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New Holiday Mysteries

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The winter holidays are on the way. It's time to curl up and get into a festive mood with a new batch of Yuletide mysteries.

New Books

• A Cold Christmas by Charlene Weir, December 2001 - Caley James has three children, no money, a derelict house, an irresponsible ex-husband, and the flu. Not only that, but it's Christmas. When the furnace dies during Hampstead, Kansas' longest cold spell ever she thinks things can't get any worse, but then her youngest child finds the repairman's body in the basement. The case falls to Chief of Police Susan Wren whose officers are dropping like flies with the omnipresent flu. As Susan investigates, she learns that the victim, Tim Holiday, had only been in town for three months and no one knew much about him. Susan feels that the killer wanted him unrecognizable and then discovers that the victim also wanted to keep his identity a secret. Just who was Tim Holiday and why was he killed in Caley's basement? The story rises to a dramatic climax when Caley's oldest son Zack stumbles across his father giving a package to another man and becomes determined to uncover the truth.
• He Sees You When You're Sleeping by Mary Higgins Clark & Carol Higgins Clark, November 2001 - Meet Sterling Brooks. His was not an exemplary life -- he was too self-absorbed to ever really think about anyone else or make a commitment to the woman he loved. On the other hand, he had endearing qualities. His actual misdeeds were few -- his were sins of omission, not commission. It is a few days before Christmas. For forty-six years Sterling has lingered in the celestial waiting room outside the heavenly gates, awaiting summons by the Heavenly Council. Will he be deemed fit for entrance into heaven? At last the day comes and the council settles on a test for Sterling -- he will be sent back to earth and given an opportunity to prove his worthiness by helping someone else. Sterling Brooks finds himself in Manhattan, at the skating rink in Rockefeller Center. Among the skaters is a heartbroken seven-year-old named Marissa, and as Sterling soon realizes, it is she he has been sent to help. Marissa's sadness comes from her separation from the father she adores, a talented young singer, and her sparkling grandmother, owner of a popular restaurant. Both have been forced into the Witness Protection Program because two mobsters, the Badgett brothers, have put a price on their heads to prevent their testifying against them in an arson case. Sterling, able to move back and forth in time and place, masterminds a plan to eliminate the threat from the Badgett brothers and reunite Marissa with her loved ones.