And Now For Something Completely Different
Christmas Crime
This isn't your typical new Christmas novel roundup-- this one's centers around Christmas Crime. Did you know that was a thing? We didn't until recently!
This year’s batch of Christmas books involves the requisite amount of Hallmark movie-style romance/rom coms. And there’s nothing wrong with those! But quietly—some might even say subversively—there’s a new sub-genre that seems to be emerging apart from those novels we expect to see at Christmas. And we are here for it! Check out these new novels that all center around some sort of crime, at Christmastime.
Christmas Presents by Lisa Unger (release date 10/24/23)
Madeline Martin has built a life for herself as the young owner of a thriving business, The Next Chapter Bookshop, despite her tragic childhood and now needing to care for her infirm father. When Harley Granger, a failed novelist turned true crime podcaster, drifts into her shop in the days before Christmas, he seems intent on digging up events that Madeline would much rather forget. She's the only surviving victim of Evan Handy, the man who was convicted of murdering her best friend Steph, and is suspected in the disappearance of two sisters, also good friends of Madeline's, who have been missing for nearly a decade.
Harley Granger has a gift for seeing things that others miss. He wasn't much of a novelist, but his work as a true crime author and podcaster has earned him fame and wealth—and some serious criticism for his various unethical practices. Still, visiting Little Valley to be closer to his dying father has caused him to look into a case that many people think is closed—and some want reopened.
Since Evan Handy went to jail, three other young women have gone missing, most recently a young college dropout named Lolly. Five young women missing in the same area in a decade. Are they connected? Was Evan Handy innocent after all? Or was there some else there that night? Someone who is still satisfying his dark appetites?
The Christmas Appeal by Janice Hallett (release date 10/24/23)
The Christmas season has arrived in Lower Lockwood, and the Fairway Players are busy rehearsing their festive holiday production of Jack and the Beanstalk to raise money for a new church roof. But despite the season, goodwill is distinctly lacking among the amateur theater enthusiasts with petty rivalries, a possibly asbestos-filled beanstalk, and some perennially absent players behind the scenes.
Of course, there’s also the matter of the dead body onstage. Who could possibly have had the victim on their naughty list? Join lawyers Femi and Charlotte as they investigate Christmas letters, examine emails, and pore over police transcripts to identify both the victim and killer before the curtain closes on their holiday production—for good.
The Christmas Guest by Peter Swanson (release date 10/17/23)
Ashley Smith, an American art student in London for her junior year, was planning on spending Christmas alone, but a last-minute invitation from fellow student Emma Chapman brings her to Starvewood Hall, country residence of the Chapman family. The Cotswold manor house, festooned in pine boughs and crammed with guests for Christmas week, is a dream come true for Ashley. She is mesmerized by the cozy, firelit house, the large family, and the charming village of Clevemoor, but also by Adam Chapman, Emma’s aloof and handsome brother.
But Adam is being investigated by the local police over the recent brutal slaying of a girl from the village, and there is a mysterious stranger who haunts the woodland path between Starvewood Hall and the local pub. Ashley begins to wonder what kind of story she is actually inhabiting. Is she in a grand romance? A gothic tale? Or has she wandered into something far more sinister and terrifying than she’d ever imagined?
Over thirty years later the events of that horrific week are revisited, along with a diary from that time. What began in a small English village in 1989 reaches its ghostly conclusion in modern-day New York, many Christmas seasons later.
The Night Before Christmas by Alex Pine (release date 10/26/23)
This Christmas, the hunters become the hunted…
When four trail hunters go missing in the fells of Cumbria on Christmas Eve, the race is on to find them before nightfall – when the temperature plummets.
After hours of searching, the first body is found… Not frozen in the snow, but brutally murdered and bearing a warning: the real hunt has begun.
As a snowstorm descends, three lives hang in the balance. But can the killer be caught before the trail goes cold?
A Christmas Vanishing by Anne Perry (release date 11/7/23)
Charlotte Pitt's clever grandmother investigates the sudden disappearance of her dear friend in this chilling holiday whodunit by New York Times bestselling author Anne Perry
Mariah Ellison, Charlotte Pitt's grandmother, accepts her longtime friend Winnie's gracious invitation to spend Christmas with her and her husband, Barton, in their picturesque village. But upon arrival, Mariah discovers that Winnie has vanished without a trace, and Barton rudely rescinds the invitation. Once Mariah finds another acquaintance to stay with during the holiday season, she begins investigating Winnie's disappearance.
Mariah's uncanny knack for solving mysteries serves her well during her search, which is driven by gossip as icy as the December weather. Did Winnie run off with another man? Was she kidnapped? Has someone harmed her? The speculation leads Mariah all around the village, revealing hidden relationships, old debts of honor, and memories of past loves. Frustratingly, though, she learns more about the townspeople spreading the rumors than she does about Winnie's whereabouts.
It is up to Mariah to drown out the noise and get to the bottom of what occurred . . . all before Christmas day. With the holiday rapidly approaching, will she succeed in bringing Winnie home in time to celebrate together—or is that too much to hope for?
The 12 Days of Murder by Andreina Cordani (release date 11/7/23)
Twelve years ago, eight friends ran an exclusive group at university: the Masquerade Murder Society. The mysteries they solved may have been grisly, and brilliantly staged, but they were always fictional—until their final Christmas Masquerade, when one of the group disappeared, never to be seen again.
Now our privileged young cast of old university friends are summoned to the depths of Scotland for a Christmas-themed masquerade party. But all are hiding something deep below the surface that could make or break their careers.
When they arrive, each is assigned a new identity themed around the Twelve Days of Christmas—they become Lady Partridge or Mr. Gold, Lord Leapworth or Doctor Swan. The game begins, and it feels just like old times—until the next morning, when Lady Partridge is found hanging, dead, from a pear tree.
It quickly becomes clear that in this game the murder will be all too real, and the story is bringing long-hidden secrets to the surface. If the group hopes to win the game and survive until Christmas morning, they will need to face the truth about their history together and who they have become—and what really happened on that fateful night twelve years before.
So how about it? Are you done with the Hallmark-style books and ready to dive into something a little more crime-y? Are any of these books on your Christmas list?
Christmas Crime is fun. ~ Three of the books you mentioned are on my list.🤗