Blue Christmas » (Reprint)

Mary Kay Andrews has been delighting critics and readers for years with a series of funny, breezy mysteries, which are quite different from the more hard-boiled detective novels of a certain Kathy Hogan Trocheck. Of course, as most fans of Andrews and Trocheck know, they are one-and-the-same.

It′s the week before Christmas, and antiques dealer Weezie Foley is in a frenzy to do up her shop for the Savannah historical district window decorating contest-which she intends to win. She throws herself into putting up a Graceland/Blue Christmas motif, with lots of tinsel, an aluminum tree, and all kinds of tacky retro stuff. The project takes up so much time that Weezie is ready to shoot herself with her glue gun by the time she′s done, but the results are stunning. She′s sure she′s one-upped the owners of the trendy shop around the corner. But suddenly, things go missing from Weezie′s display, and there seems to be a mysterious midnight visitor to her shop.

Still, Weezie has high hopes for the holiday-maybe in the form of an engagement ring from her chef boyfriend. But Daniel, always moody at the holidays, seems more distant than usual.

Throw in Weezie′s decidedly odd family, a 1950s Christmas tree pin, and even a little help from the King himself, and maybe there will be a pocketful of miracles for Weezie this Christmas eve.

Publishers Weekly

Weezie Foley has high hopes for Christmas this year. She's working herself into a frenzy decorating her antique shop to win the Savannah historic district decorating contest; she's searching for the perfect present for her chef boyfriend, Daniel; she planning Christmas dinner for the first time for her and Daniel's families. Add a mysterious visitor to the shop and a missing Christmas tree pin and it's almost more than Weezie can handle. Andrews's delightful characters come to life thanks to Keating's reading, which offers just the right mixture of Southern twang and upbeat lilt. She nicely captures the humor that runs through the novel and the variety of characters that populate Weezie's life. The male voices tend to come across as hoarse instead of masculine, but this doesn't detract from the overall enjoyment of a delightful Christmas tale full of memorable characters. This audio is the perfect gift this holiday season. Simultaneous release with the HarperCollins hardcover. (Nov.)