Download or read book The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries written by Otto Penzler and published by Vintage Crime/Black Lizard. This book was released on 2013-10-22 with total page 674 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Edgar Award-winning editor collects sixty of his all-time favorite holiday crime stories—from Arthur Conan Doyle and Thomas Hardy, to Sara Paretsky and Ed McBain. • “Anyone who cares about the best mystery writing of the past century and beyond would be lucky to receive this thick volume during the holidays." —The Washington Post This collection touches on all aspects of the holiday season, and all types of mysteries. They are suspenseful, funny, frightening, and poignant. Included are puzzles by Mary Higgins Clark, Isaac Asimov, and Ngaio Marsh; uncanny tales in the tradition of A Christmas Carol by Peter Lovesey and Max Allan Collins; O. Henry-like stories by Stanley Ellin and Joseph Shearing, stories by pulp icons John D. MacDonald and Damon Runyon; comic gems from Donald E. Westlake and John Mortimer; and many, many more. Almost any kind of mystery you’re in the mood for--suspense, pure detection, humor, cozy, private eye, or police procedural—can be found in these pages. FEATURING: - Unscrupulous Santas - Crimes of Christmases Past and Present - Festive felonies - Deadly puddings - Misdemeanors under the mistletoe - Christmas cases for classic characters including Sherlock Holmes, Brother Cadfael, Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, Ellery Queen, Rumpole of the Bailey, Inspector Morse, Inspector Ghote, A.J. Raffles, and Nero Wolfe.

Download or read book One Christmas Mystery written by M. Christina Butler and published by Tiger Tales. This book was released on 2021-09-07 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It's almost time for the Little Hedgehog's Christmas party--but someone has taken ALL of the berries and pine cones in the woods that the friends were planning to use for decorations! Can Little Hedgehog and his friends figure out who it is? It's almost time for Little Hedgehog's Christmas party, and Little Hedgehog waits patiently for his friends to come over with the decorations. But when they get to his house, they're very upset! Someone has taken ALL of the holly berries and ALL of the pine cones in the woods, and now, there is nothing to decorate Little Hedgehog's house with. So the friends set out to see if they can figure out what's going on. Along the way, they find some very BIG footprints. Who could they belong to? Little Hedgehog and the other woodland animals are the best of friends! Their exciting adventures take them to different places in the forest and center around friendship, teamwork, determination, and gratitude. Each of the books in the Little Hedgehog & Friends series promotes being helpful, building a sense of community among friends and neighbors, and learning how to be a leader with a can-do attitude while working together to solve problems.

Download or read book The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding written by Agatha Christie and published by MB Cooltura. This book was released on 2023-06-27 with total page 111 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An oriental prince begins an affair in London with a girl of dubious reputation, to whom he gives an emblematic ruby that disappears along with the young woman. Hercule Poirot is summoned to retrieve it. Posing as a guest at the Lacey family home, the detective will share a traditional Christmas to follow the thieves' trail until he finds the valuable jewel.

Download or read book Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen written by Vicki Delany and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2015-11-03 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Rudolph, New York, it’s Christmastime all year long. But this December, while the snow-lined streets seem merry and bright, a murder is about to ruin everyone’s holiday cheer in the first Year-Round Christmas mystery. As the owner of Mrs. Claus’s Treasures, Merry Wilkinson knows how to decorate homes for the holidays. That’s why she thinks her float in the semi-annual Santa Claus parade is a shoe-in for best in show. But when the tractor pulling Merry’s float is sabotaged, she has to face facts: there’s a Scrooge in Christmas Town. Merry isn’t ready to point fingers, especially with a journalist in town writing a puff piece about Rudolph’s Christmas spirit. But when she stumbles upon the reporter’s body on a late night dog walk—and police suspect he was poisoned by a gingerbread cookie crafted by her best friend, Vicky—Merry will have to put down the jingle bells and figure out who’s really been grinching about town, before Vicky ends up on Santa’s naughty list…

Download or read book Twelve Slays of Christmas written by Jacqueline Frost and published by Crooked Lane Books. This book was released on 2017-10-10 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Holly White’s fiancé cancels their Christmas Eve wedding with less than two weeks to go, Holly heads home with a broken heart. Lucky for her, home in historic Mistletoe, Maine is magical during Christmastime—exactly what the doctor prescribed. Except her plan to drown her troubles in peppermints and snickerdoodles is upended when local grouch and president of the Mistletoe Historical Society Margaret Fenwick is bludgeoned and left in the sleigh display at Reindeer Games, Holly’s family tree farm. When the murder weapon is revealed as one of the wooden stakes used to identify trees on the farm, Sheriff Evan Grey turns to Holly’s father, Bud, and the Reindeer Games staff. And it doesn’t help that Bud and the reindeer keeper were each seen arguing with Margaret just before her death. But Holly knows her father, and is determined to exonerate him.The jingle bells are ringing, the clock is ticking, and if Holly doesn't watch out, she'll end up on Santa's naughty list in Twelve Slays of Christmas, Jacqueline Frost’s jolly series debut.

Download or read book Murder Most Festive written by Ada Moncrieff and published by Sourcebooks, Inc.. This book was released on 2021-10-12 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The perfect cozy Christmas murder mystery! Imagine being stuck indoors with your family, waiting for something to happen... and then disaster strikes. Christmas 1938. The Westbury family and assorted friends have gathered together for another legendary Christmas at their Sussex mansion. As family tensions simmer on Christmas Eve, the champagne flows, the silver sparkles and upstairs the bedrooms are made up ready for their occupants. But one bed will lie empty that night... Come Christmas morning, guest David Campbell-Scott is found lying dead in the snow, with only a hunting rifle lying beside him and one set of footprints leading to the body. But something doesn't seem right to amateur sleuth Hugh Gaveston. Campbell-Scott had just returned from the East with untold wealth—why would he kill himself? Hugh sets out to investigate... and what he finds is more shocking than he ever could have expected.

Download or read book A Christmas Carol Murder written by Heather Redmond and published by Kensington Books. This book was released on 2020-09-29 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this clever reimagining of Charles Dickens’s life, he and fiancée Kate Hogarth must solve the murder of an old miser, just before Christmas . . . London, December 1835: Charles and Kate are out with friends and family for a chilly night of caroling and good cheer. But their blood truly runs cold when their singing is interrupted by a body plummeting from an upper window of a house. They soon learn the dead man, his neck strangely wrapped in chains, is Jacob Harley, the business partner of the resident of the house, an unpleasant codger who owns a counting house, one Emmanuel Screws. Ever the journalist, Charles dedicates himself to discovering who's behind the diabolical defenestration. But before he can investigate further, Harley's corpse is stolen. Following that, Charles is visited in his quarters by what appears to be Harley's ghost—or is it merely Charles’s overwrought imagination? He continues to suspect Emmanuel, the same penurious penny pincher who denied his father a loan years ago, but Kate insists the old man is too weak to heave a body out a window. Their mutual affection and admiration can accommodate a difference of opinion, but matters are complicated by the unexpected arrival of an infant orphan. Charles must find the child a home while solving a murder, to ensure that the next one in chains is the guilty party . . . Praise for the Dickens of a Crime Mysteries! “Mystery fans and history buffs alike should cheer.” —KirkusSTARRED Review “Sharp, incisive, and delightfully twisty. I’m sure I won't be the only reader exclaiming, ‘What the Dickens?!’” —Anna Lee Huber, bestselling author. “As easy to read as one of Mr. Dickens’ actual novels and as entertaining.” —New York Journal of Books “Fans of Anne Perry will love this one.” —Dianne Freeman, award–winning author

Download or read book We Wish You a Murderous Christmas written by Vicki Delany and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2016-11-01 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A grinch is spoiling the holiday cheer and causing fear in the second Year-Round Christmas mystery from the author of Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen... It’s Christmastime three hundred sixty-five days a year in Rudolph, New York, and as Christmas Day approaches, shop owner Merry Wilkinson is enjoying a rare evening off at the Yuletide Inn when she runs into owners Grace and Jack Olsen. With Jack's health failing, Merry is relieved to hear that his son Gord will be taking over the day-to-day running of the Inn. But then Gord reveals that his new plans have no room for Christmas at the Inn, and Merry and the other shopkeepers start to fret about the effect a bland franchise hotel could have on their livelihoods. When Gord is found stabbed to death, there’s an entire town of potential suspects—and it’s up to Merry to find whoever brought homicide home for the holidays...

Download or read book Murder in Christmas River written by Meg Muldoon and published by . This book was released on 2012-12-09 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cinnamon Peters is one tough cookie. Every year at Christmas River's annual Gingerbread Junction Competition, pie baker extraordinaire Cinnamon aims to win, taking down any competitor who gets in her way. But when she finds a dead body in the woods behind her pie shop just days before the big competition, Cinnamon realizes that there's much more to worry about than cookies, frosting, and gumdrops. Someone's out to bring Cinnamon down. And they're playing dirty. Only Cinnamon and a mysterious stranger who walks into her life one snowy evening can figure out the mystery. But can they solve it before Cinnamon's chances of gingerbread competition glory crumble? The first book in the beloved best-selling cozy mystery series is full of Christmas spirit, humor, and heart.

Download or read book Twas the Knife Before Christmas written by Jacqueline Frost and published by Crooked Lane Books. This book was released on 2018-11-13 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Christmas delight, ’Twas the Knife Before Christmas will charm the stockings off readers of Joanne Fluke and Leslie Meier. It’s out of the cupcake tin, into the fire for Holly White’s best friend, Caroline. Can Holly clear Caroline’s name in time to go caroling? When a body turns up in a larger-than-life candy bowl filled with peppermints on the town square, Holly White is horrified to learn her best friend Caroline is the main suspect. Everyone in town, including Mistletoe, Maine’s sheriff, saw Caroline fighting with the victim on the night of his death. Worse, a custom kitchen knife, engraved with Caroline's initials was found with him. Now, just ten days before Christmas, Holly’s up to her jingle bells in holiday shenanigans and in desperate need of a miracle. Juggling extra shifts at her family’s Christmas tree farm and making enough gingerbread jewelry to satisfy the crowd is already more than she can handle―and now she has to find time to clear her best friend of murder. Add in her budding relationship with the sheriff, and a personal stalker dressed as Santa Claus, and Holly’s ready to fly south until springtime. But her Sherpa-lined mittens come off when Caroline is taken into custody. Can Holly wrap up the case in time for Christmas...even after she gains the true killer’s attention? Find out in ‘Twas the Knife Before Christmas, Jacqueline Frost’s second pine-scented Christmas Tree Farm mystery.

Download or read book Silent Nights written by Martin Edwards and published by Sourcebooks, Inc.. This book was released on 2015-11-03 with total page 647 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mystery crime fiction written in the Golden Age of Murder "Like an assortment of presents under a Christmas tree, there's something for everyone in this Yule-themed reprint anthology in the British Library Crime Classics series from Edwards." —Publishers Weekly Christmas is a mysterious, as well as magical, time of year. Strange things can happen, and this helps to explain the hallowed tradition of telling ghost stories around the fireside as the year draws to a close. Christmas tales of crime and detection have a similar appeal. When television becomes tiresome, and party games pall, the prospect of curling up in the warm with a good mystery is enticing—and much better for the digestion than yet another helping of plum pudding. Crime writers are just as susceptible as readers to the countless attractions of Christmas. Over the years, many distinguished practitioners of the genre have given one or more of their stories a Yuletide setting. The most memorable Christmas mysteries blend a lively storyline with an atmospheric evocation of the season. Getting the mixture right is much harder than it looks. This book introduces of readers to some of the finest Christmas detective stories of the past. Martin Edwards' selection blends festive pieces from much-loved authors with one or two stories which are likely to be unfamiliar even to diehard mystery fans. The result is a collection of crime fiction to savor, whatever the season.

Download or read book Murder at an Irish Christmas written by Carlene O'Connor and published by Canelo. This book was released on 2021-09-13 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Murder rearranges the Yuletide carols into unexpected eulogies... The O’Sullivans are spending Christmas in West Cork with brother James’s fiancée Elise’s family, including her grandfather, the famous orchestral conductor Enda Elliot. When they learn everyone will choose a name from a hat to buy a music-related Christmas gift for someone else at the gathering, it seems like their greatest concern–until the cantankerous conductor is discovered crushed under a ninety-pound harp in a local concert hall. With the extended family–including Enda’s much-younger new wife Leah, a virtuoso violinist–suspected in his murder, it’s up to Siobhán to ensure the guilty party faces the music. But as a snowstorm strands both families in a lavish farmhouse on a cliff, Siobhán had better pick up the tempo–before the killer orchestrates another untimely demise... A charming Christmas cosy mystery, perfect for fans of Margaret Mayhew and Dee Macdonald.

Download or read book Christmas Sweets written by Joanne Fluke and published by Kensington Cozies. This book was released on 2019-10-29 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gathered in one delightful volume time, here are three yuletide tales of mystery, murder, and romance, featuring your favorite sleuths . . . THE TWELVE DESSERTS OF CHRISTMAS by JOANNE FLUKE It’s the perfect mix of naughty and nice when two lovestruck boarding school teachers watch six kids over Christmas break. But when someone wants the cozy couple’s romance to burn out faster than a scorched fruitcake, it’s Hannah Swensen to the rescue . . . NIGHTMARE ON ELF STREET by LAURA LEVINE Aside from the mortifying costume, how bad can a gig as a mall Santa’s elf be? Jaine Austen finds out when she’s teamed up with the Santa from Hell. But things go from bad to worse when he’s found murdered—and Jaine is suspected of being the naughty one . . . THE CHRISTMAS THIEF by LESLIE MEIER Elizabeth Stone is ready for a white Christmas in Tinker’s Cove, Maine—until a fancy Yule ball at the Florida hotel where she works dumps snow on her plans. The sponsor’s jewels have gone missing and the police are asking about her ties to a cute mystery guest. Good thing Elizabeth’s mother, Lucy Stone, flew down to surprise her . . . Includes Luscious Holiday Recipes!

Download or read book Murder for Christmas written by Thomas Godfrey and published by Mysterious Press. This book was released on 1988-12-01 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A holiday anthology for mystery fans highlights the works of such well-known favorites as Agatha Christie, Georges Simenon, Stanely Ellin, and Ellery Queen. Reissue.

Download or read book Bibliomysteries written by Otto Penzler and published by Pegasus Books. This book was released on 2018-08-14 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If you open your dictionary, you will discover that there is no such word as “bibliomystery.” However, most mystery readers know that the word refers to a mystery story that involves the world of books: a bookshop, a rare volume, a library, a collector, or a bookseller.The stories in this unique collection were commissioned by the Mysterious Bookshop. They were written by some of the mystery genre’s most distinguished authors. Tough guys like Ken Bruen, Reed Farrel Coleman, Loren D. Estleman, and Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins. Bestsellers like Nelson DeMille, Anne Perry, and Jeffery Deaver. Edgar winners such as C. J. Box, Thomas H. Cook, and Laura Lippman.Here you will discover Sigmund Freud dealing with an unwelcome visitor; Columbo confronting a murderous bookseller; a Mexican cartel kingpin with a fatal weakness for rare books; and deadly secrets deep in the London Library; plus books with hidden messages, beguiling booksellers, crafty collectors, and a magical library that is guaranteed to enchant you. The stories have been published in seven languages—one has sold more than 250,000 copies as an e-book, and another won the Edgar Allan Poe Award as the Best Short Story of the Year.Who knew literature could be so lethal!

Download or read book The Christmas Mystery written by James Patterson and published by Random House. This book was released on 2016-12-01 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: James Patterson’s BookShots. Short, fast-paced, high-impact entertainment. Two priceless paintings disappear from a Park Avenue murder scene – French detective Luc Moncrief is in for a not-so-merry Christmas.

Download or read book A Christmas Grace Christmas Novella 6 written by Anne Perry and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2010-11-25 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Some people will do anything to keep their secrets safe... In the sixth of Anne Perry's charming Christmas novellas, A Christmas Grace, a community learns to come to terms with a terrible event from its past. Perfect for fans of C. J. Sansom and Sarah Perry. '[A] heart-warming, if crime-tinged, complement to the holiday season' - Booklist Emily Radley's Christmas plans are shattered when she learns that her aunt is dying. Although estranged from her, Emily decides that she must journey to Susannah's home in Ireland to assist her in her final days. When she reaches Connemara though, it is evident that Susannah has more on her mind than her health. Then Daniel, the lone survivor of a ship wrecked in a violent storm, seeks refuge in Susannah's house. Determined to understand why the village is not welcoming its new arrival, Emily discovers strange parallels with the unsolved death of another young man, Connor, many years before. Susannah, desperate to find out what happened to Connor before she dies, urges Emily to investigate. And as she does, Emily learns that some people will do anything to keep their secrets safe. What readers are saying about Anne Perry's Christmas novellas: 'A delightful, gentle read to prepare you for Christmas... What more could a reader want?' 'Christmas would not be Christmas without a Perry novella' 'A great read, good to curl up with by the fire on a snowy day'