Publisher
Wild
Rose Press
Genre
Mystery. A hardboiled PI novel with a fallen angel protagonist
Following the death of Kris Kringle, the operation of
Christmas is taken over by a shadowy organization known as the Company who
shutter the toy line at the North Pole and reestablish their base in the newly
minted city of Yule Tide. Suspecting their motives, the Archangelic Council
recalls its liaison to Christmas—an angel named Harold. When Harold refuses to
return to Heaven, he is stripped of his wings and is grounded on Earth. His
influence gone, Harold is fired by the Company and becomes a none-too-successful
private investigator. But when he is hired by the beautiful wife of a Company
executive to locate her missing husband, Harold sees a chance at redemption.
Searching for the missing man, Harold uncovers secrets that the Company will
protect at all costs. He must also balance his growing attraction to his client
with a renewed hope of regaining his wings.
Excerpt
Billy shuddered. “Anyway, you ain’t told me how the
meeting with Elvin went.”
“You mean Santa?”
Billy wrinkled his nose. “I remember him as Elvin. And
I told you, I can’t believe they couldn’t have come up with a better candidate
for Claus than him.”
“You sound jealous.”
Billy’s eyes went wide with innocence. “Who me? Nah.
You kidding? I mean, I do remember some years back when Elvin and I was both up
for a promotion to line foreman. So, he plays the corporate game better than
me. I got pride is what I got.”
“You definitely have something,” Angel agreed.
Billy ignored
him. “That Elvin? Always so smart, so perfect. Always working out. Always in
tip-top shape. What’s with that anyhow? And his wife. She’s the same. All
defined muscles, long legs, and those shoulders? Yowsa! I’ll bet she could
clean and jerk a Buick.”
“Careful, Billy.”
“I mean, what’s it do to Kringle’s memory to have his
successor and his wife on the cover of Shape magazine?”
“I think they are a very attractive couple.”
“The real Santa and Mrs. Claus was an attractive
couple. They had natural beauty.”
“Kringle was morbidly obese and had a perpetually red
nose.”
“Yeah, but he did it with class. Didn’t have to work
out every day to impress everyone.”
“I don’t think the new Santa works out to impress
everyone,” Angel said. “I think he does it for his health. Could be if Kringle
had taken better care of himself, we’d still have him with us.”
Billy shook his head sadly. “I miss him, Boss. I
really do. I mean, he fired me and all. But I miss him.”
“I do too, Billy.
“The truth,” Angel answered, “does not depend on
whether one believes it. The truth is the truth.”
Scratch chuckled. “You continue to surprise me, Angel. The truth is this. When presented with facts that are unsettling, most people prefer to believe in a comforting lie. Events of the last several years have proven that. The real truth is that believing in alternative, unsubstantiated facts is empowering. To claim without doubt that a lie is the truth both sets a person apart from the conforming crowd and binds them with others that profess to believe likewise. The lie makes them tribal. Powerful. It produces a kind of gleeful association. Believing in lies is a sort of alchemy—changing something, or someone, base into gold.”
Brian spent much of his professional career working to alleviate domestic hunger serving as the operations director of the Emergency Feeding Program of Seattle & King County as well as the manager of the Pike Market Food Bank in downtown Seattle. Married with three beautiful daughters, he now lives and writes in Ocean Shores, a small city on the Washington coast.
Website
www.brianandersonmysteries.com
Author Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/author/brianandersonmysteries
Goodreads
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22749823.Brian_Anderson
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