Have Yourself a Merry Little Murder: Holiday Reading for Mystery Lovers

Kissing Christmas Goodbye 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 someone in her family intended to kill her.

Jingle Bell Bark Laurien Berenson

This year, all Melanie wants for Christmas is a dull moment--but she's not going to get it. Between her eight-year-old son, her teaching job, her show dog, and now the mysterious death of her son's bus driver, she's got her hands full.

The Ice Maiden Edna Buchanan

A chance encounter with a stranger changes the life of reporter Britt Montero forever.

Merchant of Menace Jill Churchill

It's the Christmas season, and Jane Jeffry has guests coming, cookies baking, and music blaring from the next-door neighbor's garishly decorated house. What's worse is the obnoxious, muckraking TV reporter, whose red-suited body slides off the neighbor's roof in a mishap was no accident.

Sugar Cookie Murder Joanne 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 Servant's Tale Margaret Frazer

It's not a very merry Christmas for the sisters of St. Frideswide when they welcome a troupe of actors in from the cold . . . and open the nunnery door to murder. From the author of The Novice's Tale.

The Queene's Christmas Karen Harper

Elizabethan England comes alive in all its pomp and pageantry, deadly intrigue and scandal in Karen Harper's acclaimed mystery series featuring the young queen, Elizabeth Tudor, as amateur sleuth. An old English Yule has never been merrier or more mysterious.

A Holly, Jolly Murder Joan Hess

The quiet of the Christmas holiday for bookstore owner Claire Malloy is broken when a little old lady comes in looking for volumes on pagan rituals, applied magick, and Celtic mysticism. Soon Claire is on the case when a wealthy benefactor of Farberville's neo-pagans is found dead.

That Day the Rabbi Left Town Harry Kemelman

America's most unorthodox detective deserts his old haunts for new challenges. But the more things change the more they stay the same, especially where murder is concerned. When an elderly English professor disappears during a snowy Thanksgiving weekend, no one expects him to turn up dead...

Slay Bells Kate Kingsbury

During a holiday party at the Pennyfoot Hotel, the man playing the role of St. Nicholas turns up dead, along with one of his helpers, and Cecily Sinclair Baxter, suspicious about the police version of the crime, undertakes her own investigation.

High Heels and Holidays Kasey Michaels

Mystery author Maggie Kelly is getting ready to celebrate her first Christmas with Alexandre, Viscount Saint Just--her once-fictional, now very real, sexy hero and boyfriend. But her romantic Christmas plans go haywire when the halls are decked with mystery and murder. The series begins with Maggie Needs an Alibi.

A Fatal Grace Louise Penny

Welcome to winter in Three Pines, a picturesque village in Quebec, where the villagers are preparing for a traditional country Christmas...and someone is preparing for murder.

Christmas Journey Anne Perry

When a peaceful weekend party at a posh English country manor house is ruined by a mysterious death, Lady Vespasia Cumming-Gould takes on the role of sleuth to investigate the crime. This is part of the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series that begins with The Cater Street Hangman.

The Ice Harvest Scott Phillips

As lawyer Charlie Arglist prepares to leave Wichita with a suitcase full of stolen money, he revisits the scenes of his past--his angry ex-wife, ex-lovers, cops on the take, and bars filled with secrets that others will do anything to hide. This is followed by The Walkaway.

The Christmas Garden Affair 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.

Snow Blind P. J. Tracy

With the holidays over and the long cold winter looming, January can be a bleak month in Minneapolis. So what better way to bring a little cheer to the good people of the city than by sponsoring an old-fashioned snowman-building contest? Fourth in the series that begins with Monkeewrench.

Midnight Clear Kathy Hogan Trocheck

When his wife is found murdered just before Christmas, Callahan Garrity's brother disappears, leaving her with the daughter he has kidnapped - and the daunting task of clearing his name. Part of a series that begins with begins with Every Crooked Nanny.

A Cold Christmas 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.