Mrs. Claus and the Halloween Homicide

In Ireland’s entertaining sequel to 2020’s Mrs. Claus and the Santaland Slayings, April Claus, a recent arrival in Santaland (from Oregon, where she still runs an inn during the summer months), gets permission to celebrate a holiday other than Christmas in her new home—Halloween. That prompts the self-styled Pumpkin Slayer to target a greenhouse full of gourds, leaving behind “jagged chunks of pumpkin flesh and streams of seedy entrails.” Later, a post evidently from the Slayer appears on the equivalent of Santaland’s Facebook: “STOP HALLOWEEN IN CHRISTMASTOWN OR ELSE!!!” Though the local representative of the law, Constable Crinkles, doesn’t take the threat seriously, April does, after someone attempts to kill her by sabotaging the workings of the funicular car she was riding in. That narrow escape is followed by the murder of a Santaland business owner, who was apparently squashed to death by an abominable snow monster. Ireland makes suspending disbelief surprisingly easy. Fans of offbeat, humorous cozies will clamor for more. Agent: Meg Ruley, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (Oct.)