With her debut novel Are You Sleeping described by CrimeByTheBook.com as a work that blends “the compulsively-readable style of authors like Ruth Ware and Clare Mackintosh with a plot that captures the engrossing, very particular style of true-crime podcasts,” Kathleen Barber appears at the Moline Public Library on December 28, an event that will find the author and Galesburg native speaking on her career, her book's success, and its forthcoming adaptation into a 10-episode TV series.

Two rock ensembles – one from Missouri, one from Illinois – will appear as headliners in two local Moeller Nights concerts on December 21 and 22, with performances by the acclaimed garage-trio trio of Radkey preceding concerts with The Dawn, the latter group employing their Triple Crown Whiskey Bar & Raccoon Motel sets to record a new live album.

Amidst the joys and festivities of the season, it wouldn't be the holidays if they didn't also come complete with a hearty cry of “Bah, humbug!” And from December 14 through 22, Countryside Community Theatre will deliver that cry – along with messages of hope and wonder and scores of beautiful music – in the Boll's Community Center production of A Christmas Carol, the seasonal delight boasting music and lyrics by Danny White and a book by the show's director Tristan Tapscott.

Back-to-back evenings of improvisational comedy, delicious food and drink, and seasonal slaughter will soon be on the menu at Rock Island's Skellington Manor Banquet & Event Center, with the riotous talents of It's a Mystery Quad Cities opening their 2018-19 season with presentations of the interactive comedy-whodunnits A Model Murder on December 14 and Murder at Skuttlebutt Sound on December 15.