Christmas Stalkings, published in 1991, was the second Christmas short story anthology edited by Charlotte MacLeod. All of the stories in the book appeared in print for the first time in this book. This week I finished reading all the stories in that book.
In my original post on several short stories in Christmas Stalkings, I noted that the stories in the book had been described as mostly dark. These two stories are on the lighter, cozier side and I enjoyed them very much.
"The Fabulous Nick" by Mickey Friedman
In this story, the real Santa Claus gets a letter from a child saying: "I hate you! Stay away from us!" It is signed by Jason T. McGuire. The address is in Greenwich Village in New York City. Nick, as Santa is called in this story, decides to go undercover in Jason's neighborhood and see why Jason hates him so much. It turns out that Jason's father was arrested for stealing valuable jewels in another apartment in the same building that they live in and is in jail. The family has no way to get him out on bail, so he will still be in jail over Christmas, although his family is sure he is innocent. Nick decides to investigate further. He introduces himself to Jason's mother as Nick Santos, a chimney specialist who has come to work on the chimneys in the apartment building. He then talks to several people who live in the building as he works on their chimneys. Santa Claus is a pretty good investigator in this story.
Mickey Friedman is a new author to me. Her mystery novels were published in the 1980s. There are reviews on Publisher's Weekly, and there was a review of Hurricane Season in 1001 Midnights, edited by Bill Pronzini and Marcia Muller. (See this post at MysteryFile.) When I looked the author up on Fantastic Fiction, the mysteries attributed to Mickey Friedman showed up under another name, Michael Jan Friedman, along with a lot of science fiction novels. On Goodreads, the mystery novels show up under two names: Mickey Friedman and Michaela Thompson (which I believe is correct). If anyone else reading this has more information, I would love to hear about this author.
"Fruitcake, Mercy, and Black-eyed Peas" by Margaret Maron
I saved this story for last because it was one of my favorite stories in the book, AND because it can be considered a New Year's Day story, and I don't run into those very often.
In this story, Marnolla Faison, a middle-aged black woman who lives in Dobbs, North Carolina, has been arrested for shoplifting, and not for the first time. She called Deborah Knott, a lawyer she has known for many years, to bail her out. She was arrested for stealing diapers and there are mitigating factors. Billy Tyson, owner of the Bigg Shopp where Marnolla had perpetrated her crime, is not in any mood to be talked out of pressing charges, as he had in the past.
This story was the least-crime related in this book, if I remember correctly. Yes, there is a crime, but it is not serious. The story is more about the people involved in and connected to the shoplifting incident, and community relations.
In addition to the fact that this story addresses some social issues in a sensitive and humorous way, I love this story because it ends with a New Year's Day dinner featuring black-eyed peas. It is a tradition in the South to eat black-eyed peas on the first day of the year for luck during the coming year. My husband cooks Hoppin' John, a dish containing black-eyed peas, every year on New Year's Day.
Margaret Maron wrote two mystery series. My favorite books by her are from the Sigrid Harald series, about a female New York City police detective who has to deal with the obstacles of being a woman in a male profession in the 1980s. The first book, One Coffee With, was published in 1981.
Maron's series starring Judge Deborah Knott was her most well-known series, and is set in North Carolina. The story in this book features Deborah Knott before she became a judge, and was written before the first book in that series was published in 1992.
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