Holiday Mystery

Violet Rhinehammer finally gets the call! She's been working so hard in her hometown of Normal, Kentucky, as a reporter for Channel Two News and the Normal Gazette to get the national attention to she believes she rightfully deserves! Now is her time! Violet gets an interview of a lifetime with a huge national news network. It doesn't take her long to pack her bag and hop on an airplane leaving Normal, Kentucky, behind!

THE GUEST’s visit to the author’s Spanish home was meant to be a carefree fortnight of work and leisure, but it didn’t turn out that way. Mike Rippon’s account of John Smith’s eventful stay is both humorous and harrowing, as his guest’s behaviour becomes increasingly odd. Undisputedly an expert golfer, John’s veiled tales of his life as a secret serviceman begin to strike a less than harmonic chord and Mike is soon counting down the days until his departure. John, however, is in no hurry to leave, and despite enlisting the help of his friends, Mike’s undoubted patience and ...

This Christmas, the stalker is far too close. Photographer Ivy Frost lives for capturing the perfect portrait—until her Secret Santa starts obsessively capturing her. It begins with a letter, then escalates to emails, texts, and more. She’s lonely but these unsettling messages prove she’s never truly alone. The stalker, fixated on the perfect life they never had, knows intimate details about Ivy’s past and stays uncomfortably close to her present. As the messages grow darker, Ivy’s paranoia spirals.

On Christmas Eve, the Hardy Family are once again in a predicament on their horse farm. Someone or something has been stealing from them in the night. Was it human, or was it a ghostly presence who took all the coal? Or could it be Father Christmas, also known Santa Claus, Saint Nick, or Sinterclaas? And what was that giant beast that the farm workers saw galloping past? In a story that glances at Christmas myths from different countries, most of them scary, Sergeant Frank Hardy and his friend Hop Li search in the darkness to find out what's going on. Meanwhile, Mette gets to know Grace, ...

Diana and Fergus are both in the running for the coveted spot of "prime suspect". Fergus decides the only way to clear their names and save Christmas is for them to investigate the case. He's convinced that an ancient curse is the real killer. Diana is convinced that Fergus has lost his marbles. She's ready to prove him wrong, but when they are dragged into a maze of secrets and lies, she starts to wonder....

When your boyfriend hands you the gift addressed to his other girlfriend… Well, that’s a doozy of a Christmas downer. Rather than cry or pout, Annabelle’s determined to make a new tradition and what better place than Paradise Valley, Texas on a ranch, where a large family and a happily married college girlfriend are ready to brighten her spirits. Case Dalton’s been living and working on his uncle’s ranch alongside his cousins for two years now. In the typical holiday spirit, chaos breaks out and he’s designated chief hospitality officer, seeing to a curvy gal who has all the ...

Peace on Earth isn’t everyone’s cup of tea in Charlotte MacLeod’s “A Cozy for Christmas”. Peter Lovesey’s “The Haunted Crescent” delivers a holiday ghost story with a twist. A training session for department-store Santas turns up Saint Nicks who are anything but angels in Isaac Asimov’s “Ho, Ho, Ho”. Marcia Muller’s “Silent Night” finds a tough private investigator searching San Francisco’s Tenderloin district - and discovering something unexpected.

It's the week before Thanksgiving, and Merry Wilkinson, owner of Mrs. Claus's Treasures, is preparing for a weekend reunion of her mother's college friends. But when the group of women comes into Merry's shop, Merry is met with frosty attitudes and cold hearts. The women argue amongst themselves constantly, and the bickering only intensifies after one of the friends is poisoned. With her father's role as Santa in danger due to his proximity to the crime, Merry will need to use all of her investigative gifts to wrap this mystery up and save Santa and her favorite holiday.

The Summers family always chose somewhere special to spend their Christmas holiday instead of at home. Every year their holiday vacation destination was different and determined by each of their Christmas wishes. Hannah and her children loved their Christmas holiday tradition even though it was never easy for everyone to be completely satisfied and this year was no different...or was it? Daniel Summers quickly offered to handle the arrangements for their upcoming Christmas holiday vacation. He knew his mother was surprised and maybe even a little suspicious about his offer to find a place ...

At what point in the day could the note have been slipped into his pocket, his left breast pocket? It was an ordinary sheet of glazed squared paper, probably torn out of an exercise book. The words were written in pencil, in a regular handwriting that looked to him like a woman's. For pity's sake, ask to see the patient in room 15. When Inspector Maigret's wife falls ill on their seaside holiday, a visit to the hospital leads him on an unexpected quest to find justice for a young girl.

Sugarbury Falls in the fall—cinnamon spice, craft fairs, and pumpkin carving competitions. But when a reporter is murdered at a local haunted house event, the festive spirit takes a sinister turn, scaring the whole community. With one of the town’s detectives away on his honeymoon, true crime writer and former journalist Emily Fox steps in to help unravel the eerie web of suspects and motives. The victim made dangerous enemies in his pursuit of juicy stories—a wealthy businesswoman accused of killing a squatter in her warehouse, a jealous girlfriend, and even Emily’s daughter’s ...

It was supposed to be the perfect holiday, dreamed up by Kate as the ideal way to turn 40: four best friends and their husbands and children in a luxurious villa under the blazing sunshine of Languedoc-Roussillon. But there is trouble in paradise. Kate suspects that her husband is having an affair, and that the other woman is one of her best friends. One of these women is willing to sacrifice years of friendship and destroy her family. But which one?

CAVEMAN: A QUEST FOR FREEDOM IN SPAIN is a humorous, thought-provoking new novel by the author of SPANISH JOURNALS: THE POSTHUMOUS DIARY OF AN EXPAT. Tom Worsley, retired postman of forty-three, is fed up of life in his Lancashire town and decides to head off to live in a cave in southern Spain. There he plans to get back to basics and lead a life of simplicity, cultivate his mind, and improve his Spanish. None of his new friends in the nearby village can dissuade him from pursuing his singular goal, but after his cave is discovered by outsiders, his life becomes a good deal more complicated.

Oh Christmas tree, how lovely are thy branches, and…a dead body? Chloe was basking in the glow of the Christmas tree lighting ceremony, and the satisfaction of solving the murder of Santa. Her thoughts turned to the arrival of her sisters the following day and getting on with the purpose of this family trip. However, the gift someone left under the tree was worse than a bag of coal. Another murder mystery in the midst of this Bavarian-style village threatened to throw the entire small-town into mayhem. No sooner had her sisters arrived, than one of them threatened to leave, blowing up the...

In a one horse open…sleighed The final pieces to the family business plan are falling into place. And Chloe’s mom has launched another hair-brained idea to open up a gnome museum back home. The feud between her mom and her loveable cocker spaniel over those quirky creatures had reached epic levels. While trying to keep the peace, Chloe was enjoying the joy of the season and looking forward to her boyfriend soon joining her to celebrate Christmas. Her match-making mother can think of no better setting to further her scheme than a romantic sleigh ride to seal the deal. But, the reindeer ...

It’s Christmas Eve, and Violet Parker has one request on her list for Santa - to make it home to her kids. Unfortunately, “home” is also the lair of her life-long nemesis, her sister Susan, aka the devil’s concubine. Standing in Violet’s way is Old Man Winter, who slammed the Black Hills with a show-stopping blizzard. However, a little snow isn’t going to ground her sleigh, not with family counting on her to deliver Santa’s goods.

When Santa’s visit to the Gulch is called off due to a bad storm Butterscotch Jones has to step in and save Ricky’s Christmas. While Butterscotch is busy in Manitoba, Miss Henry is in Quebec. She is trying to drum up some Christmas spirit while hunting for a missing lawyer. Nicodemus Smith has her hands full tracking down a lost philanthropist who fancies himself to be Santa Claus, and Jane Blackthorn is going her best to cope with a plum pudding thief who is vexing her first Christmas in merry olde England. While Kenneth Mayhew tries to restore order at the Mayhem Mansion revels, Chloe...

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. What Abby thought she needed was alone time to heal. What she ended up with was, an inn she never knew she wanted, a cat she couldn't seem to convince to leave, and a new family she'd never be able to live without.

In the quaint town of Holiday Corner, Vermont, Christmas is in the air. The twinkling lights and aroma of freshly baked gingerbread create the perfect festive atmosphere. But beneath the surface of this holiday bliss, dangerous rumors swirl, like a poisonous ingredient hidden in a delectable dessert. Joy Holiday, Holiday Corner Events Planner, invites renowned chef Ava Merryweather to create a spectacular feast for the town's annual Santa's Workshop Dinner, a beloved charity event. However, the excitement turns to shock when Ava is discovered dead in the snow, a plum pudding by her side. As...

As the holidays draw near in Caerphilly, Mother volunteers to take part in a big Christmas-themed decorator show house - each room of a temporarily untenanted house is decorated to the hilt by a different decorator for the public to tour. Of course, Mother insists that Meg pitch in with the organization, and she finds herself surrounded by flamboyant personalities with massive egos clashing and feeling their professional reputations are at stake.