If the lead-up to Christmas gets on your nerves every year,
with pressured shopping and forced jollity amid the rush,
THE FIVE SANTAS might be just the antidote you need.
Dan Landis is a PI and in this whimsical tale of Christmas
shopping noir, he is engaged as a store detective but ends
up being a bodyguard to a store Santa Claus after another
Santa is killed. The first dead Santa is stuffed behind a
dumpster at the back of the store, where Dan observes a
door with a broken lock, no alarm, no cameras and employees
with the habit of using the alley for a smoke break.
Phoning his detective brother-in-law, Dan then has to put
up with the officious store manager and later interviews
the taciturn security camera operator.
Abigail, Dan's girlfriend, is finishing up an Arts
dissertation and needs a Christmas job, so she is irate at
being fired from her gift-wrap job and accepts the task of
helping to be Santa's bodyguard, even if it means dressing
as an elf and having ungrateful kids spitting on her. Then
Dan stumbles on another dead Santa behind the jewelery
store across the road, and their mission becomes a lot more
serious. A third Santa eats poisoned candies....
Be prepared for cynical mutterings galore, wisecracks,
musings on what Christmas means when a husband and wife
decide not to give each other presents this year, and why
eating dinner with relatives on the big day is such a
momentous decision. Jay Mims gets into the persona of his
characters well in his first book, and certainly it's the
first time I've seen Santa Claus accused of murder. THE
FIVE SANTAS
would be appreciated by fans of noir, or even just by
Grinches.
Dan Landis is a private investigator used to peeping in
windows and taking awkward pictures to make a buck. This
winter, to make a few more, he agreed to help out a local
department store by taking a job in their Loss Prevention
department.
Boring right? Wrong.
A local jewelry store gets robbed and then the bodies start
piling up. Red suited, fur trimmed, white bearded bodies.
And Dan's the one who keeps showing up at all the wrong
places. It won't be long before Dan is spending the holiday
behind bars if he can't figure this one out.
Check out this first installment in The Oncoming Storm Series.
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