This trio of holiday-themed novellas feels almost like three, full culinary cozy novels in one volume!

The first of the three, Lee Hollis’s Death of a Christmas Mitten Knitter, sees Christmas coming to Bar Harbor, Maine. Hayley Powell is already overworked with her restaurant when Reverend Ted, pastor of the local Congregational church, comes to guilt her into providing a luxe gift basket for the annual church bazaar raffle. She doesn’t want to turn him down, given that the proceeds will all be going to help the local poor. Plus, her competitive streak is piqued when he lets slip that her closest family and friends have put together their own enticing baskets that he’s sure will be hotly bid on.

His predictions come true, much to the chagrin of several local yarn craft groups whose own offerings, while traditional, can’t compete with luxury food, alcohol, and self-care items. But the last thing anyone expects is to find one of the knitters stabbed to death right outside the church during the event. As if that weren’t bad enough, a rich-but-reputation-minded benefactor immediately withdraws his donation to the church, not wanting to be associated with the scandal of murder. In desperation, Father Ted asks for Hayley’s help in solving the case in hopes of getting their one-time donor to change his mind. Can Hayley and her investigative-reporter husband, Bruce, figure out whodunnit and save Christmas for their congregation’s neediest?

The second novella, Lynn Cahoon’s Two Christmas Mittens, takes place in the (literally) magical town of Magic Springs, Idaho. Mia Malone is a little miffed that her employer at the Lodge declined to hire her to cater the staff holiday party. Frank Hines claimed that he didn’t want to show any favoritism, then went ahead and hired his girlfriend’s not-great company to provide the food instead. As if that weren’t bad enough, Mia is leaving the premises with her best friend, Christina Adams, when the latter picks up a stray Christmas mitten–which turns out to be cursed. With Christina falling ill and another partygoer straight up murdered, will Mia be able to find the unlucky mitten’s missing mate in order to break the curse and bring a mystical killer to justice?

The final story in this collection, Maddie Day’s Murderous Mittens, serves as an introduction to a new series sleuth. Cece Barton is visiting her sister in Colinas, California, for the holidays when she finds herself caught up in the murder of prominent local figure Val Harper. As co-chairs of the Colinas Community Coalition, Val and Cece’s twin sister, Allie, had very publicly butted heads over the direction in which they wanted their small town to go. When Allie falls under suspicion of Val’s murder, Cece is both shocked and determined to clear her sister’s name. With the help of another visiting amateur sleuth, Cece will get to the bottom of the case and, perhaps, set herself up for a big life change of her own.

My favorite novella of the three was likely the first, which perfectly captured the madcap hijinks of Hayley and her crew as they sleuth around their city. I do love a good paranormal mystery, though, and continue to enjoy Lynn Cahoon’s worldbuilding. Finally, I adore the multiculturalism at the heart of all Maddie Day’s novels and am definitely looking forward to seeing more of her intriguing new sleuth. 

Lee Hollis provided six delightfully festive food and drink recipes here, and I decided to try out this one:

Randy’s Favorite Peppermint Bark

Ingredients

12 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped

½ teaspoon peppermint extract

12 ounces white chocolate, chopped

1 candy canes, crushed

Instructions

Line your baking sheet with parchment paper.

Fill the bottom of a large pot with 3 to 4 inches of water.

Bring the water to a simmer. Place a large heatproof bowl over the pot. Add your semisweet chocolate, stirring occasionally until melted.

Stir in the extract. Pour into your prepared baking sheet. Spread out the chocolate into an even layer. Refrigerate until set, about 30 minutes.

Over the same pot, place another bowl filled with the white chocolate. Stir until melted. Pour over the set chocolate, spreading evenly.

Sprinkle your crushed candy canes over the top. Place the sheet back into the refrigerator until fully set.

When set, remove the sheet and break apart the chocolate with your hands or with a rolling pin, depending on bark thickness.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Everything was going really well with this until my white chocolate seized while on the double boiler! If you’re trying this at home, I give you permission to just melt the white chocolate in your microwave if the instructions that come with it say you can. It will certainly save you the heartache of feverishly trying to get the white chocolate to melt again so you can continue making this recipe.

The end result is quite tasty, especially if you enjoy mint chocolate. My family can take it or leave it, but my friends have very much enjoyed scarfing down handfuls when I bring this to holiday gatherings.

And this is our last column for the year! Have a very merry holiday season, and we’ll see you in the New Year with a tasty baked treat while investigating a murder and a haunting. Do join me!

See also: Cooking the Books: Murder at a Cape Bookstore by Maddie Day