"A fun read"

George Garrison and Mary Oliver invite Sam, Kevin, and Stan to attend their Christmas Eve wedding in Snowdon, Maine. However, due to the weather, Logan Airport and New England and Upstate New York air travel is shut down. Navy Commander Sam Merrick, Private eye Kevin Wilder, and retired football superstar Stan Kjewski learn the only transportation to Maine is with the "Santa Brigade", a senior citizen tour group providing good cheer to shelters and orphanages.

Sam finds his high school girlfriend Reba Anderson runs the program. Kevin sees the opportunity to take prisoner Callie Brandt to law enforcement officials while making the wedding. Stan wants to meet forester Dana Freeman and sees hitching with the geriatric set as an opportunity to do so.

HERE COMES SANTA CLAUS is not an anthology though three talented writers collaborate on the tale with their own lead characters. Instead the story line alternates between the three pairs so that time and events are seen from different perspectives. The amazing thing about this joint endeavor is that none of the authors trip over the subplots and characters of their partners, but instead blend their contribution cleverly with the other two tales. Sandra Hill, Kate Holmes, Trish Jensen hold up their end of the tale so that readers obtain an amusing taut pre-holiday treat in which the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted October 5, 2001

Original issue October 2001

Summary

The three bad-boy bachelors of Snowdon, Maine, have to make it to the church on time, or die trying. Due at a friend's wedding on Christmas Eve, the Fearsome Threesome find themselves dashing through the snow in the goofiest bus on Earth--a bright red vehicle filled with a bunch of senior citizens known as The Santa Brigade. Ho, ho, ho! Decked out in red and serving up holiday cheer to the masses, a Blue Angels pilot, a bounty hunter, and a former pro football player discover 'tis the season for folly as each trips over his heart to capture the love of the one special woman for him. And who is to say what they'll find nestled in their beds as the stockings are stuffed and the gifts placed under the tree.