Dark Deeds on a White Christmas: A Retired Sleuth and His Dog Historical Cozy Mystery

Thank you NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for the opportunity to read "Dark Deeds On A White Christmas" in exchange for my honest review.

This is the third book in the "One Man And His Dog Cozy Mysteries" and it has gone straight to the top of my favourite books of this year. I was hooked on the very first page and could not wait to find out who the culprit was. I would love to give this book more than 5 stars!

Retired Inspector Tom Ramsey and his dog Bracken are spending the Christmas break with his young assistant Eliza and her parents Doris and Colin Danesdale at the Harkness Manor Hotel. While the weather keeps some guests from arriving there is an interesting assortment of people who do arrive. The Chambers - a family of 3 who always seem to be arguing, 3 young couples, 2 elderly ladies, a couple and a single man. The group of young people are quickly named the 'Hooray Harry's' and the older crowd seem to find their boisterous mood a bit much.

Bracken has to be my favourite character. He makes friends with Larry, Barry and Harry - the hotel dogs.

One final guest arrives - a Mr. Redhill who seems incredibly frail and ill.

Christmas Eve starts with a hypnotist, the Lord of Misrule and games. This pretty much continues the following day except on Christmas day the body of one of the guests is found and Eliza's mother becomes the prime suspect. Ramsay and Eliza set out to clear her name, as neither really trust Inspector Baldoak who is quiet obnoxious through the entire story. There are plenty of suspects as no one was able to leave because of the weather, the police themselves were not able to arrive at the hotel. The Inspector decides that Doris is the culprit and doesn't even want to entertain any other suspects. Everyone has an interesting story, everyone has a link to the deceased. But as every suspect is also cleared will Eliza's mother hang. Bracken has all the answers but no one understands him. Everyone misses the "Rosebud" clue until the very end.

Eliza wants to open a detective agency with Tom and she's sure they will marry - he's convinced she will grow out of her infatuation - after all he's 55 and she's only 19.

This story is very well crafted, a joy to read and try to figure out the clues with Ramsay and Eliza. The author created characters that are likeable and you want to know what will happen next in the series.