The Knives Before Christmas: A Santa-in-Training Mystery

by J. Kent Holloway

Overview

International bestselling mystery author J. Kent Holloway spins a delightfully mischievous holiday mystery full of twists and turns sure to delight amateur sleuth fans of all ages!

Holiday emporium owner Thomas Nast isn't your typical guy. His Victorian-era home is sentient with a 13-foot guard alligator named Tinsel living in its walls. A mostly invisible-and mischievous-elf named Peppermint reluctantly serves his every whim. And he just happens to be the next in line to become the real-life Santa Claus. Until that happens, however, Tom spends his days helping the people-and frequent tourists-of Christmas, Florida, with all their Christmas and other holiday needs.

That is, of course, until he walks into his store one morning to find the body of a man dressed in full Santa costume—a man reviled by almost everyone in town—who's been stabbed multiple times with a pocketknife identical to six custom jobs Tom had given to his closest friends a few years earlier.

With Tom's young assistant, Trixie McNamara, in police crosshairs as the prime suspect, Tom is forced to dig up the dirt on his friends, a nasty town spinster, and a semi-retired mobster to prove Trixie's innocence. But as he investigates the murder, Tom will find himself in the crosshairs of an altogether different kind if he's not careful...and Santas-in-Training, he knows, can die just like anyone else.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798887980720
Publisher:	Keylight Books
Publication date:	11/18/2025
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Bestselling author J. Kent Holloway lives on death. Literally. With more than twenty-seven years' experience in forensic death investigations, he's seen it all. Experienced the worst that life has to give and never let it dim his sense of wonder or humor. Now, he brings all this experience, along with a zeal for uncovering the folklore and superstitions of death, to the written page as author of mysteries and forensic crime fiction. He is the author of the fun, breezy Grim Days Mystery series, as well as the critically acclaimed Ezekiel Crane paranormal mystery series. He's also the author of the Cold War era tropical island/voodoo/KGB-packed calypso-inspired mystery, Killypso Island and the forensic thriller, Clean Exit.

Kent Holloway also has a Master's degree in Biblical Studies from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has served as singles minister, evangelism pastor, and director of discipleship and education. In 2019, Kent released his very first Christian nonfiction book entitled I Died Swallowing a Goldfish and Other Life Lessons from the Morgue that features tales of his real life investigations with the important lessons he's learned from them. He currently resides in Florida.