The 12 Frauds of Christmas
(2026)(The seventh book in the Lottie Reamer Cozy Mystery series)
A novel by Donna Muse
Christmas has come to Melody Grove—and so has the prestigious Golden Whisk Gingerbread Village Championship.
Twelve days. Twelve bakers. Ten thousand dollars. One televised finale.
For café owner Eleanor, it’s the chance to create the dream she’s been quietly sketching for thirty years: her beloved hometown in gingerbread, right down to a tiny marzipan Lottie singing on the café steps.
Then someone starts sabotaging the competition.
Salt in the sugar. Shattered sugar-glass. Royal icing that explodes on live television. And when Eleanor’s magnificent gingerbread village is found crushed in the night—with marzipan Lottie turned to face the wreckage—singing sleuth Lottie Reamer has had enough.
She appoints herself Head of Gingerbread Security and declares war.
Armed with a laminated lanyard, a wall of red yarn, librarian Jillian’s color-coded research binder, and an arsenal of legally questionable Christmas carols, Lottie is certain of one thing: somebody in that hall bakes like an angel and behaves like the devil.
But the deeper she digs, the stranger the crumbs become.
Why is the icy three-time champion sneaking through the hall after midnight? Why does the quiet electrician have the scarred hands of a baker? And why has every act of sabotage mysteriously spared the same entry—the one plastered with a sponsor’s logo?
Then a planted jar makes Eleanor look like the saboteur just days before the finale.
Suddenly, Lottie realizes she’s been asking the wrong question.
There isn’t one saboteur.
There are two.
And to expose them both, she’ll need six co-conspirators, one deliberately dreadful Christmas carol, and a live television broadcast nobody in Melody Grove will ever forget.
Because in this town, the frosting doesn’t lie.
A cozy Christmas mystery with no murder, all heart, and a tuba. Perfect for readers who like their sleuths sequined, their villains frosted, and their justice sung in D minor.
Genre: Mystery
Twelve days. Twelve bakers. Ten thousand dollars. One televised finale.
For café owner Eleanor, it’s the chance to create the dream she’s been quietly sketching for thirty years: her beloved hometown in gingerbread, right down to a tiny marzipan Lottie singing on the café steps.
Then someone starts sabotaging the competition.
Salt in the sugar. Shattered sugar-glass. Royal icing that explodes on live television. And when Eleanor’s magnificent gingerbread village is found crushed in the night—with marzipan Lottie turned to face the wreckage—singing sleuth Lottie Reamer has had enough.
She appoints herself Head of Gingerbread Security and declares war.
Armed with a laminated lanyard, a wall of red yarn, librarian Jillian’s color-coded research binder, and an arsenal of legally questionable Christmas carols, Lottie is certain of one thing: somebody in that hall bakes like an angel and behaves like the devil.
But the deeper she digs, the stranger the crumbs become.
Why is the icy three-time champion sneaking through the hall after midnight? Why does the quiet electrician have the scarred hands of a baker? And why has every act of sabotage mysteriously spared the same entry—the one plastered with a sponsor’s logo?
Then a planted jar makes Eleanor look like the saboteur just days before the finale.
Suddenly, Lottie realizes she’s been asking the wrong question.
There isn’t one saboteur.
There are two.
And to expose them both, she’ll need six co-conspirators, one deliberately dreadful Christmas carol, and a live television broadcast nobody in Melody Grove will ever forget.
Because in this town, the frosting doesn’t lie.
A cozy Christmas mystery with no murder, all heart, and a tuba. Perfect for readers who like their sleuths sequined, their villains frosted, and their justice sung in D minor.
Genre: Mystery
Used availability for Donna Muse's The 12 Frauds of Christmas