I probably should have saved this book to read closer to Christmas, as it takes place smack in the middle of the Christmas holidays.  But since Christmas here Down Under falls in the middle of the summer, it's not quite the same, and the book called to me from my Hill o' TBR.

First, the setting.  Up-state New York, small town driven by tourism.  Very small town.  The kind where you're "from away" if you've been living there less than, say, 30 years.  But the town is smart; tourism driven as it is, they hire an event coordinator to make sure the tourist-attraction events go flawlessly.  That people start getting picked off soon after she moves there is just a coincidence.  ;)

Next, the characters.  Likeable; individual enough that you can keep them straight, but none so unique as to be eccentric.  The first book introduced a 'nemesis' character that I didn't care for - I don't see the point of them beyond giving the author something to fill pages with when plot is running thin.  But this book saw that character toned down quite a bit - and she gets her comeuppance too, which made her presence more pleasant.  Also introduced in the first book was the possible love interest; although how he was supposed to be interesting when he was so lazy as to be practically catatonic is beyond me.  At least he's good-looking.  This book found him only slightly more responsive to external stimuli, but there's also the possibility that he might have competition now.  And the competition is NOT lazy.  So, something to look forward to.

Last, the plot.  Full kudos to the author here.  She wrote a plot that should have most people following blind leads and red herrings.  Sadly, I wasn't one of them, but I can't even say where she really went wrong.  I just read a sentence early on and went "Ha!" and it turned out I was right.  Objectively, there was nothing about that sentence that should have given anything away.  It just clicked with me.  Still reading cozies is at least as much about the character development and the entertainment that provides as it is about the plotting of the murder or murders.  And there's enough going on in Celebration Bay that I was kept entertained on a rainy blustery afternoon.  I'll be looking for the third book next year.