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Unabridged Digital Audiobook
Runtime: 3 hours, 21 minutes
Read by Jean Brassard
Author James Patterson is known for writing books that fans devour at breakneck speed. But he decided that fans needed something even speedier, so he created his BookShots series. And in the audio edition of The Christmas Mystery, co-written with Richard DiLallo, he gives fans a super-short holiday whodunit.
The story finds the holidays approaching and New York City Detective Luc Moncrief and his partner, Katherine Burke, helping out with a few odd police jobs around the city—like keeping an eye on the Christmas shoppers in Bloomingdale’s. But when a once-famous socialite is found murdered, they’re called in to investigate their next case. As they dig for clues and interview witnesses, they discover that some paintings have gone missing from the victim’s Park Avenue apartment—and Moncrief uses his connections in the art world to search for answers.
The Christmas Mystery is certainly a short book—but instead of feeling like a full, complete novel, it’s more like a couple of short stories that were put together. The first half sets up the story with a short holiday adventure before getting to the murder mystery, which doesn’t really feel like much of a mystery. The investigation is surprisingly quick—and, since it’s barely, developed it’s not especially gripping. And if you get just slightly distracted for a couple of minutes while you’re listening, you could miss it entirely.
The mystery could have been more fleshed-out, giving readers time to get to know the characters and the situation. But, instead, the authors chose to wrap it up quickly and move on to Paris, where Moncrief and his partner attend Moncrief’s father’s funeral, eat some expensive French cuisine, and do a lot of shopping for expensive gifts.
Patterson has built a literary empire off stories that are lights and effortlessly entertaining—but this one is so light that it’s almost entirely weightless. There simply isn’t much to it: not much mystery, not much suspense, not much development. And while it makes for a holiday read that doesn’t require a whole lot of thought, it’s also a holiday read that doesn’t have a whole lot of story.
There are so many options for holiday-themed audiobooks—from romantic to dramatic to suspenseful to humorous. Unfortunately, The Christmas Mystery is none of the above. Even if you’re just looking for an easy-going audiobook to listen to during your holiday shopping trips, I recommend finding something more memorable.
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