With a little over a week left until Christmas, Jane has agreed to host a neighborhood caroling party and to revive a traditional neighborhood cookie exchange -- on back to back nights. Jane’s super-organizational skills kick in and everything seems to be moving along smoothly until one of her neighbors throws a monkey wrench in: she has asked television tabloid journalist, Lance King, to do a remote broadcast from the caroling party.

Jane is aghast. King is the king of yellow journalism; what he can’t dig up, he makes up. Jane is left wondering what to do. She knows if she uninvites him he will most likely dig into her past and look for something he can use against her. If she leaves things alone and he comes, she feels she is silently condoning his behavior.

Before Jane can uninvite him, the imposing journalist arrives for the remote broadcast armed to the teeth. He announces that he has a startling announcement about one of the neighbors -- details at eleven. Someone decides the information is worth killing for and before King can do his next broadcast, he slides off Jane’s next-door-neighbor’s roof and is impaled on a steel spike sticking out of a reindeer lawn decoration.

Everyone in the neighborhood is stunned. Who had a secret deep and dark enough to kill for? With a little investigating, Jill learns many of her neighbors have connections to King’s past. In between all her casual inquiries, Jane makes time for all the usual holiday activities associated with three teenage and young adult children. Unfortunately for her, this year’s activities also include meeting Mel’s mom Addie.

The murder and the reasons for the murder are pretty evident early on. The clues are neatly laid and without a lot of snooping, just a little intuition and a sharp eye and keen memory, Jane is able to place all the pieces in order and hand Mel the culprit. In spite of the simple mystery, this book is a whole lost of fun to read, especially at this time of year.

Jane’s reasonably close-knit neighborhood (an unnamed suburb of Chicago) would be a great place to be at any time of the year, but is particularly nice during the holidays. New neighbors with a definite hillbilly twang and an overdressed house add to the fun. The Merchant of Menace is a one sitting read that will make you anxious for your next visit with Jane, Mel and Shelly.

--Jennifer Monahan Winberry