What do you think?
Rate this book
Santa's Little Heist A Christmas Mystery
On Christmas Day, when a body is reported in a closed shopping mall, the investigators must ferret out the mysterious identity of the murder victim—when they do identify him, they discover that multiple crimes have been committed, crimes that may involve several departments. This is no open-and-shut case, and the longer they investigate, the more baffling the clues become. When forensic evidence begins to point them in the right direction for solving the crimes of murder and robbery, Hunter and Carrington put their best efforts toward bringing the subject’s murder and mayhem to an end. Along the way, a little romance develops between the unlikely partners, but a Christmas blizzard and Carrington’s possible personal involvement with a witness could land them in hot water with the Captain and destroy the case they’re building. Can this dynamic team of two brilliant but sometimes obsessive detectives make sense of the mounting questions and solve the case before the murderer in the Santa suit disappears with the diamonds? St. Nick has never behaved so badly. And Hunter and Carrington have never worked this closely! SANTA’S LITTLE HEIST by P. D. Lake and Eve Paludan is a 27,700+ words mystery novella set in London during the Christmas season. A bonus amusement included at the end of the book is ‘TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE VAMPIRES’ CHRISTMAS , a short parody poem by Mike Cecconi, a professional standup comic and science fiction / fantasy author. ˃˃˃ Acclaim for BIGFOOT A Jack Lee Murder Mystery by Eve Paludan <<< “What a great book. Not your typical Bigfoot story, I would highly recommend.” – Goldenlover “I couldn't put it down because it was something that intrigued me so much.” – Julia “One of the best books I have read this year!” – LittleBit “Lighthearted moments, breathtaking moments, moments of hope and sheer joy.” – EFinn1 “This was a really fun read.” – Ritagoe “A real page-turner from start to the end.” – Jeffrey Miller “This delightful mystery was a fun way to spend an afternoon.” – Pat Z. “Jack Lee was well thought out and his neighbor, anthropologist Allie was the perfect foil for the intrepid Police Chief.” – Billy P. Craig “Enjoy a different kind of adventure as you read with excitement the fast-moving, most unusual and entertaining new series.” – Charlotte Liebel
100 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 7, 2014
3 people are currently reading
16 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 17, 2017
English as written by an American and a Canadian
Not a bad little book but too many Americanisms . One of the authors has a degree in english language but it didn't learn him how to spell licence properly. They should also have researched that we don't have police captains or squad cars they are American. Why did they not just set this novel in America or Canada.If you want to write about England do your research.
Not a bad little book but too many Americanisms . One of the authors has a degree in english language but it didn't learn him how to spell licence properly. They should also have researched that we don't have police captains or squad cars they are American. Why did they not just set this novel in America or Canada.If you want to write about England do your research.
December 20, 2014
Cute Christmas holiday romance. Reasonably complicated murder case. Unbelievable premise on which to base both.
First, the romance. Chief Inspector Darcy Carrington and Inspector Ethan Hunter are pulling a 72-hour shift that begins on Christmas Day. They do not normally partner together, but they are the only homicide detectives in their precinct without a spouse or children with which to spend the holidays. So Carrington has volunteered for the duty and has assigned Hunter to assist.
Carrington is a beautiful woman and Hunter is well aware of that fact. But he is just as, if not more, appreciative of the fact that she is an intelligent, insightful and capable detective. Unknown to Hunter, Carrington is just as impressed with his skills. When the 72-hour shift becomes a 7-day marathon due to an outbreak of food poisoning amongst the other detectives, their constant togetherness eventually brings their personal lives into the mix.
But this romance is not a case of lust fueled by opportunity. It is a tale of two people who see each other as beautiful inside as well as out – professionally and personally.
Next, the murder. On Christmas morning, the body of a middle-aged man is found lying in a non-public hallway of the local mall, battered beyond recognition. Although his wallet is beside him, all his identification has been removed, even his wedding ring and his watch. His fingerprints are not in the system and the detectives have only two clues – an anonymous 999 call telling where to find the victim and scads of surveillance video from the mall’s many cameras.
For Hunter and Carrington, their first break in the case is a missing person’s report filed that afternoon that matches the victim. And what seems to be a brutal crime of passion takes on a new twist when the dead man is identified as the manager of Dylan’s Diamonds, a high-end jewelry store in the mall. And that store has been robbed overnight.
Now, the poor premise on which both the romance and the murder investigation depend. At the very beginning of the story, we are told that Hunter and Carrington are the only homicide detectives scheduled to work that 72-hour period beginning Christmas Day. This is predicated on the “fact” that for an untold number of years, that precinct has had virtually no murders between Christmas Day and New Year’s.
No murders? None? No unattended deaths at all? Oh. Come. On.
This is London, not some village of a hundred people out in the boonies. And it is Christmas, a time that seems to produce the most suicides and the most violent domestic disturbances of all regardless of geographical region. Any reader who takes the books of Deborah Crombie, Elizabeth George and Martha Grimes for a ride on a regular basis knows that this premise requires a suspension of disbelief that is beyond the pale.
But the killer for this book (no pun intended) is the poor editing. First, we have co-authors and perhaps the left hand did not read what the right hand had already written. For instance, we are first told that Hunter started out as a beat patrolman. Then, later on, we are told he started out as a crime scene photographer. Only one of these scenarios can be the truth; they are not compatible assignments. So the question is whether one author wrote the first scenario and the other didn’t read that part before continuing with the next section.
But the editing errors go way beyond incompatible facts related to backstory. We also have typographical errors – and there are a lot of them. Some of these errors involve changes of tense and of possession within a single sentence. There are also sentences with missing words and sentences with words that shouldn’t be there. Some sentences contain phrases and clauses that just make no sense when referenced back to the subject of the sentence. And these confusing sentences cannot be chalked up to the differences between British and American speech. These situations would be just plain poor sentence construction in any language or culture.
And this leads me to my major disappointment. P.D. Lake, as previously mentioned, has a co-writer for this book, a person who is a well-published author in her own right, an author whom I have read many times. And this co-author is also a professional editor and proofreader! Perhaps this book just slipped through the cracks in an attempt to get it published in time for readers intent on Christmas-themed entries. No matter – left-hand or right-hand, a professional editor should not have let that happen.
First, the romance. Chief Inspector Darcy Carrington and Inspector Ethan Hunter are pulling a 72-hour shift that begins on Christmas Day. They do not normally partner together, but they are the only homicide detectives in their precinct without a spouse or children with which to spend the holidays. So Carrington has volunteered for the duty and has assigned Hunter to assist.
Carrington is a beautiful woman and Hunter is well aware of that fact. But he is just as, if not more, appreciative of the fact that she is an intelligent, insightful and capable detective. Unknown to Hunter, Carrington is just as impressed with his skills. When the 72-hour shift becomes a 7-day marathon due to an outbreak of food poisoning amongst the other detectives, their constant togetherness eventually brings their personal lives into the mix.
But this romance is not a case of lust fueled by opportunity. It is a tale of two people who see each other as beautiful inside as well as out – professionally and personally.
Next, the murder. On Christmas morning, the body of a middle-aged man is found lying in a non-public hallway of the local mall, battered beyond recognition. Although his wallet is beside him, all his identification has been removed, even his wedding ring and his watch. His fingerprints are not in the system and the detectives have only two clues – an anonymous 999 call telling where to find the victim and scads of surveillance video from the mall’s many cameras.
For Hunter and Carrington, their first break in the case is a missing person’s report filed that afternoon that matches the victim. And what seems to be a brutal crime of passion takes on a new twist when the dead man is identified as the manager of Dylan’s Diamonds, a high-end jewelry store in the mall. And that store has been robbed overnight.
Now, the poor premise on which both the romance and the murder investigation depend. At the very beginning of the story, we are told that Hunter and Carrington are the only homicide detectives scheduled to work that 72-hour period beginning Christmas Day. This is predicated on the “fact” that for an untold number of years, that precinct has had virtually no murders between Christmas Day and New Year’s.
No murders? None? No unattended deaths at all? Oh. Come. On.
This is London, not some village of a hundred people out in the boonies. And it is Christmas, a time that seems to produce the most suicides and the most violent domestic disturbances of all regardless of geographical region. Any reader who takes the books of Deborah Crombie, Elizabeth George and Martha Grimes for a ride on a regular basis knows that this premise requires a suspension of disbelief that is beyond the pale.
But the killer for this book (no pun intended) is the poor editing. First, we have co-authors and perhaps the left hand did not read what the right hand had already written. For instance, we are first told that Hunter started out as a beat patrolman. Then, later on, we are told he started out as a crime scene photographer. Only one of these scenarios can be the truth; they are not compatible assignments. So the question is whether one author wrote the first scenario and the other didn’t read that part before continuing with the next section.
But the editing errors go way beyond incompatible facts related to backstory. We also have typographical errors – and there are a lot of them. Some of these errors involve changes of tense and of possession within a single sentence. There are also sentences with missing words and sentences with words that shouldn’t be there. Some sentences contain phrases and clauses that just make no sense when referenced back to the subject of the sentence. And these confusing sentences cannot be chalked up to the differences between British and American speech. These situations would be just plain poor sentence construction in any language or culture.
And this leads me to my major disappointment. P.D. Lake, as previously mentioned, has a co-writer for this book, a person who is a well-published author in her own right, an author whom I have read many times. And this co-author is also a professional editor and proofreader! Perhaps this book just slipped through the cracks in an attempt to get it published in time for readers intent on Christmas-themed entries. No matter – left-hand or right-hand, a professional editor should not have let that happen.
December 13, 2014
How about a Christmas Mystery Review ? Santa's Little Heist By P.D. Lake and Eve Paludan
Synopsis: In SANTA’S LITTLE HEIST, A Christmas Mystery Novella, Inspector Ethan Hunter and Chief Inspector Darcy Carrington are the skeleton crew in the homicide department for the next seventy-two hours in a subdivisional police station in the UK.
On Christmas Day, when a body is reported in a closed shopping mall, the investigators must ferret out the mysterious identity of the murder victim—when they do identify him, they discover that multiple crimes have been committed, crimes that may involve several departments. This is no open-and-shut case, and the longer they investigate, the more baffling the clues become.
When forensic evidence begins to point them in the right direction for solving the crimes of murder and robbery, Hunter and Carrington put their best efforts toward bringing the subject’s murder and mayhem to an end. Along the way, a little romance develops between the unlikely partners, but a Christmas blizzard and Carrington’s possible personal involvement with a witness could land them in hot water with the Captain and destroy the case they’re building.
Can this dynamic team of two brilliant but sometimes obsessive detectives make sense of the mounting questions and solve the case before the murderer in the Santa suit disappears with the diamonds?
St. Nick has never behaved so badly. And Hunter and Carrington have never worked this closely!
SANTA’S LITTLE HEIST by P. D. Lake and Eve Paludan is a 27,700+ words mystery novella set in London during the Christmas season. A bonus amusement included at the end of the book is ‘TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE VAMPIRES’ CHRISTMAS, a short parody poem by Mike Cecconi, a professional standup comic and science fiction / fantasy author.
My Review:
I know its a VERY busy time of year... but its also a time of waiting, in line, at the Dr.s (it is flu season) in auditoriums waiting for kids concerts... WELL Take your Kindle along ! and download this Novella! Its a Great Christmas Mystery! Our main Characters Inspector Ethan Hunter and Chief Inspector Darcy Carrington are on "Holiday Duty" Neither have a spouse or kids so they can take this shift while the other officers can be home with their families, nothing happens at Christmas, everyone is tucked in their beds with visions of sugar plums and all that stuff ! YEAH RIGHT!!! Well Ethan and Darcy get a call of a Murder in the mall! And this is where the mystery begins.. who is this man? why was he killed? was it a robbery gone bad or a robbery to cover up a murder? This story is Like those box in a box in a box and you don't get the prize til you get to the very last box! Twist and turns like a candy Cane will leave you wondering.. ' ok who did this?" And along the way.. will we see a budding romance or two people who can't stand each other.. or both? ..I'm not telling!! I give this book 5 hand knitted Christmas scarfs!! Very well done and a read that kept me guessing! LOVED IT!!
Synopsis: In SANTA’S LITTLE HEIST, A Christmas Mystery Novella, Inspector Ethan Hunter and Chief Inspector Darcy Carrington are the skeleton crew in the homicide department for the next seventy-two hours in a subdivisional police station in the UK.
On Christmas Day, when a body is reported in a closed shopping mall, the investigators must ferret out the mysterious identity of the murder victim—when they do identify him, they discover that multiple crimes have been committed, crimes that may involve several departments. This is no open-and-shut case, and the longer they investigate, the more baffling the clues become.
When forensic evidence begins to point them in the right direction for solving the crimes of murder and robbery, Hunter and Carrington put their best efforts toward bringing the subject’s murder and mayhem to an end. Along the way, a little romance develops between the unlikely partners, but a Christmas blizzard and Carrington’s possible personal involvement with a witness could land them in hot water with the Captain and destroy the case they’re building.
Can this dynamic team of two brilliant but sometimes obsessive detectives make sense of the mounting questions and solve the case before the murderer in the Santa suit disappears with the diamonds?
St. Nick has never behaved so badly. And Hunter and Carrington have never worked this closely!
SANTA’S LITTLE HEIST by P. D. Lake and Eve Paludan is a 27,700+ words mystery novella set in London during the Christmas season. A bonus amusement included at the end of the book is ‘TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE VAMPIRES’ CHRISTMAS, a short parody poem by Mike Cecconi, a professional standup comic and science fiction / fantasy author.
My Review:
I know its a VERY busy time of year... but its also a time of waiting, in line, at the Dr.s (it is flu season) in auditoriums waiting for kids concerts... WELL Take your Kindle along ! and download this Novella! Its a Great Christmas Mystery! Our main Characters Inspector Ethan Hunter and Chief Inspector Darcy Carrington are on "Holiday Duty" Neither have a spouse or kids so they can take this shift while the other officers can be home with their families, nothing happens at Christmas, everyone is tucked in their beds with visions of sugar plums and all that stuff ! YEAH RIGHT!!! Well Ethan and Darcy get a call of a Murder in the mall! And this is where the mystery begins.. who is this man? why was he killed? was it a robbery gone bad or a robbery to cover up a murder? This story is Like those box in a box in a box and you don't get the prize til you get to the very last box! Twist and turns like a candy Cane will leave you wondering.. ' ok who did this?" And along the way.. will we see a budding romance or two people who can't stand each other.. or both? ..I'm not telling!! I give this book 5 hand knitted Christmas scarfs!! Very well done and a read that kept me guessing! LOVED IT!!
September 27, 2016
This was a pure delight to read! Two homicide cops stuck on Christmas Holiday duty end up with a most peculiar murder ---- how they solve it and what really happened is more then interesting and a great holiday story! The only thing I didn't care for was the phrase "Happy Christmas" - should be "Merry Christmas"!!!! At the end they had the poem: "Twas the Night Before Vampires Christmas" by Mike Cecconi which was very entertaining and strange because the novella had only real persons in it but fun!
September 27, 2016
A cute, quick Christmasy novella. Fun little mystery, a budding romance, blood diamonds, and suspects everywhere. I love Christmas themed stories and this one didn't disappoint. I totally recommend it for lovers of cozy mysteries.
December 16, 2014
I can dig it. I didn't see that one coming. Great work!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews