Edwina Sullivan, called "Sully'' by her friends, has retired from law enforcement to be the general manager of the Cliffside Theater Company. Most of the time she just deals with the budget, backstage problems, and difficult actors, but this holiday season her worries become a bit more serious. Her best friend Eric is accused of murdering his father. Peter Whitehall was a very important man in town before he was shot to death. So now she is juggling the budget for A Christmas Carol, dealing with a Scrooge with a drinking problem, and investigating a murder..... It's going to be a perilous Christmas.

This is a promising start to the new A Theater Cop Mystery series. I like Sully as a main character. She has rebuilt her life following the end of her cop career and her marriage. Her love life certainly is complicated. Her ex-husband becomes a suspect during the investigation and all through the book he kept trying to talk to her about something....but never managed it. Then she has other love interests. The ending leaves it all up in the air....maybe the second book will see some things fall into line along those lines. But.....I wasn't reading the book to follow Sully's love life (past or present). The mystery is engaging and nicely paced. I liked the characters and the setting. And, the ending actually caught me by surprise. Nice! I liked it enough to read more books in this series.

I had hoped that the story would be a bit more holiday themed....but it was long on mystery with hints of Christmas, Scrooge and romance. Nice mix, even though I was hoping for a bit more Christmas theme. All in all, a nice read. I look forward to seeing how this new series develops!

J.A. Hennrikus also writes under the name Julianne Holmes (Clock Shop Mysteries). To find out more about the author, check out her website: https://jahennrikus.com/2017/09/10/found-in-the-wild/

**I voluntarily read an advanced readers copy of this book from Midnight Ink via NetGalley. Opinions expressed are entirely my own.**

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Well-written, but not very Christmassy. I didn't really enjoy the theater aspect either. The mystery didn't involve the theater much (which is fine), but I didn't find the theater stuff that interesting (and I usually like reading about theater!). ( )

A Christmas Peril by J.A. Hennrikus is the first story in A Theater Cop Mystery series. Edwina “Sully” Sullivan has been the general manager of the Cliffside Theater Company in Trevorton, Massachusetts for the last five years since leaving the force (and her ex-husband). Sully is busy with preparations for their annual performance of A Christmas Carol, but she is taking time out to attend the funeral of Peter Whitehall. Peter’s son, Eric is a friend and Sully is tending the event for him. When Eric ends up arrested for Peter’s murder, Sully puts her detecting skills to work finding the real killer. Sully has her hands full with keeping the budget on track for A Christmas Carol, replacing an actor, dealing with Patrick King who cannot remember his lines and has a drinking problem (along with a huge ego), and finding Peter’s killer.

When I started reading A Christmas Peril, I went back to check that this was the first book. I felt like I was plopped down in the middle of a series. The book is very confusing in the beginning. It felt like the book was written out of order (with the beginning in the middle and the middle at the beginning). The pace of the story is a little too slow for my liking and it felt dated (like it was written for a different time-period). The book lacked flow and smooth transitions. Many of the same details are repeated frequently (after I while I could recite them by rote). Sully became fixated on murder (obsessed). Too much of the book is focused on conjecture and hearsay (Sully going over the same details). I solved the crime at Peter’s funeral (it should not be that easy). There are a couple of possible love interests for Sully in the story. I could have done with less “flirting” and a more interesting/engaging mystery. At the end of the story, there are dangling threads (it felt unfinished) and it was convoluted. The Christmas aspect was very light (almost non-existent). A Christmas Peril would have benefited from more editing/rewriting. ( )

The theater has always interested me. My son was in theater in high school and then in college. I loved going to the plays and watching the show. What intrigued me the most was the sets they made. They were so phenomenal and I couldn't believe they were built by the students. The book definitely brought back some great memories and I loved how the author described the inner workings of a theater. There is always going to be actors that disagree or financial backers who grumble when more money is needed and that sets the stage for a wonderful quest to solve a murder.

Sully has come back to her hometown to be general manager of the local theater. I loved her description of being very tall and maybe not as thin as she would like. I laughed at her shoe size because not many women have the foot of well I guess I will say big foot. I loved her character so much and found her dry sense of humor so refreshing. It's funny that she thinks she is retired from the police department. When someone is found murdered, the town seems to look to Sully to help out. The death of someone in the town turns up an assortment of suspects.

The dead person has a few family members I thought needed to take a chill pill. Either they were guilty of something or wanted attention. They sure did make for a great story and gave Sully a run for her money. She has to try to keep the Christmas play on track, while dealing with an ex-husband and a list of people of interest in the crime. I was very pleased to find out that I didn't guess who the killer was. To say I was a bit surprised is an understatement. The author has written a great book in the first of a series that will only get more intense with intrigue and characters that jump off the pages. I will be looking for the next in this series with anticipation.

I received a copy of this book from The Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour. The review is my own opinion. ( )

I had a feeling I was going to like this when the main character talks about "the traditional pantyhose dance". I love that.

The feeling was enhanced by the fact that a secondary character suddenly popped up who had my exact name – just first as last and vice versa (and my first name spelled "wrong"). I have never seen that before. It was also fun when that character, Stewart, engaged in a Shakespeare quote battle with another fellow named Patrick; Patrick and Stewart and Shakespeare all in the same sentence is just fun.

"…Something darted out—probably a coyote … "
"Probably a dog."
"Whose story is this? Anyway, I veered to avoid the werewolf…"

I'm often very hard on cozy mysteries, but this has all the essential ingredients, blended to excellent effect. The main character has a good and solid foundation for involving herself in any mysteries that come her way: she was a cop. And I loved the fact that the reason her cop-hood is in the past tense is that she was basically … encouraged very strongly to resign, as I recall. She wasn't a model police officer, nor a model wife or daughter or friend or overall human being – but her faults and failings never make her obnoxious. She's not sympathetic, on the whole – but she is interesting, and often funny, and her self-awareness makes her a really good protagonist.

It's not a perfect story. But it's more than enjoyable enough that it doesn't matter. I've said it before, and as long as I keep reading cozy mysteries I'm sure I'll say it again: the plot is possibly the least important part of a cozy. If an author can sell me on a three-dimensional, five-sensate (is that a thing? It should be) setting, on well-rounded characters I'm happy to spend a few hours with and will look forward to meeting again, and on sharp and clever writing that is not over-reliant on puns – then I honestly don't much care whodunit or why. Don't get me wrong – there had better be an at least halfway decent plot – but if the rest of it has lulled me into a state of complacency, I'm much less likely to complain about anything else.

And the writing here is sharp and clever. "Leftover summer detriment, suntan lotion and gardening hats" – what a great, concise snapshot. It was good enough to overcome multiple issues with editing which I sincerely hope aren't going unnoticed by people who can fix them. Y'know, it worries me a little that the Netgalley emails often remind us "don't worry! This is an ARC! All those little grammar and spelling and punctuation things you people love to nitpick about will be fixed before the book's published!" Well, I hope so. I wouldn't want to see something about "breeching confidentiality" in the finished book, or about something peaking instead of peeking. Or pronoun abuse. Or apostrophe abuse. Et cetera.

Because this was a really fun book. And for once I look forward to reading a lot more.

The usual disclaimer: I received this book via Netgalley for review. ( )