Harm for the Holidays: Misgivings Misgivings

Christmas in Miami9the city is wrapped in its own unique festive cheer, and countless children breathlessly await the arrival of Santa Claus. Except this year there are hundreds of Santas. Miami has been invaded by the Red Menace. An annual gathering of hundreds of red-suited, jolly old fat men and women swarm over the city, comical and annoying, until one of them turns up dead. In what should be a time of goodwill to all the Miami-Dade Crime Lab finds that what appears to be the simplest of crimes hides darker motives. Who would want to kill Santa? Who would go to such lengths to conceal the identity of a victim that they would decapitate him and remove both his hands? And how does a simple convenience store robbery suddenly spiral into an international incident of kidnapping and murder?

Donn Cortez is the pseudonym for Don DeBrandt, who has authored several novels. He lives in Vancouver, Canada.