Katherine Fletcher is back with a look at Beverly Chase’s December in Kettle Creek. Christmas preparations are underway, but the Thursday Book Club has questions that can’t wait until the holidays are over.
By Katherine Fletcher
Christmas baskets still need packing. There’s baking to finish, and people are counting on Beverly Chase to help. Then a search for answers about an adoption brings an old mystery back into view.
A newborn was found at Kettle Creek Community Church twenty-six years ago. Helena Ostrowski knows something about that night. When Helena is found dead below the church’s icy rear steps, Beverly isn’t willing to accept that it was simply an accident.
The rest of life keeps going
In Advent Secret, Beverly investigates with Dot, Margaret, and June while Christmas deliveries, rehearsals, and family arrangements continue around them.
That makes room for a familiar question: how do you take something seriously when other responsibilities haven’t disappeared? A calendar doesn’t clear itself because a difficult conversation needs to happen. Someone still has to remember the next commitment.
For a reader, those ordinary details are worth noticing. They help us picture where people spend their time and what draws their attention. You don’t have to treat every Christmas basket as a clue. You can simply watch how the investigation fits into the women’s lives.
A Christmas visit to Kettle Creek
Advent Secret is the second Thursday Book Club novel and can be read as a standalone. If you prefer to read the novels in order, begin with Lakeside Murder.
You’ll find the description, trailer, and current preorder details on the Advent Secret book page. Save the book-club discussion questions farther down that page until you’ve finished reading.
When a mystery unfolds during a busy season, do you notice the everyday routines as much as the investigation?