Genre: Speculative Fiction/Christmas
Description:
“While home in Midland, Texas on a weekend
visit with the eccentric uncle who raised him, Marion (‘Mary’) Waclawski
discovers a long-forgotten letter Uncle Joe wrote to Santa Claus. Mary keeps it
to share with his girlfriend Lindsay and best friend Tommy. At first they
consider the letter to be nothing more than a silly lark—what kind of grown man
would write a letter to Santa? But soon Mary and Lindsay find themselves caught
up in a much larger mystery, concerning many, many more letters to Santa, all
surrounding the crisis of gun violence in America.
It’s a problem bigger than Texas, and a
mystery bigger than Mary and Lindsay can solve on their own. Thankfully they
discover they have willing and eager partners at the North Pole: Sandra and
Kris Kringle, better known around the world as Mr. and Mrs. Claus! But can the
Texans and the Clauses solve a mystery and a crisis no one else seems able to?”
Author:
After growing up in California Shana Hammaker bounced around the
country a bit before landing in Austin, Texas where she now lives with her
husband. Shana is the author of several books including memoirs, a novel, and
several shorter works.
Appraisal:
Imagine that the neighbor kid who told you when you were ten that
Santa wasn’t real didn’t know what he was talking about. That’s right, Santa is
real. Now imagine the kids in the US who are scared by the stories of all the
mass shootings they hear about and the active shooter drills they go through at
school deciding to take action in the only way they an imagine making their
dreams come true, by asking Santa to do something about gun violence in America
for their Christmas present. If enough kids ask for this same thing, Santa will
have to do something, right?
Exactly what was going on and how it was going to shake out kept me
guessing and intrigued through the entire book. Along with an engaging story is
plenty of background to give perspective and get the reader thinking about the
issue of gun violence in the US. Ideally, we would be able to make some
progress in improving things in that area without having to enlist Santa’s help,
but just in case I know what I’m asking Santa do for me this Christmas. Give
this a read and see if you agree.
Buy now
from: Amazon US Amazon UK
FYI:
Some adult language.
Format/Typo
Issues:
This review is based on a preliminary reviewer’s copy of the book, so
I can’t judge the final product in this area.
Rating: *****
Five Stars
Reviewed
by: BigAl
Approximate word count: 55-60,000 words
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