THE SNOW WHITE CHRISTMAS COOKIE

Neither rain, nor sleet, nor dark of night can keep postmen from their appointed rounds. But how about murder?

The tony Connecticut enclave of Dorset has been pummeled by snow, with blizzard number three still on the way. Although the drifts make the village look Christmas-card perfect, merchants are despondent, and stores and streets are empty except for a shoplifter of pricey Ugg boots and a thief who’s taking the Christmas tips—cash and cookie treats meant for the stalwart postal carriers—from residential mailboxes. And now it seems that mail-order drug prescriptions may be missing too. Is a branch of the Castagno crime family to blame? Several competing jurisdictions feel a need to weigh in on the question, seriously complicating things for resident state trooper Des Mitry, who also must sidestep the amateur sleuthing of her interracial lover, movie critic Mitch Berger. Problems escalate when Josie the life coach’s husband, Bryce, perennial black sheep of the Peck family, OD’s and leaves a suicide note, and part-time mail carrier Hank, who is married to Paulette the postmistress and serves as a grudging mentor to her ne’er-do-well son, Casey, dies after affixing a hose to his car’s tailpipe. Another suicide? Not likely, says Des, who ties Josie to both the deceased but makes no further headway until she finds out where Mitch disappeared when he was supposed to be driving a retired postmaster home. Happily, Des is up to the task, locating Mitch before he succumbs to frostbite and identifying the brains behind Hank’s demise as well as the mailbox heists.

Fans of Des and Mitch (The Blood Red Indian Summer, 2011, etc.) will giggle as Mitch decorates his Hanukkah bush with her teeny weeny yellow bikini. Others may think it’s all bah, humbug.