Another Christmas Review:

The Santa Shop by Tim Greaton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The Santa Shop (an endearing store that so echoed my husband's own devotion to making wooden toys) held my attention and kept me wondering what would happen next. The beginning seems to be a haunting of sorts, which is not fully explained until the end of the story.

The existence of the homeless in our cities is explored through the eyes of a man who has lost his wife and infant son in a tragic Christmas Eve fire. His guilt in not being with them that night ends his successful career and leaves him homeless and wandering, seemingly purposeless and yet feeling destined to make amends for his perceived fault in their deaths.

The settings of an upstate New York urban area, with the callous attitudes of regular people toward irregular people is balanced by the kindness of the rural small village population in far northern Vermont. This stereotypical portrayal of people in cities is somewhat balanced by the character who cares for the homeless in her own tough way, but it seems not quite enough, which is why I rated this one four stars.

Great use of language, very few typos, and a storyline that somehow fit the season. It seems that there are other titles that are linked to this book at Amazon. The author is sometimes called "the other Maine author."

You can find The Santa Shop at Amazon as a ninety-nine cent Kindle book. I am glad I took the time to read this story.





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