Genre: Suspense
Book Type: Physical
Author: Trish Harnetiaux
Pages: 240
Publisher: Simon & Schuster (October 29, 2019)
Book Description:
A crackling Christmas mystery that combines murder and blackmail at a holiday office party, in a mashup reminiscent of Big Little Lies and Clue.
There are only a few rules in a White Elephant gift exchange: 1) Everyone brings a wrapped, unmarked gift. 2) Numbers are drawn to decide who picks first. 3) Gifts don’t need to be pricey—and often they’re downright tacky.
But things are a little different in Aspen, Colorado, at the office holiday party for the real estate firm owned by Henry Calhoun and his wife Claudine. Each Christmas sparks a contest among the already competitive staff to see who can buy the most coveted gift: the one that will get stolen the most times, the one that will prove just how many more commissions they earned that year than their colleagues. Designer sunglasses, deluxe spa treatments, front row concert tickets—nothing is off the table. And the staff is even more competitive this year as Zara, the hottest young pop star out of Hollywood, is in town and Claudine is determined to sell her the getaway home of her dreams.
Everyone is puzzled when a strange gift shows up in the mix: an antique cowboy statue. At least the sales agents are guessing it’s an antique—otherwise it’d be a terrible present. It’s certainly not very pretty or expensive-looking. In fact, the gift makes sense only to Henry and Claudine. The statue is the weapon Henry used to commit a murder years ago, a murder that helped start his company and a murder that Claudine helped cover up. She swore that no one would ever be able to find the statue or trace it to their crime. So which of their employees did? And why did they place it in the White Elephant? What could possibly be their endgame?
Over the course of the evening, Henry and Claudine race to figure out who could have planted the weapon, and just what the night means for the secrets they’ve been harboring. Further adding to the drama is a snowstorm that closes nearby roads—preventing anyone from leaving, as well as keeping law enforcement from the scene. And by the end of this crazy night, the police will most definitely be required…
Thoughts:
This book is set in five different parts and is told from Claudine, Henry and Zara’s point of view. It also has some flashbacks, which you know I’m a sucker for all of the above, so of course, I was going to enjoy the pace of this book and sorting out this puzzle. There are also unknown diary entries sprinkled throughout, which made me race through reading this. I thought the entries were multiple people the first half, and then started to piece together who they were written by, which keeps you guessing on a number of unknowns you discover along the way.
What I enjoyed most in this book was that it was short, therefore, making it very fast-paced with the multiple story lines. Each chapter was a breadcrumb on what was building up to the White Elephant exchange, as well as the mystery around a murder.
That being said, it’s a story you have to just “buy into.” Personally, the idea of a celebrity being ok participating in a White Elephant gift exchange with the realtor office that is representing the sale of the home she’s looking at was a bit far fetched. BUT, I thought it worked for this book. The fact that it’s so short, it moves quickly, so you didn’t have a lot of time to dwell on those details, as the story was about so much more than Zara viewing the house. Also, I had a very different idea of who planted the gift in the exchange and found it a little hard to believe the end, but the way it was explained also worked and didn’t affect my rating too much. Those two “harder to believe” instances were why I rated it a 4.5 and not a straight 5 star, as I really enjoyed this book and found it kept my attention throughout.
It was a story filled with drama, suspense, murder, love, regret, the price of success, blind love, mystery and betrayal all rolled into less than 250 pages. I recommend adding this to your TBR, if not now, for a December read.
Rating: 4.5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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