Mistletoe Murders by Ken Cuperus

When Emily Lane isn’t busy running her charming Christmas-themed store, “Under the Mistletoe”, located in the quaint tourist town of Fletcher’s Grove, she finds herself compelled to investigate not so quaint local murders. On the surface, Emily is a perfectly lovely, good-natured puzzle-solver and mystery lover. But she is hiding a secret past from everyone in town. And when Emily begins her personal investigations, Detective-Constable Sam Wilner, a smart and attractive local cop – with a crush on Emily that is not completely unrequited – begins to wonder if there’s more to Emily than meets the eye.

1: The Cookie Crumbles Part 1
Emily finds herself implicated in the death of a banker, who is found dead at a local Christmas tree farm. According to local police detective Sam Wilner, the murder instrument was a poisoned Christmas cookie…from Emily’s shop, “Under the Mistletoe”.

2: The Cookie Crumbles Part 2
Emily’s close friend, June, the town veterinarian, is arrested in connection with the “poison cookie murder”. With time running out to prove June’s innocence, and her own reputation on the line, Emily is forced to take a risk that could expose her secret past to everyone in town.

3: Hearts of Ice Part 1
When the local bad-boy and teen heart-throb is found frozen in the river ice during a festive family skating event, police are quick to write it off as an accident. But Emily has reason to believe that there is much more to the young man’s death than everyone assumes.

4: Hearts of Ice Part 2
Having convinced Sam that this accidental death case should, in fact, be treated as a murder investigation, Emily finds herself caught between two families connected to the troubled victim – two teenage girls who loved him, and their ambitious mothers who thoroughly despised everything he represented.

5: Walking With Ghosts Part 1
It’s New Year’s Eve, and Emily and Sam are on their first official date at a local mansion, recently renovated into a haunted house-themed tourist attraction. The celebration ends in mayhem when at the stroke of midnight their host is stabbed to death. The primary suspect: the ghost of the Mayor who was famously murdered in the same spot decades earlier.

6: Walking With Ghosts Part 2
A firm non-believer in ghosts, Emily is determined to unlock the mystery of who really committed the grisly public murder. In doing so, she inadvertently reopens old town wounds, which in turn threaten to reveal the ghosts of her own past.