A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
The original and best! With darkness, death, phantoms and, by Dickens’ standards a happy ending (no spoilers here) A Christmas Carol really does have it all. Published as a novella in 1843, Dickens must surely have been visited by the ghost of Christmasses to come, because it went on to inspire and inform pretty much every other Christmas mystery novel in its wake. It was certainly a huge influence on my novella The Christmas Appeal.
Murder at the Theatre Royal by Ada Moncrieff
A theatre production of A Christmas Carol is central to this jaunty golden age homage set in 1935. Aspiring news reporter Daphne King is witness to the dramatic on-stage demise of Scrooge himself. When a second body is found backstage, Daphne is on the case. Fabulous festive escapism for fans of classic crime fiction who like their crime set firmly back in the golden age.
Murder on the Christmas Express by Alexandra Benedict
The modern queen of Christmas crime is at her most devious in Murder on the Christmas Express. Stuck in the snow on Christmas Eve, a mixed bag of train passengers are picked off one-by-one, until a former police detective must step in to find the murderer. I had a scream with this tale, which combines the best of modern and classic crime. It’s also chock full of puzzles, anagrams and hidden song titles to discover. A killer read with all the darkness and light of Christmas.
The Christmas Guest by Peter Swanson
An American student living in London is invited to her classmate’s Cotswolds manor house for Christmas, where she hopes her crush will also be spending the festive season. But this is a Peter Swanson story and crime’s Mr Twist has a platter of surprises up his sleeve. This delightful novella totally surprised me and transformed the classic trope of the snowed in mansion into a dark and refreshing Christmas treat.
The Twelve Quizzes of Christmas by Frank Paul
If you like your Christmas reading to be less fiction and more ‘what-the-faction?’ look no further than Frank Paul’s lively and original quiz-fest. Described as an ‘anti-social alternative to all the revelry’, this epic collection of puzzles, quizzes, conundrums and tall tales is firmly on the dark side of the season. Perfect for those of us who love to exercise the grey matter, this book is packed with visual puzzles, quizzes and narrative dilemmas. Merry Quizzmass!
