I love the winter holidays, and I always try to read things set during the season. I love murder mysteries, and what could say “Holidays!” more than a good Christmas mystery? Here are a few finds from this year. I listened to several of these as audiobooks, and they were the perfect thing to keep me going during all of the decorating, shopping, and planning.

Here are my finds, in no particular order.

I always enjoy novels based on historical fiction characters, and Sherlock Holmes and the Twelve Thefts of Christmas is a treat. The twelve thefts are “thefts that aren’t really thefts,” but mere tricks by Irene Adler, a woman from Holmes’s past. Simultaneously, Holmes and Watson are working on a case involving a Norwegian artic explorer who has been getting strange threats. An extra bonus is a fun version of Mary Watson.

 

It seems like every year I read at least one Anne Perry Christmas mystery. This year, I read two, whose settings were completely different! In A Christmas Escape, Charles is a lonely man who takes a holiday on a Greek island. Things are not very merry, though, as most of his fellow guests seem unhappier than he is. There are a couple of redeeming exceptions, though, and one is a young girl, Candace, who shares with Charles the beauty of the island and her often insightful thoughts. The island is rocked by an active volcano, and then murder. It’s poignant to watch the growing trust between Charles, Candace, and her guardian, as they try to escape the destruction of the volcano while figuring out a murder mystery.

A New York Christmas takes us to 1904, and Jemima Pitt (daughter of Thomas, who will be familiar to Perry fans) crosses the Atlantic accompanying a young heiress to New York for her wedding. Family secrets, a murder, and betrayal put Jemima in danger, and she, with the help of a young policeman, must figure out who the true murderer is.

 

Authors often add a Christmas title or two to a series, and Mistletoe and Murder is part of the Daisy Dalrymple series. I hadn’t read any of the others, but it was easy to slide into the story of Daisy, who is invited to a house party in Cornwall for Christmas, 1923, and finds a murder mystery to solve. Her husband, who is hoping for a peaceful holiday, is trying to keep it quiet that he is a Scotland Yard detective, but that is doomed to failure. The revelation of family secrets provides motives for several characters, and it’s fun to observe Daisy and the detectives sort them out.

 

The Christmas Candle Murders is part of the Lord Edgington Investigates series, and is also set in the 1920s. Our narrator, Christopher, is the twenty-year-old grandson of the Lord, and is a sort of detective apprentice. They have returned to Christopher’s childhood home to celebrate the holidays, only to find multiple murders which need to be solved. Amid lots of nice detail about the village’s Christmas traditions, the two sleuths search for the homicidal culprit. I especially enjoyed Christopher’s narration, which was often humorously self-deprecatory.

 

While A Christmas Party doesn’t fit in with the definition of historical fiction, which is generally described as fiction written about a period at least fifty years previous, this was such a nice find, that I want to include it. Published in 1941 and set in that period, Heyer’s novel treats us to a Christmas with a cast of mostly unlikeable but entertaining characters, a “locked room” mystery, and a Scotland Yard inspector who routinely disparages the abilities of his poor sergeant. I’m usually not very good at figuring out the murderer, but this time I got it just before the inspector did!

 

If you’re looking for something very light but entertaining, I’d recommend these books. I listened to the audiobooks as I went about my holiday tasks, and they were just the right thing. In each novel, Lady Osbaldestone’s three young grandchildren are visiting for the holidays, and there is a village mystery to be solved. In Lady Osbaldestone’s Christmas Goose, the flock of geese which was to furnish Christmas dinner for the entire village has gone missing. In Lady Osbaldestone and the Missing Christmas Carols, no one can find the church’s book of carols, which threatens the beloved tradition of the Carol Service. Both novels even include a nice little romance.

 

Peril at Owl Park is a clever middle-grade novel. Aggie is clearly inspired by Agatha Christie as a child, as she and her friend, Hector Poirot, must solve the mystery of the body they find on Christmas morning when searching for their presents. With the help of lots of tea, Christmas pudding, and Aggie’s clever Grannie Jane, nodding to Christie’s Jane Marple character, Aggie and Hector solve the mystery.

Hope you find a good read to brighten your holiday spirit, even if it does include a fictional murder!

 

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