"Frosty the Dead Man"

Christine Husom is the national bestselling author of the Snow Globe Shop Mystery series, as well as the Winnebago County Mysteries, also set in central Minnesota. She served with the Wright County Sheriff’s Department and trained with the St. Paul Police Department, where she gained firsthand knowledge of law enforcement procedures.

Husom applied the Page 69 Test to the latest Snow Globe Shop mystery, Frosty the Dead Man, and reported the following:

From page 69:

I barely remembered the short drive home, and that was not a good thing. And admitting it to Clint would be even worse. I lived in a homey 1960s brick Tudor-style house that had belonged to my birth mother’s dearest friend on earth. When Sandra McClarity joined Berta Brooks in heaven the past year, I liked to think the two of them had picked up where they’d left off over thirty years before.

I rented the largely-furnished house from her children, and loved living in a place that had always held a special place in my heart. The home sat in an older part of town where the blocks were plotted so alleys divided neighbors’ back yards. Most had garages that were accessed from the alleys, and others had upgraded by adding garages that attached to their houses. It would be a nice feature to have in the cold days of winter, or in inclement weather. I pulled into the alley and pushed the button to open the automatic garage door. That was the perk I’d added when I moved in so I didn’t have to wrestle with the heavy overhead door. I kept an extra opener in my purse, and always fished it out before I got out of the car.

Clint’s car was idling in the alley as I stepped out of the garage and pushed the button to close the door. He rolled down his window. “Your house is locked, right?”

“Right.”

“Okay. Be sure to lock up again as soon as you get inside.”

It was one of his favorite warnings for me. “Yes, sir.” My teeth were starting to chatter, and that time it was the freezing air causing it. I dropped the opener back in my purse and pulled my keys from my pocket. When I reached the back door my fingers were stiff from the cold, even with my leather driving gloves on.

In Frosty The Dead Man, the third book in the Snow Globe Shop Mysteries, Curio Finds manager Camryn Brooks lands smack dab in the middle of another murder investigation when she discovers the body of Mayor Lewis Frost on his office floor. Dead from a snow globe blow to the head, and the very one she’d sold him that afternoon. Lying near the broken shards of glass, Cami spots a large diamond, naturally piquing her interest. As she works to uncover who killed Frosty, she unwittingly puts herself in harm’s way, with some very unsavory people out to stop her.

On page 69, Cami had been questioned by both the police and her friends and is more than ready to go home. She reluctantly agrees to let Assistant Police Chief Clinton Lonsbury follow her there, so he’s sure she gets safely inside. The page gives a brief description of where Cami lives, and a little about how a cold December evening in Minnesota feels.

Visit Christine Husom's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Iced Princess.

My Book, The Movie: Frosty the Dead Man.

--Marshal Zeringue