Mrs. Claus and the Trouble with Turkeys is Liz Ireland’s fourth Mrs. Claus mystery, featuring April, an innkeeper from Oregon who married Nick Claus, the real Santa Claus and moved to Santaland with him. They do go back to Cloudberry Bay, Oregon for summer vacations, but home is now up north. It’s obvious, though, that April misses her former home at times.

That’s why Santaland is celebrating its first Thanksgiving. But, no one in Santaland can settle for just one day of celebration. The people, elves, and reindeer are going to celebrate for an entire week. There’s a pre-Thanksgiving dinner. There’s a parade planned with a helium balloon, a marching band, and Santa arriving to kick off the season. There are Pilgrim decorations all over Santaland, ones that make April nostalgic for the U.S. But, there’s a problem with April’s plan for Thanksgiving dinner. Gobbles, the live turkey center of the feast, has disappeared from his cage. Instead, Grimstock, the vulture, is in the turkey cage.

With an upset elf and children, April’s first priority is to find Gobbles. Failing that, she and Nick’s nephew, put up posters of the missing turkey. But, she also has to practice for marching with the band. She’s concerned about her best friend, Claire, visiting from Oregon. Claire’s keeping secrets, and hanging around a wealthy realtor elf, Blaze Whitewreath, “the Don Juan of Santaland”. In fact, that causes an argument in a coffeeshop because Elspeth Claus, Nick’s cousin, seems to think she and Blaze were an item.

April really can’t seem to do anything right when it comes to Nick’s relatives. Asked to bring a side dish to the pre-Thanksgiving dinner, at the last minute she puts together a cute dish she finds on YouTube. But, Elspeth brought a dish that looks identical, and accuses April of stealing the idea from her. Unfortunately, as Elspeth falls face-first in the mashed potatoes, she points at April, and utters two words. Now, some in Santaland think April Claus is a killer.

I know these books sound absurd. An American innkeeper lives in Santaland with her husband, the interim Santa Claus, family members, elves, snowmen and reindeer. Then, there are sentences like this. No spoilers.

“To deal with monsters, you have to become a little bit of a monster yourself. Otherwise the monsters will win every time.”

“Maybe this week was exemplifying a traditional American Thanksgiving. It was that little-discussed flipside of a Norman Rockwell holiday: panic, family tension, and a mad scramble to bring all the ingredients together.”

When April looks for the actual killer, she thinks about the people and elves who’d lost their lives to some smug, arrogant murderer, not to mention a coldhearted birdnapper. That sums up this cozy mystery series with a heart, a passion for holidays and others, and a weird sense of humor. Mrs. Claus and the Trouble with Turkeys has a great deal of wackiness to satisfy any cozy mystery reader.

Mrs. Claus and the Trouble with Turkeys by Liz Ireland. Kensington, 2023. ISBN 9781496737830 (paperback), 304p.

FTC Full Disclosure – I received a galley through NetGalley and the publisher to review for a journal.