The Christmas Thief by Thomas Lockhaven

Item: The Christmas Thief
Rating: 5
Author: karenbaron

Posted December 12, 2022 by karenbaron in #HolidayMystery, Children's, Mystery, Review, Series / 0 Comments

The Christmas Thief

by Thomas Lockhaven

Published by Twisted Key Publishing LLC on November 18, 2020
Genres: Middle Grade Mystery
Pages: 112
Format: Hardcover, Kindle
Goodreads
Get Your Copy at: Amazon

Move over Santa! This year, Ava and Carol are figuring out who’s naughty or nice.

There’s a time of year that’s full of cheer--but this December, not everything is quite so merry for Ava and Carol Detective Agency. For their holiday house-sitting gig has gone ho-ho-horribly wrong, and now Mr. Parker’s prized painting is missing! With Christmas Eve approaching, the girls have little time to tie this burglary up in a bow, and so they’ll need some help from their best friend Derik.

Using state-of-the-art hacking skills and the trained brains of the best super-sleuths in the business, Ava and Carol set out to unwrap this mystery. However, when the trail of clues leads them to a devastating personal discovery, all bets are off on whether this Christmas will be very merry after all. How can the girls reconcile terrible deeds when they are done by good people? And how can they turn their backs on a friend at a time like this?

Only with quick-thinking, fast fingers, and big hearts will Ava, Carol, and Derik retrieve the painting in time and put the real bad guys away for good. Join the crew and follow the clues as you can uncover the greatest gifts in this world are the things we do for others in Ava & Carol Detective Agency: Christmas Thief!

The Christmas Thief by Thomas Lockhaven sees Ava and Carol house-sitting for a family while they are away for Christmas and having the house robbed while they are there.

Can Ava, Carol, and Derik find a way to keep someone off the police’s radar? Will they capture the proper criminals?

Ava, Carol, and Derik

Ava and Carol are back to solve another mystery. This one hit while they were in the house that got robbed. Ava, Carol, and Derik have to figure out a way to keep the police away from the person coerced and to find the real criminals. The girls have done a lot of crime solving up to this point, and they are getting good at keeping the bad guys on their toes. Derik is an excellent addition to the team. Who knows, maybe he will be sticking around longer?

The Mystery

Ava and Carol were tasked with house-sitting the Parkers’ house when it got robbed under their noses. The girls had Derik over to watch a movie, and the three of them took chase after the robber. On the way to discovering who the robber was, they realized that he was close to them. Instead, they made a bigger discovery and wanted to take down the other people first—the actual bad guys of this book. I have to say that each book in this series has me enraptured from the first paragraph all the way to the end.

Five Stars

I am giving five stars to The Christmas Thief by Thomas Lockhaven and recommending it to anyone that wants to read a holiday mystery. It’s true that I am reading these books out of order, and that’s the fun part since you can see how they get to this point of their detective agency. Reading this series out of order is okay, as it doesn’t give away past cases. Mr. Lockhaven has a great way of making each case so much fun to read.

Ava & Carol Detective Agency Series

Also available on KindleUnlimited

Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of The Christmas Thief by Thomas Lockhaven.

Until the next time,

Happy Reading!

About Thomas Lockhaven

You can blame my 7th grade English teacher, Mr. Ownby. I began writing mysteries in middle school, with gripping titles like, The Secret in The Swamp and The Ghost of Hollow Lake—Mr. Ownby, would kindly read them, and then encourage me to keep writing and reading the classics. His words, some day I’ll be reading your mysteries with the rest of the world inspired me.

Forty years later, I was able to fulfill my dreams and become a full time writer. When I began writing, I decided that my books would be a safe-haven from the real world. My children’s series all have strong messages of perseverance, thinking outside the box, friendship and loyalty. I have a daughter, and as I work through my manuscripts, I always try to imagine what I can say to inspire and entertain at the same time.

For my cozy readers, I spent much of my life traveling to small coastal towns in North Carolina and then later in my life to the coastal towns in New England. I’ve always loved the idiosyncrasies of the locals, and I’ve always wanted to bring them to life in a book series. My Coffee House Sleuths stories are just that. And just like my children’s books, I endeavor to write stories that are clean, with very little violence and no profanity. I do my best to help people disappear from the craziness of life, even if just for a little while.

I currently live in Boston, but my dream is to move to a small coastal town, stare out over the ocean, and to let the words flow. I have an incredible wife who constantly inspires and encourages me- and an amazing daughter who is my most harsh, but loving critic. As I said earlier, my passion is to write and to continually improve and perfect my craft. For those of you who read my books, I humbly thank you. For those of you who have never read my books, I welcome you with open arms.

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