Christmas Suspense Mysteries

A collection of interlinked tales of crime and retribution laced with dark humour, set around the festive season – from the number-1 best seller Stuart MacBride. Thieves, drug dealers, lap-dancers, gangsters, and even the odd good guy populate these 12 tales exploring the seedier side of life in North East Scotland.

It’s Christmas - so why not accept a dare to explore a creepy old haunted house? On this third book of the Ava & Carol Detective Agency series, fearless best friends Ava and Carol set out to prove that the Butcher house isn’t haunted. Only, Carol is pretty sure she saw something inside one of the windows - and moments later, they are chased by a headless monster! The girls receive an ominous threat: Stay away or else! Now, more than ever, the girls are determined to find out who is trying to scare them away.

Ah, the pleasures of Christmas: the hanging of lights, the traditional feasts, the gathering of families, and...a bit of murder, conspiracy, and theft. The holiday season seems to inspire the imagination of the best mystery writers, and their talents shine here in these delightful tales of Yuletide crime. In this busiest of seasons, seize a few hours to enjoy a sleigh—or slay--full of mysterious treasures, served with the finest of flair.

Peace on Earth ~ Goodwill to All. At least that’s what Sheriff Cammie Farnsworth is hoping for as she prepares to spend the holidays with her boyfriend’s parents. Who hate her. However, it isn’t long before she realizes something more is going on in the Northcott household that has nothing to do with their dislike of her. Furtive whispers and strained silences give way to panic when a body is found under the town Christmas tree and Harold Northcott becomes the prime suspect. Can Harold set aside his differences and allow Cammie to help him? Will she be able to unravel the complicated ...

Christmas is just around the corner, and the ladies of the Cumberland Creek Scrapbook Crop are thrilled when Sheila wins the first place prize in a scrapbooking design contest: a ten-day scrapbook-themed cruise in the Caribbean. Vera and Paige decide to tag along, which should pose the perfect opportunity to learn some new techniques, mingle with fellow croppers, and get in some rest and relaxation before the chaos of Christmas.

t’s the first anniversary of the mysterious death of Edward Luddenham, found dead at his home on the Yorkshire moors one frosty Christmas Eve. Now nine people gather at his manor house for the reading of the Will. Each has their own motivations for coming: curiosity, duty, unrequited love, desperation, greed. They have been instructed to bring a “festive mystery story” to share.

Once a peaceful, picture-perfect village in the Peak District, Merrywell has recently become the setting for more than just postcard-perfect views. This Christmas, while the festive markets are brimming with mulled wine and holiday cheer, a shocking murder throws everything into disarray. Enter Violet Brewster, amateur sleuth extraordinaire (when she's not balancing a cup of hot cocoa and avoiding suspicious-looking mince pies). With her sharp wit and even sharper instincts, Violet must navigate the holiday chaos to solve the case before the season’s spirit turns even more deadly.

Christmas has never brought out the best in the MacDougal family. Still, year after year, they gather together in the Blue Ridge Mountains to try to make the season merry and bright. But this year is an especially strained one, with Shayne’s impending divorce, Morwenna’s slavish devotion to work and Bobby’s reluctance to face what life has to offer. They’ve never felt less like a family. Then, in the midst of a snowy sibling shouting match, a mysterious stranger appears.

Book four in the Kate Lawrence Mystery series: Christmas has never been Kate Lawrence's favorite time of year, but when a body turns up at Hartford's venerable Wadsworth Atheneum, she knows the holidays are really going to be murder this year. In the long-awaited fourth installment of this popular mystery series, Kate's realty business is on hiatus due to the down economy, friends and family are falling victim to the flu, and daughter Emma has a loathsome new beau. To top off the merriment, Kate's ex-husband has persuaded her to host an at-home wedding for their nephew. And then a murderer strikes....

Sam Shovel only comes to life for twelve days a year at Christmastime, and this year, he's in time to solve a murder mystery at the North Pole. O. Tannenbaum—the world's largest supplier of Christmas trees—has been murdered, and although Nick and Nora Claus are too busy to solve the mystery, Sam has enough time on his branchy hands to take a stab at it.

Ainsley Holloway had come to Gooseberry Bay to find answers about her past. She’d come to find an explanation for the dreams that haunted her after the death of the cop who’d both rescued and raised her. And she’d come to identify the family she couldn’t remember but knew in her heart she’d once belonged to. Ainsley hoped that by finding these answers, she’d also find healing. She hoped that once she’d resurrected the memories buried deep in her mind, she’d find peace.

Nothing ruins a good walk on the beach like finding a mysterious suitcase full of damaged bones and a skull. The discovery rocks the peaceful community of Mermaid Bay, known for its historic beach cottages. The gruesome find is nothing like the usual summer ills of litterbugs and teens drinking under the pier for the idyllic seaside community, located a few miles from Virginia’s historic triangle of Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Yorktown.

Sherlock Holmes’s discovery of a mysterious musical score initiates a devious Christmas challenge set by Irene Adler, with clues that are all variations on the theme of “theft without theft”, such as a statue missing from a museum found hidden in the room it was taken from. In the snowy London lead-up to Christmas, Holmes’s preoccupation with the “Adler Variations” risks him neglecting the case of his new client, Norwegian arctic explorer Fridtjof Nansen, who has received a series of threats in the form of animal carcasses left on his doorstep.

Kiki is eight months pregnant and trying to cram as much ho-ho-ho into the holidays as possible. When a customer drops dead during an offsite event, this intrepid scrapbooking sleuth is left holding the bag. After her name is cleared, Kiki isn't one to sit around while her friends are threatened with false imprisonment. Instead, she vows to wrap up this case and tie it with a bow. Leave it to Kiki to determine who was nice, and who was very, very naughty, indeed. A nasty Christmas Grinch is targeting one of Kiki's friends—and that's just not kosher.

The 12 crimes of Christmas: Bart Sagan is a thief, yes, but more or less a good guy - at least, he wouldn’t rob an orphanage if he didn’t have to. Not at Christmastime, anyway. But then the local crime boss, Harry King, loses a shipment of drugs and orders Bart to burglarize the 12 addresses to which it’s been accidentally sent. Can Bart and his ragtag band of independent criminals keep their Christmas spirit while breaking and entering at the behest of a drug lord? Can they keep their lives if they don’t?

Lady Caroline had always been aware that her dearest friend, Lady Harriet’s twin brothers, Lord Dundee and Lord Erasmus, were handsome, but seeing them for the first time in years when she visits their father’s state for the summer, left her feeling overwhelmed. Even more so when Lord Dundee pays her more attention than usual. Lady Caroline knows of his reputation as a rake, but is drawn in by his charms. Lord Erasmus had admired and adored Lady Caroline from afar for a very long time, and is furious when she leaves her intellectual ways for frivolous shenanigans with Lord Dundee, but ...

With the festive season fast approaching, amateur sleuth Juno Browne helps organise a Christmas Fair to raise funds for Ashburton’s local animal sanctuary. The event is a success, but whilst Santa is handing out presents in the fairy-lit grotto, a murder is being committed in a dark corner of the garden. Juno discovers the body of Bob the Blacksmith, found clutching a horseshoe decorated with a sprig of elder. Suspicion falls on Bob’s longsuffering wife, Jackie, and on Don Drummond, with whom Bob violently quarrelled in the past

James Patterson's BookShots. Fast-paced, high-impact entertainment. Two stolen paintings disappear from a Park Avenue murder scene - French detective Luc Moncrief is in for a merry Christmas.

It’s time to deck the halls! The holidays have arrived in Friendship Harbor, Maine, and pub owner Sophie LaFleur is eager for the extra tourism money to save her struggling business. With her pet llama the star of the school Christmas pageant, Fleece Navidad, and a pub holiday party in the works, it’s going to be a holiday to remember. Especially when the out-of-town choral vocalist staying in Sophie’s guesthouse is found dead. She’s hit her last high note, and now it's up to Sophie to solve her murder while ensuring everyone in town is having a holly jolly good time.

Toni DeLuca, the Italian owner of DeLuca Construction, finds herself confronted with doubts about her father and his possible deceptions—all because of the mysterious pink notes she’s been receiving. Relations with Perrin Douglas who has a troubled history—but the first man in years who’s interested her—is building to a peak. Yet Perrin‘s own personal problems and his doubts about women and God, keep getting in the way. Gossip, a Spanish proposal, an inheritance, and a sabotaged construction business may ruin Christmas for Toni’s employees as well as her own happiness. Will a ...