Holiday Mystery Thriller

Lori Shepherd and her family spend Christmas in the cottage willed to her by her late Aunt Dimity, but when she discovers a stranger barely alive in the snow, she teams up with a priest and together they unveil the tragic secret that led the stranger to her door.

In this sequel to Under an English Heaven, newlywed American Ellie Kent is looking forward to her first English village Christmas, but a missing Oxford student and an abandoned baby soon draw her away from the fireside into danger. When a body is discovered on Boxing Day, Ellie comes to believe all these events may be linked through a group of teenage girls who identify with Shakespeare's tragic Ophelia. The police scoff at her theory, so Ellie pursues her own investigation to identify their secret Hamlet, who may be a killer.

Something is wrong with Ace Wales. After being separated from his twin brother Walid, he is forced to live with his oldest brother Spacey, who does not think his malicious actions are cute or adorable at all. Keeping him in line, Spacey also comes to terms with his marriage falling apart. While also caring for his morbidly obese wife and young son, he finds himself in over his head. It does not help that Ace has grown obsessed with getting a bow and arrow for Christmas. After a near-death experience in the family, Mason summons the entire gang to the estate on Christmas Eve.

This holiday season, join two of today’s most popular paranormal authors for a special look into their worlds, where creatures are always stirring and no one sleeps through the night. The Bite Before Christmas: Teddy Brunswick knows about the immortals among us. He’s worked with them, called them friend - but he never counted on being snowed in with one over Christmas. Home for the Holidays by Jeaniene Frost: Cat and Bones are looking forward to a normal holiday - at least as “normal” as it gets for the combustible vampire couple....

After working for Charlotte and Thomas Pitt for years, Gracie thought her maid-work was behind her. But when her good friend turns up at her doorstep just before the holidays, frantic because she's lost her job and has no references for a new one since she was unceremoniously fired, Gracie knows she has to find out what happened. Her friend, it seems, was concerned about what was going on in the house, and the husband and wife who lived there got rid of her to stop her talking.

After suffering a personal tragedy Abby Sullivan buys a seaside mansion, packs up her life in San Francisco, and moves to Holiday Bay Maine, where she is adopted, quite against her will, by a huge Maine Coon Cat named Rufus, a drifter with her own tragic past named Georgia, and a giant dog with an inferiority complex named Ramos.

Slàinte! A Christmas Eve party at snow-covered Vik castle, where the Christmas Star diamond is on display. Good food, dancing and a visit from Santa. What could possibly go wrong? When Santa appears down the chimney, looking far more crispy than expected, it is clear that something has gone very wrong. With the castle cut off from help, a murderer in their midst and the Christmas Star stolen, it's up to Losers Club to investigate. As they follow the network of secret passages to learn more about their fellow guests, they realize that everyone has a motive. Including one of their own.

My name is Lou Prescott. I was born in South Carolina but spent most of my life in Northern Minnesota. Since the death of my husband, I've found myself at loose ends, so when my niece offered to sell me the quaint seaside bookstore she owned in Holiday Bay, Maine, I jumped at the opportunity to restart my life somewhere new.

Shelby decides to clean out the second floor of the building which had been used by the previous owner as a storage area. While clearing out the large dusty space, she finds a stack of boxes with so much dust on them that she is certain that they'd been there for decades. Shelby opens to boxes and finds items left behind from the owner of the garment factory that had utilized the space half a century ago. During the course of sifting through the old treasures, Shelby finds a journal that appeared to have been left behind by a man who lived in the area in the 1960s and '70s.

Abby is offered the chance to participate in an author event being held at Firehouse Books with one of her own favorite authors. When the guest author turns up dead, Abby realizes that clues to the author’s death could be found in the new novel. Abby joins Colt as he investigates the death of a local man who died after eating pudding dosed with poison during a community dinner. Colt receives a call to check out a light inside an abandoned lighthouse closed for renovations. The pair respond only to find evidence of two trespassers, one of which is now dead.

Antoine Verlaque, examining magistrate for the beautiful town of Aix-en-Provence, doesn't like Christmas. The decorations appear in the shops far too early, festive tourists swarm the streets, and his beloved Cours Mirabeau is lined with chalets selling what he regards as tacky trinkets. But his wife and partner Marine Bonnet is determined to make this a Christmas they can both enjoy, beginning with the carol sing at the Cathedral Saint Sauveur, a beautiful service in a packed church. Just as the holiday cheer is in full swing, a man is poisoned, sending the community into a tailspin.

The remodel is almost complete, and Abby and Georgia are planning a huge grand opening. The only thing left for Abby to do before Lonnie can wrap things up is to go through the items left in the attic by prior residents. Abby is just about to get started when a woman named Trinity Roswell shows up claiming to be the great-great-great niece of Abagail Chesterton, the wife of the man who built the house, Chamberlain Westminster. They visit an old cemetery and come away with more questions than answers.

A holiday party takes an unexpected turn after an anonymous gift surfaces during the white elephant exchange. The contents from the mysterious package trigger events that catapult Thom Bailey into an exciting thrill packed adventure that unlocks incredible secrets linked to his past.

Random House presents the audiobook edition of The Christmas Scorpion by Lee Child. Jack Reacher likes to head south for the winter, to stay warm, so just before Christmas he arrives in a small town in Southern California. But the weather there is not warm and dry, as it’s supposed to be: he arrives in a freak blizzard. Reacher finds refuge in a snowed-in roadhouse with four other strangers stranded by the storm.

Mildred Kilgore and Earlynne Biddle are planning to open a bakery on the square - if they can come up with the right recipes. Charlie Dickens faces two of the biggest puzzles of his career as an investigative reporter, and one of them involves his wife. Cute little Cupcake's talent as a singer and dancer makes her a tempting target for an unscrupulous exploiter. Lizzy must enlist the Dahlias to protect her while she herself is confronted by a romantic puzzle. And Sheriff Norris is forced to reopen a puzzling mystery that the town thought was solved.

Pru Parke takes on the most serious challenge of her life: cooking an entire Christmas feast alone. But she is distracted by a mysterious plant vendor at a local holiday market, who appears and disappears into the night. He seems familiar, and yet... Join Pru and Christopher as they suss out this stranger while Pru contends with cooking a turkey fit for a crowd. Just how many potatoes and sprouts can two people eat?

It was supposed to be a holiday to fix the cracks in our fractured family. I knew the seven days would be endless, but I never imagined that one of us would only survive for six of them… As I carry my case into the charming and rustic cottage and smile at my sister-in-law, Kelli, I allow myself a moment of hope. Perhaps this holiday will force our family to address our long-held grudges and leave with the promise of a happier future.

Harvey Bennett didn’t sign up for this Christmas adventure. When a small-town holiday festival turns into a deadly game of cat and mouse, Ben and Julie are thrust into a chilling mystery buried beneath the snow-covered streets of Hope, Alaska. At the center of it all is a legendary golden ornament—a piece of local history said to hold the key to a fortune in lost gold. But someone else wants that fortune, and they’ll stop at nothing to claim it. As a ruthless financier and his dangerous crew close in, Ben and Julie follow a trail of cryptic clues carved into tombstones and hidden in ...

It’s a New Mexico Christmas. The lights are strung, the luminarias are set along the sidewalks. Treats are abundant and Charlie Parker is getting ready for her mother-in-law’s holiday visit. But there is trouble in the neighborhood and when death shows up - right next door - Charlie’s bright, festive plans suddenly take a turn for the dark.

Edgar Award-winning editor Otto Penzler collects more than 50 of his all-time favorite holiday crime stories - many of which are difficult or nearly impossible to find anywhere else. From classic Victorian tales by Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Thomas Hardy, to contemporary stories by Sara Paretsky and Ed McBain, this collection touches on all aspects of the holiday season, and all types of mysteries. They are suspenseful, funny, frightening, and poignant.