When I got a this a a gift for Christmas, I recognized the series immediately; I’d read all of this series featuring the diffident and interesting house cleaner Lily Bard. I was surprised I’d missed this one, since I often went out of my way to read Christmas mysteries. Of course, round about 60 pages into it, I realized I had indeed read this when it first came out about ten years ago. I keep doing this. But rereading it was time well-spend; the book has stood up really well, largely on the strength of its characters and sense of place. I have not read Harris’ more recent series, which gets rave reviews, but it might be time.
