{"id":7243,"date":"2026-09-29T05:28:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T12:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=7243"},"modified":"2026-09-29T05:28:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T12:28:11","slug":"tamara-berry-the-claus-conspiracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/tamara-berry-the-claus-conspiracy\/","title":{"rendered":"Tamara Berry: The Claus Conspiracy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seven Ponds #2<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Berry\u2019s formula for this novel is not a totally new one, but it is an enjoyable one, to which she adds her own twist.\u00a0 20 something Amber Winslow has left her private eye boyfriend and moved to Arizona, where she\u2019s near her grandmother and her grandmother\u2019s bossy and intrusive retirement community friends.\u00a0 Between them, they\u2019ve started a very of the moment true crime podcast, Death Comes Calling.\u00a0 In this second instalment in the series, a mystery lands at their literal doorstep.<\/p>\n

As barista Amber (she has to have a real job to supplement the podcast) delivers morning coffees to the retirement community, Seven Ponds, a car crashes into the community gatehouse.\u00a0 Inside the car is a girl with blood coming out of her nose, who says all she remembers is to find the Death Comes Calling podcasters.\u00a0 After that, it\u2019s only moments before there\u2019s an army of retirees taking the girl under their wing and getting her pronto to the Seven Ponds doc.\u00a0 The only person the girl \u2013 who appears to have amnesia \u2013 wants to talk to is Amber.\u00a0 She manages to tell Anber that the other thing she remembers is a dead Santa in her trunk.<\/p>\n

On investigation it turns out there\u2019s no Santa in her trunk but mysteries remain. The retirees nickname the girl Mal, but who is she exactly? Why was she looking for the podcasters?\u00a0 What happened to Santa? Amber takes Mal back to her apartment to sort things out. The two girls get along well with one another and Amber and her senior friends turn to sleuthing, using a bit of leverage with the local detective to get a look at recently arrested Santas.\u00a0 None of them look too promising, but the thread has been pulled, and there\u2019s no going back, much to the annoyance of the police.<\/p>\n

As Amber and her friends delve further into the mystery, they uncover a \u201cSanta Conspiracy\u201d as well as some family connections for both Amber and Mal that aren\u2019t so great.\u00a0 Mal\u2019s skill is that she knows when people are lying, and it comes in handy.\u00a0 The story is complex but not overly complicated, and Berry\u2019s sense of humor keeps things on the lighter side.\u00a0 It\u2019s the humor and sharp plotting that sets her books apart.<\/p>\n

While this is the second in the series I wasn\u2019t confused by the setting, though the retirees are definitely more in the background than perhaps they were in the first outing.\u00a0 This is really Amber and Mal\u2019s story which has some heartbreak, some violence, and some redemption involved.\u00a0 While there is a Santa that kicks things off and the book is set during the holiday season, it\u2019s not really a Christmas read, though it is a smart, fun read that might lighten your holiday stress.\u00a0\u00a0— Robin Agnew<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seven Ponds #2 Berry\u2019s formula for this novel is not a totally new one, but it is an enjoyable one, to which she adds her own twist.\u00a0 20 something Amber Winslow has left her private eye boyfriend and moved to Arizona, where she\u2019s near her grandmother and her grandmother\u2019s bossy and intrusive retirement community friends.\u00a0 … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2431,414,1276,2613,1496,2294,986,2614],"class_list":["post-7243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-cozy-adjacent","tag-poisoned-pen-press","tag-robin-agnew","tag-santa-claus","tag-snarky-humor","tag-sourcebooks","tag-tamara-berry","tag-the-claus-conspiracy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7243"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7247,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7243\/revisions\/7247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}