The Knives Before ChristmasThe Knives Before Christmas

"Holiday emporium owner Thomas Nast isn't your typical guy. His Victorian-era home is sentient with a 13-foot guard alligator named Tinsel living in its walls. A mostly invisible--and mischievous--elf named Peppermint reluctantly serves his every whim. And he just happens to be the next in line to become the real-life Santa Claus. Until that happens, however, Tom spends his days helping the people--and frequent tourists--of Christmas, Florida, with all their Christmas and other holiday needs. That is, of course, until he walks into his store one morning to find the body of a man dressed in full Santa costume--a man reviled by almost everyone in town--who's been stabbed multiple times with a pocketknife identical to six custom jobs Tom had given to his closest friends a few years earlier. With Tom's young assistant, Trixie McNamara, in police crosshairs as the prime suspect, Tom is forced to dig up the dirt on his friends, a nasty town spinster, and a semi-retired mobster to prove Trixie's innocence. But as he investigates the murder, Tom will find himself in the crosshairs of an altogether different kind if he's not careful...and Santas-in-Training, he knows, can die just like anyone else"--