Murder at the Christmas Market – Paperback

The first Christmas market in Little Marshford has fairy lights on every lamp post, a Santa’s grotto on the green, and a very loud man in a gilet running the whole thing. Flossie Fairweather is busy with a sack of letters to Father Christmas, a new engagement ring and a wedding date she has only just set.

Then the lights switch on, the village cheers, and the organiser is found dead in the grotto behind the church hall. A brass handbell lies beside him, and a hand-lettered sign on the door says Santa will be back in ten minutes.

Everyone had a reason to dislike Gavin Oakes. The stallholders paid him twice, the choirmaster hated him, and the parish council paid seven thousand pounds for insurance that does not exist. Inspector Tom Croft needs someone who can read a ledger, and Flossie finds a second set of books, a fake electrician, and a village full of people who were somewhere else at six o’clock.

With a handbell choir under suspicion, a knitting circle with matching wool, and the market still running every Saturday until Christmas Eve, Flossie has three weeks to find out who walked behind the church hall and who has been writing their numbers like a railway station.

A warm English village mystery with snow, mince pies, a rooster in a knitted jumper and a murderer hiding behind the tombola.