ARC Review: The Twelve Books of Christmas by Kate Carlisle

The Twelve Books of Christmas
Author: Kate Carlisle
Series: Bibliofile Mystery (Book 17)
Publication: Berkley (October 24, 2023)

Description: The first ever Christmas mystery in the beloved New York Times bestselling Bibliophile Mystery series!

San Francisco book-restoration expert Brooklyn Wainwright and her hunky security-expert husband, Derek Stone, face a locked-room murder mystery during the holidays in Scotland.

In the middle of a wonderful Christmas holiday in Dharma, Brooklyn and Derek receive a frantic phone call from their dear friend Claire in Loch Ness, Scotland. The laird of the castle, Cameron MacKinnon, has just proposed to her! They plan to be married on New Year’s Day, and they want Derek and Brooklyn to be their witnesses. And while they’re visiting, Claire hopes that Brooklyn will be able to solve a little mystery that’s occurred in the castle library—twelve very rare, very important books have gone missing.

Once in Scotland, Brooklyn starts working on the mystery of the missing books but is soon distracted by all of the thumping and bumping noises she’s been hearing in the middle of the night. You’d think the Ghost of Christmas Past had taken up residence. But when one of the guests is poisoned and another is killed by an arrow through the heart, Brooklyn and Derek know this is not the work of any ghost. Now they must race to find a killer and a book thief before another murder occurs and their friends’ bright and happy future turns dark and deadly.

My Thoughts: This is the seventeenth book in the Bibliophile Mystery series and Brooklyn and her husband Derek are invited to Scotland to take part in the wedding of their friends Claire and Cameron who is the laird of Castle MacKinnon. They want to get married on New Year's Day and it is already Christmas.

Brooklyn, Derek, and Brooklyn's parents arrive at Castle MacKinnon to celebrate and find that there is also a mystery to solve. Twelve books, each about some aspect of Christmas and with widely varied values, are missing from the castle library. But that isn't the only problem Claire and Cameron are facing. The local women's club has started a campaign to ostracize Claire and a local young woman is determined to steal Cameron away before he can marry Claire. 

Then there is the whole issue of the new librarian at the castle who seems to have an agenda of her own. She's much more interested in becoming rich than taking care of the library. Brooklyn immediately suspects her of being the one to steal the books in order to sell them. 

While searching the castle for the missing books, Brooklyn and Derek find the body of a young man named Willy stuffed on one of the closets. Willy worked on the estate and was known to everyone. Brooklyn has a number of possible suspects for murderer. 

And when Bitsy, the rival for Cameron's affections, is found with an arrow through her heart the day after she and Claire competed in an archery competition, it looks like Claire would be the perfect suspect. However, Brooklyn knows she didn't do it and searches for the murderer before the happy couple needs to postpone the wedding again.

This was a fun story. I haven't read any of the other books in this series, but the hints thrown out about other times Brooklyn finds herself solving mysteries make me want to read more.

Favorite Quote:

"What is that interesting fragrance?"

"It's nothing."

"That's funny, because it smells like white sage." He gazed into my eyes. "Darling, if you were driven to the point of burning your mother's white sage, you must've been very frightened indeed. I'm sorry."

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.