Christmas Thriller

Ainsley decides to set aside her search for answers to her past and enjoy her first Gooseberry Christmas by volunteering along with the rest of the gang for the Christmas festival on the boardwalk. Normally Ainsley didn’t bother much with Christmas and all its trappings, but this year she is excited to join in as most of the locals are prone to do. Of course it does put a bit of a damper on the festivities when a body is found in the tree lot where the gang had offered to help out.

First came a sinister warning to Poirot not to eat any plum pudding...then the discovery of a corpse in a chest, but what can link these baffling cases? The little grey cells of Monsieur Hercule Poirot! Feast yourself on these intriguing crime mysteries from the distinctive hand of the queen of crime fiction.

It's a freezing winter day in London, 1895, when two young girls have a chance meeting. The pair turn out to have much in common: both are poor, both are parentless. But Minnie Maude, only eight, has even worse problems: the uncle with whom she lived has just been murdered, and if that's not enough, the family's donkey has run away. Her new friend Gracie, all of 13, feels obliged to help her, and so the girls team up to solve the mystery - and find Charlie the donkey.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year…and for Heather Andrews, security manager at Timberwoods Mall, undoubtedly the busiest. But this Christmas, Heather has more to contend with than frazzled parents and disgruntled Santas. Angela Steinhart, a young woman who designed the mall’s spectacular holiday displays, has had a premonition that tragedy will strike on Christmas Eve. And Angela’s visions have a habit of coming true. Heather would love to dismiss the warning as holiday stress.

A suspect covered in blood, without a memory of how it got there. A murder committed without setting foot inside the room where it happens. And an advent calendar. Because, you know, it's Christmas.

It's Christmastime again in Christmas River. And all hell is breaking loose. Pie baker Cinnamon Peters has plenty on her plate this season. Between running her popular pie shop, planning her upcoming wedding to the town's sheriff, and trying to lose weight to squeeze into her oh-so-perfect and oh-so-tight wedding dress, it's all Cinnamon can do to keep her head on straight.

Missing Persons Detective Everleigh Becket and her P.I. partner Isaac Stern have built a reputation as an elite team, able to solve the coldest cases. However, when A.D.A. Marie Schurr asks for their help in tracking down a missing witness, Everleigh isn’t sure she wants to get into the business of forcing a terrified woman to testify against a known killer. Madison Wheeler thought she’d met the man of her dreams, but when a business deal ends in murder, Madison is the only one left who can get justice for the dead man. That is if Everleigh and Isaac can find her.

Sophie is thrilled her life is going so well. Her pub is (mostly) financially secure. She’s dating her hunky pub manager. Her best friend, Oliver, is visiting from California and she’s rented out her macabre guesthouse to a group of skiers on holiday. She’s even handling the cold weather with aplomb. That is, until they are hit by an unexpectedly bad Nor’ Easter. Now, the skiers, along with most of her staff, are stuck at Steamys pub. Sophie is creative, so she’s confident she can make the most of a bad situation. Then one of the skiers is found dead, frozen outside her llama, Jack’s, barn.

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

Bubba Snoddy's got some problems. His family has descended for the Christmas holidays and not in a good way. His cousin wants to own the Snoddy Mansion, decrepit, falling down columns, termites, wood rot and all and isn't above using manipulative behavior to achieve his ends. Miz Demetrice is up to nefarious and illegal activities while trying to entertain relatives.

Disillusioned journalist Tom Langdon must get from Washington to L.A. in time for Christmas. Forced to take the train across the country because of a slight 'misunderstanding' at airport security, he begins a journey of self-discovery and rude awakenings, mysterious goings-on and thrilling adventures, screwball escapades and holiday magic. He has no idea that the locomotives pulling him across America will actually take him into the rugged terrain of his own heart....

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?

PECCAVI. The Latin word is scrawled in blood at the scene of a young woman's brutal murder: I HAVE SINNED. It's a chilling Christmas greeting for Boston medical examiner Maura Isles and Detective Jane Rizzoli, who swiftly link the victim to controversial celebrity psychiatrist Joyce O'Donnell, Jane's professional nemesis and member of a sinister cabal called the Mephisto Club.

During the dark, grey days of early December Agatha is obsessed by two things - the looming festivities, and her ex, James Lacey. In order to drive the latter from her thoughts, Agatha concentrates on planning the perfect Christmas for her friends. Even the murder of a Mrs Tamworthy, poisoned with hemlock, does little to distract her and yet it should, as Mrs Tamworthy had written to Agatha, telling her that one of her family wanted to see her dead before the year was out. So slightly guiltily (and belatedly), Agatha sets out to solve the case before the 25th rolls around.

Ruby Holmes is delighted to be celebrating Christmas with her close friends in Carmel Springs, Maine. The tree in the center of town is about to be lit, the mistletoe is up, and the town is decorated in reds, greens, and whites. Everything is perfect. Until the lights come on and reveal the dead body of the mayor himself. It’s murder, and with very few leads for the local detectives to follow, it’s time to shut the town down until further notice - no celebrations, no parties in the street, and certainly no caroling. Can Ruby and Bee solve the mystery?

This Christmas season, the Women's Murder club unite to protect the streets of San Francisco once more in James Patterson's latest instalment to the bestselling series.

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.

The Christmas season is supposed to be a time of joy and celebration. But for Private Investigator Melody Clue, the holidays can quickly go awry, as she discovers in this three-story collection.

In Book Two of the Cat in the Attic series, in addition to the time she spends at the animal shelter, Callie has a new sideline writing human interest stories for the regional newspaper. It is a job she loves and hopes to grow - until she is asked to reveal the man behind the mask when Secret Santa comes to town and begins committing random acts of kindness. Meanwhile, Cass has a new murder to solve, Gracie has gone crazy with the decorations, and Naomi's friend Hancock comes to town.

Will stepping back in time take her beyond the reach of a violent husband? A love 100 years in the past may hold the key.