Reading Lists - Twelve Days of Christmas - Mystery 3

Shakespeare’s Christmas by Charlaine Harris

While attending her sister's wedding the cleaning lady and karate expert, Lily Bard of Arkansas, investigates an unsolved kidnapping which occurred eight years earlier. It seems both the child and the kidnapper are in town.

Silent Night by Robert B. Parker (new!)

It's December in Boston, and Spenser is busy planning the menu for Christmas dinner when he's confronted in his office by a young boy named Slide. Homeless and alone, Slide has found refuge with an organization named Street Business, which gives shelter and seeks job opportunities for the homeless and lost. Slide's mentor is being threatened, and Street Business is in danger of losing its tenuous foothold in the community, turning Slide and many others like him back on the street.

The Snow White Christmas Cookie by David Handler

A blizzard-marked first Dorset Christmas for Des Mitry is overshadowed by the drug-related death of Mitch's neighbor, a shoplifting Kylie, and a mail thief whose activities are linked to a prescription drug gang.

Spirit of Steamboat by Craig Johnson (new!)

A holiday entry in the best-selling series finds Sheriff Walt Longmire making the acquaintance of a scarred young woman who raises questions about his predecessor while imparting the story of a tragic car accident during a blizzard that marked Walt's first year as sheriff.

The Spy Who Came for Christmas by David Morrell

As holiday celebrations take place in Santa Fe, Agent Paul Kagan is on the run with a baby the Russian mafia wants to destroy and turns to a mother and her young son for help during a violent night where they all must work together to keep the child safe from harm.

A Stillness in Bethlehem by Jane Haddam

Arriving in Bethlehem, New Hampshire, to witness the town's nativity play, FBI agent Gregor Demarkian and his friend, Father Tibor Kasparian, find their vacation plans postponed by murder most foul.

Sugar Cookie Murder by Joanna Fluke

During the Christmas party at Lake Eden's community center, Hannah Swensen stumbles upon a murder when Martin Dubinski's new wife, a former Las Vegas showgirl, is found dead with Hannah's mother's silver cake knife buried in her cleavage.

The Twelve Clues of Christmas by Rhys Bowen

While serving as an assistant to the hostess of a large Christmas house party in Tiddleton-under-Lovey, Georgie gets the attention of her retired detective grandfather after dead bodies begin showing up.

Twelve Drummers Drumming by C.C. Benison

Father Tom Christmas—recent widower and now single father—is the new vicar of the English village of Thornford Regis. He soon realizes that the idyllic village is not the refuge he'd hoped for when the 19-year-old daughter of the choir director is murdered and one of his parishioners appears to be the killer. This series first has been followed by Eleven Pipers Piping and Ten Lords A-Leaping, which came out this month.

Visions of Sugar Plums by Janet Evanovich

A holiday adventure finds Stephanie Plum struggling to remove an intruder from her apartment and falling for a mysterious newcomer.

Voices by Arnaldur Indriðason

The Christmas rush is at its peak in a grand Reykjavík hotel when Inspector Erlendur is called in to investigate a murder. The hotel Santa has been stabbed to death, and Erlendur and his fellow detectives find no shortage of suspects between the hotel staff and the international travelers staying for the holidays.

When Elves Attack by Tim Dorsey

Thrill killer and Sunshine State historian Serge A. Storms, the endearing psychopath, delivers his special brand of Christmas cheer. More outrageous than Santa Claus in a Speedo, this book serves up a Yuletide feast of "pure gonzo humor.” For fans of hilarious crime fiction black comedy.

Reading Lists - Twelve Days of Christmas - Mystery 2

The Holiday Grind by Cleo Coyle

Coffeehouse manager and head barista Clare Cosi and her NYPD detective boyfriend discover the snowy body of a man dressed up in a Santa suit, and become convinced the death was more than a mugging gone awry.

Holiday in Death by J.D. Robb

No one likes to be alone during the holidays. For New York's most posh dating service, Personally Yours, it is the season to bring lonely hearts together. But Lieutenant Eve Dallas, on the trail of a ritualistic serial killer, has made a disturbing discovery: all of the victims have been traced to Personally Yours.

I Am Half-Sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley

Colonel de Luce rents his beloved estate of Buckshaw to a film company, which will be shooting a movie over the Christmas holidays. The star is widely despised, so it is to no one's surprise when she turns up murdered, strangled by a length of film from one of her own movies! With a blizzard raging outside, the house is full of suspects. Flavia de Luce is more than ready to put aside her investigations into the existence of Father Christmas to solve this yuletide country-house murder.

Indigo Christmas by Jeanne M. Dams

Once a housemaid, Hilda Johansson is now living a well-to-do life with her new husband. She's having trouble finding friends, since she no longer fits into her old world and isn't accepted in the new one. Just before Christmas 1904, when the husband of her sole remaining friend is accused of theft, arson, and murder, Hilda has to find new ways of investigating a crime that seems to make no sense.

Kissing Christmas Goodbye by M.C. Beaton

Bored with the routine cases coming her way, Agatha Raisin finally gets an intriguing case after the poisoning death of a wealthy widow, Mrs. Tamworthy, who had sent Agatha a letter warning that she believed that someone in her family intended to kill her.

Merry Christmas, Alex Cross by James Patterson

It's Christmas Eve, and Detective Alex Cross is called away from his family to resolve a horrific hostage situation that is spiraling out of control.

Merry, Merry Ghost by Carolyn Hart

When a determined heir moves to block a wealthy woman's attempt to include her newly discovered grandson in her will, it is up to good-intentioned ghost Bailey Ruth Raeburn to protect a little boy, foil a murderer, and save Christmas.

Mistletoe and Murder by Carola Dunn

Traveling with her family to an old Cornish estate at Christmastime, writer Daisy Dalrymple Fletcher learns of the estate's lore, ghost stories, and resentments before discovering that a murderer is among her party.

A Rumpole Christmas by John Mortimer

This collection contains five holiday tales featuring the curmudgeonly barrister—"Rumpole and Father Christmas," "Rumpole's Slimmed Down Christmas," "Rumpole and the Boy," "Rumpole and the Old Familiar Faces," and "Rumpole and the Christmas Break.”

Santa Clawed by Rita Mae Brown

Harry and her husband have gone to fetch a Christmas tree at the tree farm run by The Brothers of Love, a semimonastic organization that tends to AIDS patients, when they find the tree they've chosen grimly decorated with a dead body. Can Harry, the sleuthing cats Mrs. Murphy and Pewter, and corgi Tee Tucker save the season from a killjoy who's decided to gift the festive little town of Crozet, Virginia, with murder?

Scarpetta’s Winter Table by Patricia Cornwell

Virginia's chief medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta and her friends and family come together for the holidays to cook and celebrate in a special novella that includes Christmas recipes and photographs.

Season’s Revenge by Henry Kisor

Tis the weeks before Christmas in Upper Peninsula, Michigan, but the normally sleepy woodland town is uncharacteristically alive with activity. When one of his small town's leading citizens is killed in an apparent bear attack, Lakota Deputy Sheriff Steve Martinez becomes suspicious and launches an unofficial investigation

Looking for even more holiday whodunnits? More to come on December 16!

Reading Lists - Twelve Days of Christmas - Mystery

The Alpine Winter by Mary Daheim

Christmas is anything but quiet in Alpine, Washington, after a body turns up in a cave and Emma Lord and her beau, Milo, are stalked by a killer.

Aunt Dimity’s Christmas by Nancy Atherton

Lori Shepard's well-laid plans for holiday bliss are shattered when a mysterious stranger collapses in the driveway of her English cottage before Christmas. She teams up with a handsome Roman Catholic priest to solve the riddle of this John Doe's identity.

Candy Cane Murder by Joanna Fluke, Laura Levine, and Leslie Meier

This collection of three holiday mysteries features fourteen Christmas recipes. Also look for Gingerbread Cookie Murder by these three authors.

                                               

Christmas Carol Murder by Leslie Meier (new!)

When Jake Marlowe, a co-owner of Downeast Mortgage in Tinker's Cove, Maine, is murdered, and his partner, Ben Scribner, begins receiving death threats after claiming to be visited by Marlowe's ghost, Lucy Stone is on the case. Also try Mistletoe Murder.

The Christmas Garden Affair by Ann Ripley

When Bunny Bainfield, the sexy host of "Bunny in the Garden," is murdered at the First Lady's exclusive Christmas conference on native plants, Louise Eldrige, star of her own PBS garden show, must weed through a wealth of suspects to catch a killer.

A Christmas Garland by Anne Perry

In 1857 India, young Lieutenant Victor Narraway, with the help of two small children and a Christmas garland, defends a British medical orderly throughout a murder investigation. This is the tenth title in Perry’s Christmas Mysteries series.

Christmas Mourning by Margaret Maron

After a beautiful young cheerleader dies in a car crash that was not an accident, Judge Deborah Knott and sheriff's deputy Dwight Bryant must uncover what really happened before more death further clouds the Christmas season in North Carolina's Colleton County.

A Cold Christmas by Charlene Weir

When the mutilated body of a furnace repair man is found in Caley James' basement, Police Chief Susan Wren begins to investigate the brutal murder and discovers that the victim had a dark past that he was trying to hide.

Dashing Through the Snow by Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark

Novelist Nora Regan Reilly and her PI daughter, Regan Reilly are on their way to Branscombe, New Hampshire for an old-fashioned, small town Christmas festival. They end up tracking down a missing employee of Conklin's Market who is connected with a $160 million lottery and the winnings. This mother-daughter team has also written Santa Cruise, The Christmas Thief, He Sees Your When You’re Sleeping, Deck the Halls, All Through the Night, and Silent Night.

Duck the Halls by Donna Andrews (new!)

When someone rigs a cage full of skunks in the choir loft of the New Life Baptist Church, Meg Langslow must stop holiday pranksters from destroying the annual pre-Christmas concert, but when murder enters the picture, Meg must save Christmas from a vengeful killer.

Hard Christmas by Barbara D’Amato

Investigative reporter Cat Marsala visits Michigan to do a human interest feature on Christmas trees and becomes involved in a dark and violent mystery hanging over a troubled farm family.

Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie

No mystery reading list is complete without a title by the grand dame of detection. The cerebral Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, uses impeccable logic to locate the murderer of a millionaire in the dreary English Midlands. Also look for A Holiday for Murder.

Look for more holiday whodunnits on December 9!

Reading Lists - It’s a mystery, my dear Watson.

With the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution, Scotland Yard and Jack the Ripper, the Victorian Age (1837-1901) was not as straight-laced as we may tend to believe. Sherlock Holmes may be the best known detective of this time, but now he is certainly in very good company.

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

The moonstone is a yellow diamond of unearthly beauty brought from India and given to Rachel Verrinder as an eighteenth birthday present, but the fabled diamond carries with it a terrible curse.

 The Cater Street Hangman by Anne Perry

While the Ellison girls were out paying calls and drinking tea like proper Victorian ladies, a maid in their household was strangled to death. The quiet and young Inspector Pitt investigates the scene and finds no one above suspicion. His intense questioning causes many a composed facade to crumble.

Some Danger Involved by Will Thomas

This atmospheric debut set on the gritty streets of Victorian London introduces detective Cyrus Barker and his assistant, Thomas Llewelyn, as they work to solve the gruesome murder of a young scholar in London's Jewish ghetto.

A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch

Charles Lenox, Victorian gentleman and armchair explorer, likes nothing more than to relax in his private study with a cup of tea, a roaring fire and a good book. But when his lifelong friend Lady Jane asks for his help, Lenox cannot resist the chance to unravel the  mysterious death of her friend.

Mr. Timothy by Louis Bayard

Seeking to gain independence from his benefactor, Ebenezer Scrooge, Timothy Cratchit loses himself in the underworld of 1860s London, where the discovery of two murdered girls prompts him to protect a third would-be victim.

The Yard by Alex Grecian

Suffering public contempt after the Metropolitan Police's failure to capture Jack the Ripper, Walter Day, a member of Victorian London's recently formed "Murder Squad” partners with Scotland Yard's first forensic pathologist to track down a killer who is targeting their colleagues. (It’s a “violent cesspool of squalid depravity” out there!)

  Murder as a Fine Art David Morrell

Thomas De Quincey is the major suspect in a series of ferocious mass murders identical to ones that terrorized London forty-three years earlier. Desperate to clear his name he is aided by his devoted daughter Emily and a pair of determined Scotland Yard detectives.

And if you like a little romance with your suspense, try these:

Don’t Look Back by Amanda Quick

Together, private inquiry agent Lavinia Lake and her sometime-partner, Tobias March, undertake a tantalizing investigation that leads them from the glittering ballrooms of the ton to London's seediest taverns.

Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn

Sir Edward Grey collapses and dies at his London home. Determined to bring her husband's murderer to justice, Lady Julia engages the enigmatic Nicholas Brisbane to help her investigate Edward's demise.

And Only to Deceive by Tasha Alexander

When Emily's dashing young husband died on safari soon after their wedding, she felt little grief. After all, she barely knew him. Now, nearly two years later, she discovers that Philip was murdered. In the quiet corridors of the British Museum, one of her husband's favorite places, amid priceless ancient statues, she uncovers dark, dangerous secrets.