Bestselling thriller writer, Eric J. Gates, takes us down a different path with his reimagining of Dickens’ classic Christmas tale, A Christmas Carol. The cast of characters remains the same, however, the story has been updated to the present time. Scrooge, who now dabbles in bitcoin and the like, is still the miserly man we met in Dickens’ work, obsessed with amassing wealth to the exception of everything else. Marley, his senior partner in the bank, has been dead for seven years and Scrooge wants to know what secrets he has hidden in his locked room on the bank’s premises. Obtaining a drill and several bits from the local hardware, Ebenezer, who has been told he must destroy the inner workings of the lock to open the door, endeavors to drill into it. Of course, he is not adept at handling power tools and fails miserably in this task and must turn to his loyal, ever pleasant, employee, Bob Cratchit for help. Bob succeeds in destroying the lock, but still the door won’t open. Frustrated, Scrooge is then interrupted by visitors – a pair of attorneys hired seven years earlier by the late Mr. Marley. After confirming Scrooge’s identity through fingerprints and signing some forms, Ebenezer is presented with two keys – one which he assumes fits the lock he just had destroyed.

Thus, begins Ebenezer’s journey of discovery. However, the three spirits in this tale are not ghostly images. No, they are all connected in some way to, and revealed by, current technology such as holograms, reality headsets, and UBS pen drives.

This is a masterful and imaginative recreation of Dickens’ work and, although the story is familiar, updating it to present day gives the tale a new perspective and relevance, especially to younger readers. I thoroughly enjoyed Gates’ reimagining and can recommend it most highly to all who enjoy heartwarming holiday tales.