Review: Wish it were longer
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 9, 2013
Newly hired, new to civilian police work, former military policeman Ellis Crawford is just killing time being the new police chief in a small NC town, (population 4000+).  His current plans are  to stay in this job just long enough to get some civilian law enforcement experience on his resume and hopefully allow his leg some more healing time.  He is still having problems managing the pain of a very serious leg injury that he received in a middle east embassy war bombing.Chief Crawford is pretty bored in his current position; however, he is trying to do a good job while learning the politics of this small town while fulfilling his job requirements.  He decides to read some old case files to become more aware of past crimes and/or problems.  He comes across a cold case file that really piques his interest.  It involves local unsolved murders that all happened just before Christmas.  The first one was four years prior and there has been one each year since.  They happened in ascending order starting on December 21st.  Crawford  begins connecting the dots and suddenly......bingo.  He finds the connection and immediately realizes that there will be another murder on Christmas Day.....unless he can prevent it.  The story is easy reading and holds the reader's attention from start to finish.Jingle Bells Shotgun Shells is the first book in the Ellis Crawford series.  I just finished this book and immediately started the second in the series.  Annis Ward Jackson is one of my favorite authors, and I love her Rachael Myers series.  Her characters and scenery are so well described and portrayed that I feel like I can see the trees, smell the flowers and see each player in the story.  Hm, I wonder if Rachael Myers and Sheriff Crawford will ever meet.  Could be an interesting twist to both series!