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D. Alan Lewis is a native of Chattanooga, Tennessee who now resides in Nashville with his children. He has been writing and illustrating technical guides and manuals for various employers for over twenty years but only in recent years has branched out in to writing fiction. In 2006, Alan took the reins of a Novelists Group where he has been working to teach and aid aspiring writers.
Alan's debut novel, The Blood in Snowflake Garden was a finalist for the 2010 Claymore Award presented to the best unpublished murder mystery manuscript. He also has a number of short stories published as well as other projects in the works.
Reviewed by Fiona Ingram for Readers' Favorite
Do you believe in Santa? In an alternative universe the North Pole is not the enchanting frosted Christmas card place everyone would like it to be. In this reality, the North Pole is an industrial complex of dingy factories, churning out masses of toys. Elves have no rights and are basically the worker ants of society; not many reindeer can fly and those that can are worked every inch of their short lives. And as for Santa, think again. Santa is a grief-stricken, guilt-ridden, sentimental old drunk who has let the reins of command slip from his hands. His territory is riven with racism, human/elf conflict, labor problems and worker revolts, and a faltering economy. While Santa surveys his life through the bottom of a bottle, power has surreptitiously been transferred to a shadowy figure, someone who has other ideas for the North Pole, including contracts with major U.S. armaments manufacturers.
Detective Max Sneed is dragged out of retirement when Vlad Volsky, the much-loved Premier of gun-free North Pole City, is mysteriously shot to death in Snowflake Garden. He is joined in his investigations by Robert Watson, a journalist for a London newspaper, who is keen to help Max untangle the intricacies of this far from simple murder. The novel echoes the political turmoil of the sixties, in a different kind of Cold War with Santa being the victim of McCarthyism and banned from U.S. airspace for his so called Communist tendencies--delivering toys to children in Russia and the Eastern Bloc countries!
The author succeeds admirably in creating a kind of parallel universe in which the reader can totally believe. The politics, internal bickering, dissatisfaction, dark secrets, and failed lives and loves all serve to enhance the image of a truly dystopian fairy-tale gone horribly wrong. The various characters have complex motives and underlying reasons for their strange behavior. This includes Santa, who might just be the murderer. Max Sneed and Robert Watson find themselves in a veritable labyrinth of conflicting facts and stories. The main characters are well-rounded and believable. They also share a common dark history in which the seeds of the current situation were planted many years ago. The author uses several flashbacks to introduce this back story but I felt this device bogged the pace down in places. The author has a mordant wit and uses black humor and satire to highlight the sad reality behind the tinsel empire. An enjoyable, thought-provoking read for detective novel fans looking for a different kind of murder.
