A Dark and Snowy Night by Sally Goldenbaum

A Dark and Snowy Night
by Sally Goldenbaum

ISBN-13: 9781496729408
Hardback: 304 pages
Publisher: Kensington
Released: September 27th 2022

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Winter in Sea Harbor is a feast for the senses—crackling bonfires, the scent of snow in the salty air, carols ringing out on the village green. This year, the Seaside Knitters have a sackful of obligations in addition to their usual Christmas preparations. Cass, juggling the stresses of running her lobster fishery, has finally found a nanny for her active toddler. Molly Flanigan seems practically perfect in every way—until she suddenly disappears, taking Cass’s beloved rescue mutt with her.

Meanwhile, the holidays are kicking off in style at Mayor Beatrice Scaglia’s holiday party, where a well-dressed crowd admires the mayor’s sumptuous new home and the celebrity chef catering the event. An additional treat for Ben and Nell Endicott at the festive affair is reconnecting with a dear college friend, Oliver Bishop. But it’s not just reunions and the appetizers that are to-die-for. Before the party-goers can toast the beginning of Sea Harbor’s festive season, the chef—and young wife of the Endicott’s old Harvard friend—is found dead.

Izzy, Birdie, Nell, and Cass must remove suspicion from those they love and bring a murderer to justice—and keep Sea Harbor’s holiday magic from vanishing into the chill winter air.


My Review:
A Dark and Snowy Night is a cozy mystery. It's the 16th book in a series. You don't need to read the previous novels to understand this one, and this novel didn't spoil the whodunit of the previous novels. However, there were a lot of characters to keep track of if you just jump in at this point. The characters spent a lot of time at the beginning thinking about their relationships, so it took a bit to get into more active scenes.

The characters were interesting and acted in realistic ways. This was a clue-based puzzle mystery, though the author withheld the final clues from the reader (so the sleuths knew more than the reader) until the big reveal. However, I correctly guessed whodunit at about halfway through and then guessed why even before the characters were told that information, so this didn't really prevent whodunit from being guessable.

There were only a couple uses of bad language. There were no sex scenes. Overall, I'd recommend this mystery.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.