Fa-la-la-la-la...what?

The Six O’Clock Scrooge Society is here!

Christmas is canceled. Unless these secret scrooges save the day. 

Candice Kane-Valentine hates Christmas. Last year, while grocery shopping on Christmas Eve—for her own birthday cake—she lost her cool and found herself in a community service program. Between work, wrangling two teenagers, and hot flashes, she doesn’t need anything else on her plate.

When her New England town’s priceless antique ornaments are stolen, blame automatically falls on Candice and her fellow curmudgeons. Determined to prove their innocence, they set about tracking down the ornaments in time for the big holiday festival.

As friendships form and fracture, evidence and motives stack up in their search for the thief, and their December twenty-fourth deadline draws near.

Can this group of mistletoe misfits save Christmas?

\'Tis the season of picking apples and fall raspberries, drinking pumpkin lattes...and releasing a holiday novel?

Huh?
Hold up! It's the first week of fall, not winter.
I know, I know. 
The genesis of this story was simple: my author friend Janet Raye Stevens (who has great books, by the way if you love a good adventure!) suggested I write a holiday book. I said, "Bah humbug! I don't like holiday books and the holiday rush is so rushed (!) and turns me into a grinch." I'm not afraid to say I don't always find the joy in Christmas--the whirlwind, expectations, financial strains, overscheduled schedule... It's not always a Hallmark moment. For some, the forced merriness is hard especially for those who miss or have lost loved ones, and those who just can't feel the jolly for whatever personal reason.

Ahem, therein came the story.

Add in my love for couch-sleuthing while watching BritBox (or listening to a cozy whodunit audiobook) and I had my idea. What happens when six unlikely friends (our Christmas misfits) are coerced into proving their innocence after their small town's precious antique ornaments are stolen...and they may just save Christmas in the process?

The Six O’Clock Scrooge Society is a cozy, amateur-sleuth mystery set in small-town New England with a band of unlikely heroes…who end up finding more than the missing ornaments. I hope you check it out! If you like series such as the Marlow Murder Club or the Thursday Murder Club, this may be your cup of tea!

p.s. I loved my six scrooges so much that this may actually (hint, hint) become a six-book series, with each book taking the reader on a new mystery and being told from the unique viewpoint of each of the six main characters! Stay tuned in 2027...