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I've told you about Marissa many times before. I reviewed her three young adult fiction books (The Emancipation Warriors series) and then a few months ago, I introduced you to the first book in her new series, called the Georgia Rae Winston Mystery Series. Deadly Harvest was the first book, and now she's just released Deadly Holiday.
I really loved Georgia - and all the other characters, too - in Deadly Harvest, so I was excited to read about them again! I also love, as I told you last time, that this series is set in Indiana. I can so easily picture everything she writes about, even though she fictionalizes the locations.
If you missed the first book in the series, Georgia Rae Winston lives in Indiana, where she works on the family farm and wrestles with being single when she'd really just dearly love to be married. In Deadly Holiday, Georgia has started dating a young man, but this is really her first official relationship, and she's wrestling with figuring out the nuts and bolts of how such a relationship should work. (Again, kudos to Marissa for so accurately portraying those struggles! When do you start buying gifts for someone you just started dating? How soon do you invite them to family gatherings! Real life stuff, there!)
Georgia finds herself roped into helping with the church Christmas production, after the original music director is in a car accident and can't continue directing. The drama director of the event doesn't leave the title "drama director" at church, and her over-the-top approach to life wears Georgia out in the first ten minutes of working together.
As if that headache isn't enough, on her first day of being the substitute director, Georgia finds the church's youth pastor gravely ill. As he fights for life, he says the word anchor...and with that, he's gone. Georgia is determined to find out what he meant, because she's certain it will point to the person responsible for his death by poison.
Known as the town's amateur sleuth, after helping to solve a murder just a few months earlier, Georgia launches into her own investigation, and it's soon clear that someone is not happy to see her poking her nose in police business again. When the youth pastor's girlfriend disappears, it just fuels Georgia to find out the meaning behind anchor, Zach's death, and the mysterious absence of his girlfriend.
I will admit I stopped breathing several times while reading and did not put the book down until I had finished it. I did not figure it out (again!!!!) and loved all the twists and turns Marissa included!
This was a decidedly different kind of book than the little heartwarming, seaside Christmas book I read last week, but it was still a fantastic holiday read. (I don't think I've ever read a Christmas mystery before, actually!) There was a clear presentation of the Gospel, suspense, romance, and a healthy dose of real life, all tied up in one book. I really enjoyed it.
Well done, Marissa!
(Marissa sent me an e-copy of the book at no charge, but all opinions are my own!)
4 comments:
That rolled paper board is genius!
Isn't it fun? I loved it. These are times I wish I had just a smidgen more talent than I do! :)
That picture reminded me that our household is perilously close to being out of tp- like, I need to make a special trip to the store just to get some. I just checked our local online library to look for Marissa Shrock's books. The library does't have any of her books. However, there's a feature where you can recommend books/ authors for the library to purchase and make available to patrons so I recommended her books.
Bekah, thanks for sharing about my books!
Maria, thanks for recommending my books to your library!
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