Holiday Spirit

By Wayne Greenough

Thanet Blake is a hardboiled, no nonsense Private Eye—that is, except when it comes to children and holidays. Then, he falls to pieces. Wouldn’t you know it, it is Christmas time and a cute adorable, seven year-old boy enters Thanet’s office and asks for his help. Payment for Thanet’s services? One gumball. Yes, he’s a softy.

It seems a man named Holiday Spirit is missing. Holiday Spirit plays a real life Santa Clause...giving presents to everybody he comes across, both adults and children alike, If he can’t be found, there will be no Christmas celebration for countless people. Our favorite booze laden, cigarette smoking, clueless gumshoe sets out to find the man, all the while hoping he’ll be found alive and well.

• Language: English
• Publisher: eXtasy Books Inc
• Release date: Jan 26, 2013
• ISBN: 9781771114042

Book preview

Thanet Blake is a hardboiled, no nonsense Private Eye—that is, except when it comes to children and holidays. Then, he falls to pieces. Wouldn’t you know it, it is Christmas time and a cute adorable, seven year-old boy enters Thanet’s office and asks for his help. Payment for Thanet’s services? One gumball. Yes, he’s a softy.

It seems a man named Holiday Spirit is missing. Holiday Spirit plays a real life Santa Clause…giving presents to everybody he comes across, both adults and children alike, If he can’t be found, there will be no Christmas celebration for countless people. Our favorite booze laden, cigarette smoking, clueless gumshoe sets out to find the man, all the while hoping he’ll be found alive and well.

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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Holiday Spirit

Copyright © 2012 Wayne Greenough

ISBN: 978-1-77111-404-2

Cover art by Martine Jardin

All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

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Smashwords Edition

Holiday Spirit

The Private Detective Murders 3

By

Wayne Greenough

In memory of my nephew, Mickey Rawley. We rode the

trail together, our interests were the same. We talked a lot. Without you it’s a lonely trail. Goodbye, Mickey.

To my wife, June, who makes Christmas time a joyous occasion. Thank you, my dear.

Chapter One

I’m Thanet Blake, Private Detective and I love Christmas. As I look outside my office window, smiling people are packing presents as they go from store to store. The street lights came on about an hour ago, twinkling brightly in the gently falling snow, adding to the festive air that is hovering over the city. No matter where I look, there are presents, all wrapped in bright, cheerful colors. Hopefully, there will be enough presents for everybody to celebrate this very special month of December.

As I said, it’s snowing. Children are playfully throwing snowballs at one another. The parents mildly scold them, then laugh uproariously as they join in the fray, energetically tossing a snowball or two. There are Santas ringing bells as they yell out various season’s greetings, interspersed with the obligatory ho, ho, ho as the usually miserly inhabitants of this city fill their pots.

Bill posters on every lamppost advertise the city’s Theatre Guild production of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Some of the cast from the play are walking up and down Main Street in costume, singing Christmas carols. It’s a great show. Be sure to pay special attention to the actor who plays Marley’s Ghost. Yes, it’s I under all that stage makeup.

Every store I see from my office window displays a Christmas theme. In one section of the street, there is a fifty-foot Christmas tree decorated with brilliant ornaments, and thousands of blazing lights tower above the hustle and bustle. It was a fascinating sight to behold as city engineers slowly put the tree into position. When it was time to trim the tree, I talked the decorators into letting me help. Yes, I kept my feet firmly planted on the ground.

December is a special month for me. During this time, when I look up into a clear night sky, I see all the bright lights of creation and know there is a God. This is when I feel He is the closest to me.

I finished decorating my office, keeping to the theme of festive frivolity. When I was a kid in school, we made paper chains. I still create them to this day, making them from the bright colors of the rainbow, hanging all over my four walls and from the ceiling, giving the