A Nutcracker Nightmare by Christina Romeril

 

I listened to the unabridged audio version of A Nutcracker Nightmare by Christina Romeril, which is narrated by Rebecca Gallagher. It's the second cozy novel in the 'A Killer Chocolate Mystery' series.

This is another enjoyable cozy mystery novel with a wintry/Christmas theme to it. I also enjoyed the high school class reunion theme as the setting where the murder takes place! It was the perfect setting for knocking off that one classmate from high school that was a jerk and whom everyone despised. So, when this particular classmate is murdered at the reunion, it's makes it difficult to narrow down the killer when everyone disliked the person so much. Then another victim is killed along the way as well. 

Loads of red herrings to be found and some good amateur sleuthing too by the main character, Alex. Once again though, I figured out the killer early on... I'd say about 84% into the novel itself is when I figured out who killed both victims in A Nutcracker Nightmare!

For the most part I enjoyed this cozy mystery novel overall. It was nice to have a refresher as to who some of the characters were from the last novel that were also in this novel as well as some of the background of the small town/village where the story is set. This way readers who read the first novel a while back have a chance to become reacquainted again with the characters and setting as they read the second novel. 

I didn't care much for the narrator for A Nutcracker Nightmare. The voices Rebecca Gallagher used for some of the characters weren't well rendered in my opinion. 

I also felt like Alex, the main character, was off in a few scenes. Alex plays amateur sleuth and in at least one scene she just peppers another character with one question after another in trying to find clues to in order to help identify the killer. The scene(s) felt stilted/unnatural as to how two people would interact in really life.

Below is the publisher's summary for A Nutcracker Nightmare by Christina Romeril from the Goodreads website:

When twin sisters Hanna and Alex head to their high school reunion, will they bite off more than they can chew when they find a former classmate’s dead body?

Hanna and Alex, owners of the Murder and Mayhem book and chocolate shop, are busy preparing for the Harriston High School’s reunion weekend. They’re eager to see old friends—and perhaps avoid old foes. One person they can’t avoid is Kyle, the former star quarterback, who is busy using his entire playbook to try and score with Hanna. He even uses his status as a judge at the upcoming chocolate competition to threaten her if she doesn’t play nice. At the reunion, the twins soon bond with their fellow classmates over their nostalgia of their youth—but the party is put on hold when Alex finds the dead body of none other than Kyle himself, bludgeoned to death by a nutcracker that the sisters admired earlier in the night.

Hanna quickly becomes the prime suspect—everyone saw her slap Kyle across the face at the reunion dance. She’ll need her sister, their sleuthing canine, Watson, and their old friends and colleagues to help break this case wide open. While looking through old yearbooks and taking a stroll down memory lane, Alex uncovers a few secrets about Kyle, now, it seems like everyone had a motive to kill him: Is there a football team secret Coach Fenton was covering up? Could the mayor, Everett, have a skeleton or two in his closet? And for some classmates, maybe time doesn’t heal all wounds.

When the suspects start becoming the victims, Alex and Hannah know that they can’t melt under the pressure—they must find the killer before they become just another yearbook memory.

I am giving A Nutcracker Nightmare by Christina Romeril a rating of 3 stars out of 5 stars.

Until my next post, happy reading!!