welcome to join in, but seriously? I loved them both, but I was steering clear. Mainly because I'd heard the worst of their stories before, but also because, yuck. Am I right?

From across the room, I met Robin's gaze, and her eyes gleamed with mischief, knowing that all the childbirth talk tended to make me a little queasy. I was pretty sure she did it on purpose, but I loved her anyway. Even when she regularly warned me, "You're next," which was often followed by a spine-chilling, bloodcurdling laugh.

I regularly assured her that I wasn't next, but she still enjoyed taunting me with all the grisly details of her labor pains as though that might be some kind of temptation. I personally thought she spiced up the stories just for me. We had been besties from day one, when my family and I arrived in Dharma and I first saw her, a skinny little eight-year-old clutching her bald Barbie doll. Even at that early age, I recognized a fellow misfit when I saw one.

I smiled at the memory, took a sip of champagne, and nibbled on a melted brie mini-quesadilla as I made my way across the room, checking that everyone was enjoying themselves. I savored the brie as well as the eclectic bits of conversation I overheard as I moved through the crowd. I couldn't wait for everyone to open their presents, especially the ones I'd made. In the past my sisters had given me some grief for always giving books as gifts. But what did they expect? Books were my life. I made my living by restoring rare books. What else would I give as a special gift to the people I love?

I was happy to hear that this was the year that everyone finally wanted books again, especially the parents of the youngsters who were just learning to read. Both Derek's and my family members were voracious readers, so they had made it clear that books as gifts were once again in vogue.

Still, I had decided to venture a bit farther afield with my gift giving, especially for the adults in the family. It had taken me months to complete everything, but I had managed to make every gift by hand, mostly...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Penguin Publishing Group
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2024
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0593637704
• ISBN 13: 9780593637708
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 336
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: BERKLEY; https://www.penguin.com/?s=BERKLEY; ; Unit 2 Limavady Business Park; Limavady; County Londonderry; BT49 0HR; Vereinigtes Königreich
• Verantwortliche Person: gpsr@libri.de; gpsr@libri.de; ; Europaallee 1; Bad Hersfeld; 36244; Deutschland