Whether want a cosy mystery or cold-blooded killer, there’s a Christmas crime novel for you.
Borrow these from your local library. See our library catalogue slideshow to get your request in.
Cold Christmas by Alastair Gunn
Nobody remembers the young men entering the abandoned London flat a few weeks ago. Nobody cares if they left. Until the unbearable smell of decay. DCI Antonia Hawkins is called in to view the dead men; three, lying neat in a row. There’s no damage to the bodies, no obvious cause of death. Is this a suicide pact? Or is that just how it’s meant to look? But Hawkins soon discovers the link between the three men. They had all been fascinated by the supernatural and the occult. And they had recently met in a tiny village just outside London. A village named Cold Christmas.Personal Subject:
The scandal by Mari Hannah
hen an young man is found stabbed to death in a side street in Newcastle city centre in the run up to Christmas, it looks like a botched robbery to DCI David Stone. But when DS Frankie Oliver arrives at the crime scene, she gets more than she bargained for. She IDs the victim as Herald court reporter, thirty-two-year old Chris Adams she’s known since they were kids. With no eyewitnesses, the MIT are stumped. They discover that when Adams went out, never to return, he was working on a scoop that would make his name. But what was the story he was investigating? And who was trying to cover it up? As detectives battle to solve the case, they uncover a link to a missing woman that turns the investigation on its head. The exposé has put more than Adams’ life in danger. And it’s not over yet.
Murder at christmas : ten classic crime stories for the festive season collected by Cecily Gayford
Christmas is a season of overindulgence. For most of us, that means an extra mince pie, a second helping of turkey, or perhaps a third glass of mulled wine. But for some among us, the festive season is a time to settle old scores, dispatch new enemies and indulge – in murder. Here, ten masters of the genre serve up mystery and mayhem aplenty.
The darkest evening by Ann Cleeves
Driving home during a swirling blizzard, Vera Stanhope’s only thought is to get there quickly. But the snow is so heavy, she becomes disoriented and loses her way. Ploughing on, she sees a car slewed off the road ahead of her. With the driver’s door open she inspects the car she is shocked to find a young toddler strapped in the back seat. Vera takes the child and drives on, arriving at Brockburn, a run-down stately home she recognises as the house her father grew up in. But outside in the snow, a young woman lies dead and Vera knows immediately she has a new case. Could this woman be the child’s mother, and if so, what happened to her?
A Cotswold Christmas mystery by Rebecca Tope
t’s Christmas, and things are looking good at the Slocombe house. Thea’s daughter Jessica has come to stay, much to her stepdaughter Stephanie’s delight. But then things take a turn for the worse. A local family, the Frowses, find themselves increasingly harassed by an aggressive landlord. When Beverley Frowse goes missing, Thea and Stephanie both feel they should do their best to help her husband and son to solve the mystery.
A Christmas railway mystery by Edward Marston
December 1860. Boiler smith Frank Rodman is headed for the grave sooner than he’d expected, or he will be once his missing head is found. Colbeck, the Railway Detective, finds his investigation into Rodman’s murder mired in contradictions. Was the victim a short-tempered brawler, or a committed Christian who aimed to better himself? On the trail of Rodman’s enemy as the season starts to bite, Colbeck finds little festive cheer in the twists and turns of this peculiar case.
Twelve deaths of Christmas by Jackson Sharp,
It’s Christmas, but Detective Inspector Kerry Cox is not celebrating. The holiday season is usually tough for Cox, but this year she’s preparing to face down the ramifications of her most recent investigation: a fumbled child trafficking case. Distraction comes when the body of a retired ex-policeman is found, and DI Cox refuses to buy that it’s a suicide. Despite warnings and pressures, she follows the trail stubbornly. Teaming up with the journalist, and ex-lover, who almost ruined her career, their investigations uncover a sinister network of paedophiles operating many years before. The killer they are hunting is desperate for revenge, revenge against those who evaded punishment all those years before. And as the bodies and historical evidence mount up, DI Cox’s focus is torn between tracking down the serial killer, and bringing the upper echelons of British society to justice.
Under the ice by Rachael Blok
t is the week before Christmas and the cathedral city of St Albans is blanketed by snow. But beneath the festive lights, darkness is stirring. The frozen body of a young girl is discovered by the ice-covered lake. ~Then another girl goes missing, and the community unravels