Deck the Hallways (A Fixer-Upper Mystery)

It's about ten days before Christmas in Lighthouse Cove and Shannon has a big renovation project to lead, helping transform an old Victorian mansion into affordable apartment units for lower income people. Even her dad who hasn't worked in construction for six years is eager to pitch in and help, along with his old construction crew buddies. Shannon is a little pre-occupied with the fact that she hasn't talked to her boyfriend, Mac, a local author, in around six weeks. Then when she finds out he's going to be in town for a book signing, her brain is yelling 'awkward' since she doesn't know if he doesn't want to see her or what. Anyway, that's a minor detail of the mystery.All sorts of volunteers show up to help on the house, some with no experience and ten people in Santa Claus suits from the local Santa Brigade. Everyone who has applied to rent an apartment had to agree to help on the project as well so there is no lack of able-bodied help.The man who is representing the local bank (financial backer of the project) seems to delight in aggravating anyone and everyone he comes into contact with at the job site including Shannon's dad Jack, who is heard threatening him so it's no surprise when this guy ends up axed, Jack is the person of interest. Although due to Jack's good reputation in the town, the police chief, Eric, is making an honest effort towards clearing him. As usual, Shannon feels since the body was at her job site, she needs to ask around and see what everyone has to say about the dead man. It's no secret that the whole town isn't sad he's dead.Other side stories such as items going missing and a baby girl that Shannon found in her truck bed are happening as well.I have a feeling the author kind of wanted readers to figure this one out but she was careful to only let out a few clues. I suspected the correct someone as killer, but the reasoning came as a total surprise.The story was a fairly fast-paced mystery and with the fun side story of the Christmas festival along with the little baby, I couldn't wait to finish and see how everything turned out. It was really in the true spirit of the Christmas season when one of the workers would go home with his or her room unpainted and come back to the site the next day to see that someones (Christmas elves?) had finished the job for them. It was really heartwarming what the community was doing for the less fortunate people so they could have some nice housing. Another fun thing was that Shannon and crew knew which rooms were going to which people too so they could add little special details or take into consideration if a child or senior person was going to be in that apartment.Once the official reveal happened and the person was in custody, the mystery about the baby and mysteriously-appearing baby items in the house was solved and resolved in a happy ending worthy of our favorite movie channel that also runs this series as one of its mysteries. I'm pretty sure they've never run this one as a Christmas movie but I think they should!

4.5 Star Review! This is the fourth book in the Fixer-Upper series, and I must say this one has that Christmas charm of long ago.Shannon Hammer has taken on a huge project with just a few short weeks before Christmas. She is the General Contractor for the Forester House project. The mansion is one of the longest standing mansions in Lighthouse Cove and instead of the city tearing it down, it will be remolded to into apartments for people in need, to give them a home. Several contractors, plumbers, electricians, painters, and a host of volunteers are donating their time to see this project through and for the people to be able to move in on Christmas Eve, complete with Christmas trees, decorations, and food for a holiday meal.Peter Potter, who is the town Scrooge, is the oversee that is representing the bank, he keeps showing up unannounced, causing problems with everyone, including Shannon and her father. Not only is he trying to interfere with the workers and the work being done on the house, but he's also threatening the volunteers, by telling them he can take their business's away from them, causing distress for all.One morning when Shannon gets to Forester House early before anyone show up she discovers the body of Potter, killed with the ax owned by her dad. But with the whole town as suspects, including herself, Shannon must get this murder wrapped up pronto so they can finish the house on time for the new residents by Christmas Eve.With Shannon's love life in limbo, she hasn't heard from Mac, the guy she's been seeing and a best selling author in 42 days, planning the annual Christmas parade, overseeing Forester House project, the murder of Potter, someone has left a new baby girl in Shannon's truck, one more thing Shannon doesn't need to deal with, nor does she know how to take care of a baby. She turns the baby over to the only person she knows, her friend Lizzie, who not only is a mother of two and willing to care for the baby until they can either find the mother or find a couple that is willing to adopt her, but Lizzie herself is a suspect for making a threat about killing Potter herself, right in front of Potter's assistant. All of these things need to be wrapped up tightly and with a bow on top by Christmas Eve. Can Shannon get this all done in time.I did try and get a couple of my book groups to read this one for the holidays, but no one seemed to be interested in it. I really think they would of enjoyed this one as much as I did. This was an entertaining book, with plenty of suspects right off the bat, before the murder had even taken place. Which made it a nice change of pace and you learned why someone wanted to kill the person, instead of not knowing them until the end. There were some laugh out loud moments, character's were easy to follow and get to know them, the lead character, Shannon is strong, feisty, smart and likable.

Shannon is trying to do something really good at the old mansion but Mr. Potter keeps trying to cause trouble. So many little things keep happening but no one can figure out why. Then Shannon finds a baby in the back of her truck. What is going on? When she finds Mr. Potter dead, it looks like her dad is the murderer. She will do everything she can to figure out who really killed Mr. Potter. There are so many suspects because it seems everyone in town is ready to kill him. Shannon is having a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit and all of this doesn't help. She also thought that she and Mac had something good going, but she hasn't heard from him in over two months. Was she wrong?

Love this series and it didn't disappoint

Fun to read book!

Meets my expectations.

Great