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A Christmas scrooge discovers a murdered librarian in this holiday novel from an Edgar Award finalist. Each December, the faculty of Balaclava Agricultural College goes wild with holiday decorations. The entire campus glitters with Christmas lights, save for one dark spot: the home of professor Peter Shandy. But after years of resisting the school's Illumination festival, Shandy suddenly snaps, installing a million-watt display of flashing lights and blaring music perfectly calculated to drive his neighbors mad. Then the horticulturalist flees town, planning to spend Christmas on a tramp steamer. It's not long before he feels guilty about his prank and returns home to find his lights extinguished-and a dead librarian in his living room. Hoping to avoid a scandal, the school's head asks Shandy, sometimes detective, to investigate the matter quietly. After all, Christmas is big business, and the town needs the cash infusion that typically comes with the Illumination. But as Shandy will soon find out, there's a dark side to even the whitest of white Christmases.… (more)
User reviews
It's possible there was good mystery in here, but I'm not suffering through 200 pages of 8pt font to find out.
Style: Some of the situations and dialogue reminded me of Connie Willis's
Not a bad combination.
NOTE: Large-print edition; took only 3 hours to read.
The setting is at Balaclava College, a small agricultural college with a cast of kooky characters that keep you amused from the
The mystery itself takes a plenty of time to unfold and that is good because I enjoy the story so much I don't want it to end too quickly. I'm so glad that Charlotte MacLeod wrote a series about Peter and Helen so you can spend a lot more time with them.
There's nothing slick or modern or hard-bitten about this book. It's pure comfort food for the cozy reader.
3.5
Peter Shandy is a professor at a small college. Many of the faculty live close to each other, and at Christmas they go all out in their neighbourhood to decorate. It’s called the Illumination Festival and it attracts people out to see the lights. While Peter is away, there is a Christmas
I quite liked this. It’s a quick read and, unfortunately, the first in a series. I will continue on (if I can find the next book(s), as this one was originally published in 1978). I don’t read a lot of Christmas-themed books, so the Christmas-y stuff was kind of fun, too.
I’ve been curious about this series for ages, and I love reading through old cozy mystery series. The downside to that is trying to locate all the installments, since many of these
For a book originally published in 1978 it held up well. There are a few remarks made that we might frown on, and some phrases popped up that were pretty funny. “When can we split for lunch?” Split? LOL! But the best one was referencing law enforcement as the ‘Fuzz’. That one made me laugh out loud. But, overall, the book is not all that dated. The mystery is solid, and I rather liked Peter Shandy. There were a few characters to keep up with, which was a little trying at times, and for a cozy mystery I was a little surprised at some of the language- no F-bombs or anything, but occasionally some words went beyond ‘mild language’.
Other than that, this book got the series off to a good start. I have no idea if reading in order is required- I rather doubt it, to be honest- I’ll have to go with what books are available, though, either way. But I will most definitely read more books in the series whenever possible.
4 stars
Peter Shandy is fed up with all the nagging to "illuminate" his little house in the academic neighborhood, so he pulls
The whole thing is a great hoot and the deadpan presentation by John McClain turns it into a real howler!
library book read 12/30/2022.