As we all know, the holidays can be murder! Rushing about in crowded malls, making merry at office parties, and trying to get the holiday decorations out and up can be stressful. So pick out a good mystery, curl up in your favorite chair with a hot cup of tea or cocoa, and relax!
Don't have a lot of time to read? Try a collection of short stories and take a break, one story at a time.
- Holmes for the Holidays & More Holmes for the Holidays edited by Martin Greenberg - Fourteen and eleven Sherlock Holmes stories, respectively, set on or around the Yuletide by such authors as Anne Perry, Carole Nelson Douglas, Reginald Hill, & Bill Crider
- Mistletoe Mysteries edited by Charlotte MacLeod - A collection of Yuletide mysteries, including such authors as Mary Higgins Clark, Isaac Asimov, Peter Lovesey, Marcia Muller, and Aaron Elkins, and highlights such sleuths as Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, and Nero Wolfe.
- Silent Night edited by J.D. Robb - Nora Roberts, writing as J.D. Robb, has teamed with Claire Cross, Dee Holmes, & Susan Plunkett to produce four romantic suspense tales of holiday upheaval.
- Murder Most Merry edited by Garrison Allen - Mystery, mayhem, and murder provide a singular backdrop for the Christmas holidays in six short whodunits by Garrison Allen, Barbara Block, Toni L. P. Kelner, J. Dayne Lamb, James McCahery, and J. F. Trainor.
- Canine Christmas edited by Jeffrey Marks - Sixteen tales of Christmas, dogs and murder by authors Deborah Adams, Melissa Cleary, Jane Haddam, Jeremiah Healy, Virginia Lanier, & Anne Perry, to name a few.
- Sugarplum Dead (Death on Demand series) by Carolyn G. Hart - For a synopsis & book review, click here.
- Mistletoe Man (China Bayles series) by Susan Wittig Albert - This ninth China Bayles mystery is a cozy case of confused property lines that lead a couple of likable people into a confrontation that ends in murder. Unfortunately, the dead man was China's main supplier of mistletoe and Christmas is just around the corner. So China, her new husband, and her close friends investigate.
- Aunt Dimity's Christmas (Aunt Dimity series) by Nancy Atherton - Lori Shepherd can hardly wait to celebrate Christmas this year with her husband, Bill and twin sons in the beautiful cottage willed to her by Aunt Dimity. Then Lori makes a disturbing discovery beneath the cottage's snow-covered lilac bushes--the body of a mysterious stranger, barely alive. Lori must put her plans on hold to team up with Julian Bright--a devilishly attractive Roman Catholic priest--to seek out the tramp's identity. Their adventure takes Lori and Julian from abandoned World War II airfields to homeless shelters--places where the Christmas star shines dimly, if at all. Finally, Lori unveils the tragic secret that led the stranger to her door, and must confront painful truths about herself and the true meaning of a perfect family Christmas.
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