Fall for the Indie Book: Murder on the First Day of Christmas

This week, I'm getting into the holiday spirit reviewing Billie Thomas's Murder on the First Day of Christmas.

Chloe Carstairs and her mother, Amanda work together in an interior decorating business and the holiday season is a hot time for them. But when their clients start dying more than just their business is threatened. Despite some generational differences and the challenge of investigating secretly in a small town, they work together to solve the mystery. 

Chloe is trying to navigate the world of independent womanhood while dealing with a confusing relationship. Of course her mother just wants her little girl to be happy. They just have different ideas of how that happiness will come about. It's such a universal challenge for mothers and daughters that it's almost guaranteed to hit home. It's told in this book with humor and heart, that you can't help but root for both of these ladies even while you're worried for their safety.

As soon as I finished this book, I called my Mom and told her she had to read it. The relationship between Chloe and Amanda and the differences that they had seemed so familiar. It's apparent that the author, Billie Thomas, was a real Southern lady. Being a Southern girl myself, I found that the characters rang true, which is great because Southern characters can so often come across as caricatures. T he dialog and dialect are also easy and flow very well. 

This book is the first of a series with these characters, however it is currently the only one available. According to the author's website Chloegetsaclue.com, the first book was written by a mother daughter team. Sadly, her mother has passed away, but the site does say that she's working on a new one, Murder in a Two-Seater. I can't wait to read it.