Shock to the System
(2025)(The fifth book in the Holiday Hounds Mystery series)
A novel by Hailey Hartley
When the town's prized Christmas parade animatronic—a ten-foot dancing elf named Jingles—malfunctions during a test run in Winterberry Falls' town square, Christmas shop owner Ivy Matthews expects technical difficulties and maybe some embarrassed engineers. What she doesn't expect is for the maintenance panel to pop open and reveal the body of Wade Garrison, the parade committee's domineering technical director, wedged inside the elaborate mechanism. With the annual Christmas parade just five days away and half the town's holiday revenue depending on the event, Police Chief Ryan Torres has his hands full sorting through suspects who all seem to have wanted the victim silenced. But as Ivy soon discovers, Wade had been collecting more than just parade volunteers—he'd been collecting secrets.
As Ivy reluctantly gets drawn into the investigation alongside her neighbor Jack and enthusiastic employee Zara, her rescue dog Pepper begins having panic attacks in the strangest places around town. The anxious Australian Shepherd mix has always been afraid of unusual things, but her terror of certain blinking lights seems oddly specific. When Ivy realizes Pepper isn't reacting randomly but to a particular frequency—the same frequency used in surveillance equipment—she begins to understand the scope of Wade's operation and the desperation of whoever killed him. From hidden cameras to remote electrical devices, every clue Pepper uncovers points to someone with technical knowledge and a secret worth killing for.
With the parade committee falling apart, old scandals coming to light, and danger closing in, Ivy must untangle a web of blackmail and betrayal before the killer decides the nosy shop owner knows too much. Can she and Pepper illuminate the truth before the Christmas parade—and Ivy herself—becomes the killer's next target? Or will this investigation prove that some people will do anything to keep their secrets from coming to light? In a desperate race against time, Ivy discovers that the most dangerous gift under the tree is the one that should never be opened.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
As Ivy reluctantly gets drawn into the investigation alongside her neighbor Jack and enthusiastic employee Zara, her rescue dog Pepper begins having panic attacks in the strangest places around town. The anxious Australian Shepherd mix has always been afraid of unusual things, but her terror of certain blinking lights seems oddly specific. When Ivy realizes Pepper isn't reacting randomly but to a particular frequency—the same frequency used in surveillance equipment—she begins to understand the scope of Wade's operation and the desperation of whoever killed him. From hidden cameras to remote electrical devices, every clue Pepper uncovers points to someone with technical knowledge and a secret worth killing for.
With the parade committee falling apart, old scandals coming to light, and danger closing in, Ivy must untangle a web of blackmail and betrayal before the killer decides the nosy shop owner knows too much. Can she and Pepper illuminate the truth before the Christmas parade—and Ivy herself—becomes the killer's next target? Or will this investigation prove that some people will do anything to keep their secrets from coming to light? In a desperate race against time, Ivy discovers that the most dangerous gift under the tree is the one that should never be opened.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Used availability for Hailey Hartley's Shock to the System