I fell into Christmas mysteries — mostly cozies, a couple traditional — this year early in December. And it just occurred to me there might be others who would like a scary, fun read to take them through the twelve days of Christmas. I would rate these books collectively as two-gun stories on my personal violence rating scale. (I consider two-guns no scarier than “Murder She Wrote” episodes on TV. Learn more on my “about” page.”)
So here are the books I think were fun listed in no particular order. Several years ago, while I was commuting a couple of hours each day, I switched my reading habits from paper to audio so I have listened to most of these. Only occasionally does a book seem to call me to see the pages, perhaps to see how a name or town is spelled, or to see how an author manages multiple timelines or characters. None of these required that.
I read a few of these a couple of years ago, but I figured I’d include the whole list. And I’m grouping series and authors together. Learn more about the authors via the links embedded in their names.
Andrews is a meticulous writer with a sense of humor, evident in more than her pun-filled titles.
How the Finch Stole Christmas (2017): This is the 22nd in Andrews’ Meg Lansglow series. In this, a theatrical presentation of Dicken’s A Christmas Carol is marred by murder, rare animal smuggling and the vagaries of a renowned, but alcoholic, visiting actor brought in to headline the fundraising show by playing Scrooge. The twists are many.
Owl be Home for Christmas (2019): I read this one a couple of Decembers ago during another Christmas cozy binge. The 26th entry in the Lansglow series finds a “parliment” of ornithologists gathered for a conference hosted by Meg’s grandfather. The main topic, of course, is owls. But as usual, murder intrudes on this gathering of international experts and threatens to derail all plans to get home for the holidays. Is it a local villain? Or an international murderer?
The grande dame of crime writing, at least in many lists, has seasonal favorites, many of which I’ve read more than once.
Midwinter Murders (2020): This is a fairly new compliation of several of Christie’s short stories. As an introduction, the volume opens with a little Christmas reflection from Christie. In the stories, Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, and Tommy and Tuppence — all my favorite Christie detectives — make appearances. The stories are from the 1920s and 1930s. They include, among others, “Three Blind Mice,” “The Mystery of the Baghdad Chest,” and “The Mystery of Hunter’s Lodge.”
Hercule Poirot’s Christmas (A Holiday for Murder) (1938): A multi-millionaire who invites Poirot to join his family at, of course, his country estate falls victim to murder on Christmas Eve. Is the killer his black sheep son? His orphaned granddaughter? His deceased son’s business partner? Someone else in the mansion? In this tale, Christie unveils several false identities as Poirot detects the real murderer.
The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding (1960): In this story, a rare jewel is hidden and found, a murder takes place and the victim disappears, and on Christmas Eve, Poirot is warned away from the next day’s plum pudding by “ONE WHO WISHES YOU WELL.” During Christmas dinner, one of the guests pulls out not a plum, but the missing ruby. Who is the thief? And what happened to the dead body? Poirot knows.
Carlisle writes romance novels (I haven’t read any), as well as two mystery series, of which my personal favorite is her Bibliophile Mysteries.
The Twelve Books of Christmas (2023): This new book is the 17th Bibliophile Mystery from Carlisle. In it, book restorer Brooklyn Wainwright and her security specialist husband Derek Stone, leave their warm California home to visit friends in Scotland who plan wed during the holidays. Naturally, murders derail the original plans as Derek tries to suss out the killer while Brooklyn searches for a dozen volumes missing from their hosts’ library. Add some chains and screaches in the old Scottish castle and you have a great holiday haunting.
Delany is another author who writes multiple series. I had a chance to meet her at Bouchercon in Toronto a few years ago and she was decked out in a Holmes-style deer stalker cap and carried a meerschaum pipe. She’s and unabashed Sherlockian and sprinkles the great detective throughout her stories. She’s also another writer who enjoys a punny title.
These books are all from her series The Year Round Christmas set in the fictional, upstate Rudolph, New York. I read the first couple as soon as I discovered them at my local library. I finished them off in my binge this December.
Dying in a Winter Wonderland (2020): In this tale, our protaganist Merry Wilkinson is surprised by a visit from a bride-to-be who wants Merry to help decorate her wedding. But the wedding has been moved up dramatically, rushing everyone’s participation. When the future groom is found murdered, and Merry’s brother, Chris, is a suspect, the wedding fades from importance.
Silent Night, Deadly Night (2019): When a pre-Thanksgiving gathering of Merry’s mother’s college friends turns deadly, Merry must find the killer before her mother becomes a victim. Before she can do that, Merry has to cut through the constant bicker of the old friends — maybe the original frenemies — and find out how this group of women have stayed tied together for nearly 40 years.
Hark the Herald Angels Slay (2017): In Rudolph, New York, they celebrate Christmas twice a year. In July, when Santa arrives by boat to commence a brief vacation, the fun is cut short when Merry discovers a dead body in the office of her gift boutique, Mrs. Claus’s Treasures. But it’s not just any dead body. It’s her ex-fiance and former co-worker at an upscale lifestyle magazine.
We Wish You A Murderous Christmas (2016): An old-style, Rudolph, hostelry — the Yuletide Inn — is being considered by a franchise group that could strip it of its charm — and fire local employees — with cost-saving measures. The change could not only harm the inn, but there is also talk of bringing in a big box store, which could derail the local economy and close some of the town’s locally-owned stores. When the inn owner’s son is murdered, Merry must untangle the threads leading to his killer.I’ll
Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen (2015): In this first of the five-book series, we meet Merry Wilkinson as her shop’s Christmas parade float is sabatoged. We also learn of her past at the lifestyle magazine, the reasons she returned to her hometown of Rudolph, and watch as she renews her friendship with her high school beau, even as a new love interest enters her life. But there is a murderer in the mix, and Merry’s best friend, the baker Vicky, is a prime suspect.
Francis Duncan was the penname of British author William Underhill. As Duncan, he wrote more than 20 detective mysteries in the Golden Era tradition. This isn’t as humorous as some cozies, but it isn’t humor that defines cozies. It’s lack of grapic violence, among other things.
Murder for Christmas (1949): The 4th in the amateur detective Mordecai Tremaine series. Invited to a country estate at Christmas, the letter includes a note from the owner’s secretary who fears trouble is coming. At midnight on Christmas Eve, Tremaine and the others find the body of someone dressed like Father Christmas under the tree. Tremaine is an interesting, old-time character. He is a retired tobacconist who likes solving mysteries and reading romances. This is definitely a traditionally-styled murder in the manor story.
Fluke is an author many may know from the adaptations of her Hannah Swensen mysteries as Murder She Baked on the Hallmark Channel. But before the movies, there were the small-town mysteries in her many novels.
Sugar Cookie Murder (2004): One of the earliest of Fluke’s novels (sixth in the series), this one finds Hannah Swenson and much of her northern Minnesota community stranded during a snow storm in the community center during a holiday potluck. One resident brings his trophy-wife, a Vegas show girl, to the party that his ex-wife is also attending. During the storm, the new wife is discovered in the parking lot as falling snow is burying her and the antique cake knife lodged in her heart. Everyone at the gathering — well, not likely the kids — is a potential murderer and Hannah must discover who really did it. This is only the second of Fluke’s novels that I’ve read, and I thought it was a great little story with a fast time line.
I’ve read a few of the novels of the 16 in Bowen’s Her Royal Spyness series. I’ve found them all fun. The main character, Lady Victoria Georgiana Charlotte Eugenie, is distantly in line to the throne. But she’s so far down the line that Georgie starts out mostly broke and looking for ways to support herself. There are a few Christmas mysteries in the 16-book series.
God Rest Ye, Royal Gentlemen (2021): I read this mystery shortly after it came out as a book club pick. Lady Georgie is marking her first Christmas as a married woman at the Sandringham Estate “on assignment” from the Queen, who wants her to keep an eye on that unsavory American, Mrs. Simpson. Confounding the problems, there have also been recent accidents and deaths in the neighborhood. Georgie and her new hubby, Darcy, find themselves in mortal danger.
Jacqueline Frost (of course, it’s a pen name … for the prolific Julie Anne Lindsey), writes the Christmas Tree Farm Mysteries that share the adventures of Holly White, who lives on her family’s tree farm in Mistletoe, Maine.
Stalking Around the Christmas Tree (2023): In this latest addition to the series, Holly is again planning a wedding. This time her fiance, Sheriff Evan Gray, will turn up. But nothing runs smoothly at Reindeer Games Farm in December. This time, after Mistletoe schedules multiple performances of The Nutcracker ballet, plans go awry when the prima ballerina turns up dead inside a “snow globe” float in the Christmas parade. Holly must uncover the ballerina’s past to find suspects, then narrow down the field to the murder. All before her wedding march begins.
Slashing Through the Snow (2021): An important B&B reviewer turns up dead at the new Reindeer Games Tree Farm Inn, and Holly must dig through an avalance of suspects to find out who really murdered the woman with a metal nutcracker. Was it Cookie, who gave the nutcracker to Holly? Or Libby, the sheriff’s sister who is clearly hiding something? Could it be rival reporter Ray, contractor Christopher, or bonbon-maker Bonnie? Holly must find out.
‘Twas the Knife Before Christmas (2018): A dead body is poorly concealed in a giant bowl of peppermint candy and Holly’s best friend, Caroline, is the suspect this time. Why? The murder weapon is an kitchen knife engraved with Caroline’s initials. In her second Christmas at the tree farm, Holly is also busy creating holiday jewelry for sale, sweetening her relationship with the sheriff, and dodging a Santa Claus-dressed stalker, all while trying to clear her friend of the murder.
Twelve Slays of Christmas (2017): Stood up by her fiance just two weeks before their planned Christmas Eve wedding, Holly returns home to find her father a prime suspect in the stabbing death of a Mistletoe socialite. The weapon? A wooden stake used to mark trees on the farm. Never doubting her father’s innocence, Holly sets out to find the real murderer, putting herself at risk along the way.
Canadian-born and US-naturalized author, MacLeod has
Rest You Merry (1978): This was the debut of MacLeod’s Peter Shandy series. Balaclava Agricultural College Professor Shandy finally succumbs to peer pressure and lights his home for the holidays. Then he leaves the strobe-like displays for his neighbors and heads out of town. But when he returns to a darkend house, he finds a campus librarian dead in his living room. At the request of college leadership, he uses his research skills to find out what really happened while he was gone.
Happy holiday reading!
hey, I just read this book ... 