Local author R. L. Anderson has released another book in his Will Nickerson mystery series.

 (You may remember Anderson's earlier work, which has been mentioned on this blog: Concord author borrows from Lake County locations for fictional work [April 17, 2012] and Will Nickerson mystery series gets update [April 29, 2013].)

The latest is "Let's Make it a Merry Christmas," which actually draws inspiration from The News-Herald. Anderson writes:

A couple of years ago, Jim Collins had an editorial about what he called "Christmas Cliches," all the tearjerker Christmas movies that come on TV every year. It was a great editorial and it got me to thinking–yes, those things really are pretty sad, and so are most Christmas related books. So–I came up with the idea–why not write a Christmastime story that's not sad? But what to write about? One of my pet peeves gave me the idea. That is, hearing Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas. It's in all the ads and it makes me want to throw the TV or radio out the window! So–I got to work on the idea and Let's Make It Merry Christmas was the result. I decided to do it as a part of the Will Nickerson Mysteries, with many of my existing characters in my fictional small town of New Oslo, North Dakota telling the story. 

The scenario is that Dakota Ranch Park is turning its annual Christmas festival into a generic Winter Holidays event with no references to Christmas. Nativity scenes, caroling, Christmas trees–all gone. Even Santa is getting the boot, displaced by a silly character in a polar bear suit. A group of disgruntled volunteers walk away, vowing to hold their own Christmas festival to restore all of our cherished Christmas traditions to this North Dakota community. But–just as the Official Sakakawea County, North Dakota Christmas Festival Committee gears into action, a mysterious saboteur pops up at every step of the way, threatening to wreck it all. Can amateur detective Will Nickerson get to the bottom of it in time to save Christmas In New Oslo?

Let's Make It Merry Christmas is a very light mystery–without a murder this time, as it's Christmas and I wanted to keep it free of violence and death. The language is clean and it will make the reader laugh at times and maybe groan now and then at the occasional excursion into the corny. But it won't make you cry. Lose that handkerchief! You won't need it.

Anderson's book is available in paperback and Kindle editions from Amazon, as well as on Nook and Kobo.