Bruno and le Père Noël

I put off reading this short story/novella until December (for the obvious reasons) so some aspects of the story were out of sync with where I had last left Bruno. But it is a great, heart-warming story though not much of a mystery. ( )

This is a short little tale to keep series fans happy in between books. I think a fourth one of these in between stories is just being published and a new novel in the series is coming soon. I expect to read some or all of them in the supposed proper place in the series order. I can tell after 4 novels that I do not want to skip around with this series of books - there is a definite progression that I don't want to spoil. Bruno has played Father Christmas for the children of the village of St. Denis in a prior story and he does it again. The mystery element in this story is pretty slight, and this reader wondered a little about who was really the "bad guy", but Bruno as usual works to make things mostly right.

I've yet to read a dud story here, but this one is pretty slight and syrupy sweet for those already familiar with the series. The fate of a character or two was left open at the end of the 4th book but I didn't note any resolution of prior events, especially since one who looked to be gone for quite some time appears right off as well as another who may not have returned. However the prior book ended around the beginning of Spring and here we are all the way to Christmas so all kinds of things could have happened or been resolved. There is however a terrible incongruity in the story which makes this story impossible to set in the timeline. I picked this story up a couple years ago so I do hope the error was fixed at some point. I did note that a reader on Amazon had noted the big continuity error in 2013. I knocked a half star off for the glaring error. ( )

This is a light fun seasonal short story as a bonus to the Bruno, Chief of Police series of crime novels.
This one is light on the crime side and leans more towards capturing the Christmas spirit in Bruno's town of St. Denis. It comes with the recipe for Christmas goose a la Bruno, the preparation of which is incorporated into the story :D
Available only in eBook editions, the Kindle version comes with the 1st chapter of the very first novel Bruno, Chief Of Police which makes for a nice refresher of the character's introduction. Also sold under the title "Bruno and the Carol Singers" in some markets. ( )