The 5th Annual Christmas Murder Mystery Thread

It's our fifth annual Christmas Murder Mystery Thread! Stop by and indulge in a holiday-themed read.

Here are some books participants read last year:



The Santa Klaus Murder, by Mavis Doriel Hay
There Came Both Mist and Snow, by Michael Innes
Silent Nights, ed. Martin Edwards
We Wish You a Murderous Christmas, by Vicki Delany
Twelve Days of Winter, by Stuart MacBride
A Christmas Beginning, by Anne Perry

Want more ideas? Here are some sources:

Previous threads:
2016 http://www.librarything.com/topic/241520
2015 http://www.librarything.com/topic/206112
2014 http://www.librarything.com/topic/183070
2013 http://www.librarything.com/topic/161380

The Christmas mystery section of Cozy-mystery.com (link provided by lindapanzo):
http://www.cozy-mystery.com/Holiday-Mystery-Books/Christmas-Mystery-Book-List.ht....

The LibraryThing tagmash for Christmas mysteries:
http://www.librarything.com/tag/Christmas,+mystery

But we’re not just about Christmas mysteries here on the Christmas mystery group read! (Why would we stick to those parameters?!) If you have unread Christmas gifts – whether they be books people picked for you or those bought with gift cards or holiday cash – take this opportunity to read them before you get more book gifts.

I don't currently have any Christmas mysteries lined up, but I might read one of my oversized books that I've received in Christmases past. Or I'll read my third play of the year: Dark Road, by Ian Rankin.

I am not sure exactly what I am going to read. I have both Murder for Christmas and The Santa Klaus Murder on my Kindle but I also have Ice Harvest by Scott Phillips on my shelves and I see that it is tagged as being set at Christmas so I will be reading at least one of those.

I just borrowed A Little Yuletide Murder from Overdrive, so I'll be reading that soon. I've also got Montana Secret Santa on my Kindle, so I may read that as well.

I think I'll probably read another Anne Perry or Eleven Pipers Piping by C.C. Benison.

Woo! I have The Santa Klaus Murder but it's packed away. I'll try to find it soon. I'm also reading for a RL book club, 2 am at the Cat's Pajamas which takes place on Christmas Eve.

Thanks for hosting this RP

1> Thanks for running this challenge again!

I plan to read The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding by Agatha Christie. (Only the first story, of the same title, has a Christmas theme, but I'll read the entire collection anyhow.)

I'm also thinking of Murder for Christmas by Francis Duncan or A Christmas Party by Georgette Heyer.

I have two books that look like they work:

Death of an Englishman and The Cornish Coast Murder.

I'll try to get to at least one of them!

Thanks for doing this again RP!

I couldn't find the Stuart MacBride book in any of the state ILL libraries so I ended up picking up two Anne Perry books A Christmas Guest and A Christmas Secret when I went by the library earlier.

It's my pleasure to host this challenge! It is a nice low-key way to get into the Christmas season.

I've had a look through my books that are tagged as having been Christmas presents, and I think I'll re-read and review Sherlock: The Casebook, by Guy Adams, which is a Christmas present from 2012! (I did tear through it on Christmas itself, but I should read through it again before reading the more thorough Sherlock: Chronicles, by Steve Tribe.)

Thank you, RP, for again hosting this thread! It's weird, but I love reading murder mysteries at Christmas, and obviously I'm not alone. I'll be looking for lots of BBs to collect for Christmas 2018.

This year I'll be finishing off my categories with these Christmassy reads:
61 Hours by Lee Child
Smoke and Mirrors by Elly Griffiths
An English Murder by Cyril Hare
The Mistletoe Murder and other stories by P.D. James
A Christmas Garland by Anne Perry

and, these UNmysterious Christmas books:
Ten Days of Christmas by G.B. Stern
Christmas at Thompson Hall by Anthony Trollope
Snowfall in Burracombe by Lillian Harry

Of course, I'll be doing my annual re-read of Frederick Forsyth's excellent Christmas story, The Shepherd.

I think Silent Nights is the book sitting next to my bed I intended to read last night but didn't finish. I may have read one or two stories. Hopefully I'll read it this year. I'm sure I'll manage another Christmas mystery or two. The new Rhys Bowen one is at the library, if I manage to get my hands on it.

The Crown Derby Plate: A Christmas Ghost Story by Marjorie Bowen is my pick for my Horror! Group. I knew it was a ghost story but had not made the Christmas connection because I didn't write down the subtitle. Perfect!

>11 VivienneR: - I've got a couple of the Lilian Harry series on ebook which are not part of the series - they seem to have been published between #9-10, including one called A Burracombe Christmas. None of the libraries here in RI have any of the series so maybe I'll get some when I have my next Thingaversary.

>14 dudes22: Great idea and you don't have long to wait for your next Thingaversary!

I'm planning to read Homicide for the Holidays by Cheryl Honigford, assuming it comes in from the library on time! I also have Francis Duncan's Murder for Christmas on deck, but I may not get to it this year. Oh well, there's always 2018! :)

I finished A Little Yuletide Murder today and was pretty disappointed in it all around. It may have revolved around the murder of "Santa Claus," but it could barely be described as a Christmas story. And as cozy mysteries go, it was mediocre at best. Not one of my favorite Murder She Wrote novels.

I'm definitely going to have to find a better selection to put me more in a Christmas mood, because this one left me feeling more grinchy than anything else.

>16 christina_reads: Christina, every year I pull my Christmas "stories" down from the shelves, or key them up for the Kindle, but every year I never get to them all. I am a total sucker for buying Christmas mysteries and other stories, so lucky for me that books are so patient. :)

>18 DeltaQueen50: I like to keep a few Christmas mysteries on the shelf - for emergencies, don't you know! It would be a sorry day if I was heading into December with no Christmas mysteries.

>17 virginiahomeschooler: Too bad that one didn't deliver.

I haven't done this Christmas mystery month in the past and am thinking I will give it a go this year. I've done a bit of a search and come up with 2 potentials.
1- Jane and the 12 days of Christmas by Stephanie Barron
2- Murder on St Nicholas Avenue by Victoria Thompson
They are both rated fairly well on LT. I can get the Jane book on my kindle, but not the other one. I will check my library but that may be the deciding factor.

I'm feeling rather Christmasy this year so will actually participate. I even have three books already lined up!

Mrs. Jeffries and the Three Wise Women by Emily Brightwell
Gone Before Christmas by Charles Finch
Twelve Slays of Christmas by Jacqueline Frost

I finished A Christmas Guest by Anne Perry. I like her quick Christmas mysteries set in Victorian England.

I finished a non-mystery Christmas book over the weekend: A Christmas Carol. Growing up with Mickey's Christmas Carol, I naturally had Scrooge McDuck in my head throughout ;)

I haven't quite finished yet, but The Mistletoe Murder and other stories by P.D. James was very enjoyable. I'm not a fan of short stories but with James as the author it's a sure thing.

Absolutely loved Mrs. Jeffries and the Three Wise Women - it was a nice continuation in the series and let some of the other characters shine a bit.

I should finish a Christmas book this evening. I'll be back when I do.

I finished The Crown Derby Plate: A Christmas Ghost Story by Marjorie Bowen. I'm currently reading 2 a.m. at the Cat's Pajamas by Marie-Helene Bertino.

>27 thornton37814: Oops - the one I finished wasn't a murder mystery. What was I thinking? Well, I did finish a Christmas book. Now to get back to reading Christmas books.

>29 thornton37814: No worries! I counted my Christmas book for this thread ;) And books received as Christmas gifts in previous years count as well!

I finished The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding by Agatha Christie featuring Hercule Poirot. It's the first short story in the collection of the same name. I listened to a full-cast audio production of the story, which included a lot of audio effects, including carollers singing in the background.

I've just started Murder for Christmas by Francis Duncan.

I've also finished A Christmas Secret by Anne Perry

Return of the Magi by P.J. Tracy landed unexpectedly in my inbox. Not really a murder mystery, but a fun read. I gave it 3.6 stars.

Read a couple of books recently - Twelve Slays of Christmas and Gone Before Christmas both which hit the spot.

I finished Murder for Christmas by Francis Duncan, which I enjoyed very much. Next up is Winter of Secrets by Vicki Delaney.

I have started Das Geheimnis der Pineta (An Enigma by the Sea) by Fruttero & Lucentini, an Italian Christmas mystery set in Tuscany.

I finished Silent Nights: Christmas Mysteries edited by Martin Edwards. It's a mixture of thefts and murders. I liked the murders best.

I also read several non mystery Christmas books:
An Avalon Christmas by Darien Gee
Remembering Christmas by Dan Walsh
A Vicarage Christmas by Kate Hewitt

I guess I'll see if I make it to any others before the month ends.

I picked up Jane and the Twelve Days of Christmas from the library and am hoping to finish it tonight. It has been very entertaining. Even though it is the 12th book in the series and I have read none of the others I am still enjoying it. Plus I am liking the cultural education of living in the early 1800s.

If anyone's looking for a mystery that happens to be set around Christmas but is not a "Christmas mystery", the main crime in The Distant Echo, by Val McDermid, takes place just before Christmas holidays.

I finished Jane and the Twelve Days of Christmas. It turned out to be a double murder!! Shock and horror! A fun Christmassy read.

Just finished Merry merry ghost by Carolyn G. Hart a cute cozy Christmas mystery with the fashion-conscious ghost of Bailey Ruth Raeburn as sleuth or at least leading the investigators in the right direction. A bit long and repetitive, with little Christmas flavour although Bailey Ruth was kind of fun.

I completely jumped on The Crime at the Noah's Ark bandwagon and loved it. Also finished a quick novella that isn't a mystery but is set at Christmas time - The Deal of a Lifetime by Fredrik Backman.

Just finished A Christmas Garland by Anne Perry. An unusual Christmas story, set as the British Raj begins in India. A soldier is killed and an Indian prisoner escapes leaving the only person around, a medic, obviously guilty. Lieutenant Narraway is ordered to defend the orderly in a trial where the verdict has already been decided.

I enjoyed this even more than Perry's usual Victorian Christmas stories.

Another good one:

Smoke and Mirrors by Elly Griffiths

I love this series that takes place in 1950s Brighton and is reminiscent of the Golden Age mysteries because of the setting, the era, and the lack of modern investigation techniques. This time the plot takes place in winter while Mephisto is appearing in a pantomime, a traditional element of an English Christmas. Pantomime is different to any other type of production and Griffiths' story illustrates a typical performance and reception. Despite the fact that the victims are children, this is an entertaining mystery, not horrifying. Recommended.

Time for one more so I am just starting Mystery in White by J. Jefferson Farjeon.

And of course I'll be doing my annual re-read of The Shepherd by Frederick Forsyth on Christmas Eve.

I have finished The Ice Harvest by Scott Phillips. This story takes place on Christmas Eve, but it is a Christmas you don't want to have. The story is dark but humorous and it can be rather nasty at times. I really liked it, but I can see that it would put some people off.

I finished Das Geheimnis der Pineta (An Enigma by the Sea) by Fruttero & Lucentini. Unfortunately this was not the right book for me.