Christmas Detective

Christmas with the family? Penny Küfer is quite surprised when she is invited to a fancy celebration with her estranged mother, of all people. Waldenstein Castle, the party location and home to Penny's latest stepfather, turns out to be a palace right out of a fairy tale. The assembled guests, however, seem rather eccentric, and what's more, one of them is a ruthless killer. But he hadn’t reckoned with Penny....

It’s Christmas, and James and Beth are preparing for Harrington’s festive dinner and dance. This year, famous diva Olivia Dupre is singing; a wedding is taking place, and they’re hosting a reunion of PALs - ex-army comrades from the Great War. When Olivia falls ill and claims she’s been poisoned, James puts his sleuthing hat on. But things take a sinister turn when a further attack takes place.

As radio reporter Carol Childs investigates a series of Beverly Hills jewelry heists, she realizes her FBI boyfriend, Eric, is working the same case. Even worse, she may have inadvertently helped the suspect escape. The situation intensifies when the suspect calls the radio station during a live broadcast, baiting Carol deeper into the investigation. In order for her to uncover the truth, Carol must choose between her job and her personal relationships. What started out as coincidence between Carol and Eric becomes a race for the facts—pitting them against one another—before the thieves...

The Highams Park School Christmas Mystery of 1988 is the story about a group of fiendish elves in human form invading Highams Park School on the last day before Christmas with only one idea in mind, and that's to prevent one form class in particular along with their form teacher from having any kind of good Christmas. Mart Snowfunkel the science supply teacher colludes with Rude Dolph and Dean Martian and company to kidnap class 2P2 and their teacher Mrs Matilda Harris. It then provokes Santa Claus into sending in a crack team of his own good elves in human form to bring the situation to a ...

Hoping for a relaxing break, Lulu sets off with Conrad on her canal boat The Lark to the picturesque city of Bath to visit friends. But Christmas cheer soon gives way to festive fear when the pair learn of a ruthless kidnapping plot that is plaguing parents in the area. As the kidnappers fuel panic with further demands, the pair must unravel clues faster than Conrad can charm with his witty banter if they are to stand any chance of bringing the criminals to justice in time to save the holidays . . .

Suzie Whitsett loves Kyle Jones and when he gives her an amazing necklace for their two month anniversary, she is over the moon. Twenty-four hours later, it's gone and Suzie has to find out who took it before everything she has with Kyle falls apart right before New Year's...and their first New Year's kiss. Attention Funeral Crashing Fans! Make sure to check out the BONUS SCENE at the end of the book that details Kait and Ethan's New Year's Kiss! Although the characters from the Funeral Crashing Series make an appearance in this novella, it is a standalone cozy romantic mystery story. The ...

Is it the Christmas season or the ‘silly season’? All Sheriff Mel wants to do is close out the year and spend a joyful first Christmas with Dana and with their extended families. She’s even hired a new detective, Janet Mason, to ease some of the workload for her and her only other detective, Shane Harding. Things were shaping up great for her and Dana for a relaxing holiday season. Too bad it just wasn’t meant to be… The local criminals want it all too and a string of burglaries in high class county enclaves have Mel and both of her detectives stymied. Throw in a bunch of ...

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.

Father Tom Christmas, the recently widowed vicar adjusting to life in the English village of Thornford Regis, would do almost anything to avoid attending the annual Robert Burns Supper at the local hotel. But as chaplain to a traditional Scottish pipe band, Father Tom must deliver the grace - and contend with wailing bagpipes, whiskey-laced parishioners reciting poetry, and the culinary abomination that is haggis.

Aggie is hired to be a private nurse to an ailing millionaire’s wife. But she's not the one who dies. The couple is ensconced in a mansion in the small town to evade their enemies in the city. The marriage is anything but happy and she grows attached to the wife while repelled by the husband and baffled by the numerous silent servants who don’t seem to do anything but scuttle away. As Christmas approaches, everyone’s peace is shattered by a death at the big house. It isn’t who anyone expected would die, and it certainly wasn’t from natural causes. There are plenty of suspects ...

An English bobbie returning from night patrol finds a corpse in evening dress locked in the stocks on the village green. He identifies the body immediately. Andrew Vereker was not a well-loved man, and narrowing down the suspects is not going to be an easy job. The Vereker family are corrupt and eccentric - and hardly cooperative. It's another case for the resourceful Superintendent Hannasyde, who sets off on the trail of a killer so cunning that even his consummate powers of detection are tested to their limits.

Not all Christmas reunions have sugar plum fairies dancing in their heads. Some include murder. Detective Piper Brooks is as beautiful as she is outrageous. To the chagrin of her famous legal family, she disdains her Harvard law degree, declaring she prefers to be a cop. Now lead detective in Denver’s police department, her motto in the words of the irascible General Patton is “Lead me, follow me…or get the hell out of my way.” The latter being the most applicable. The newly elected District Attorney Ethan Matthews is as powerful as Piper but sports a sophisticated patina that masks...

A castle in the Scottish Highlands cut off by snow. 12 guests gather for the festive season. All of them have secrets. Can DCI Dani Bevan escape a house party when celebration turns to murder? DCI Dani Bevan and her partner, James, are spending the week after Christmas at Strathain House in the Scottish Highlands, guests of the industrialist, Bernard Raven. As soon as they arrive, odd events start to happen and suspicions are aroused about their fellow guests. The weather in their remote Highland location worsens and Dani finds herself trapped at a house party where she doesn’t know who ...

A short story from British Library Crime Classic The Christmas Card Crime and Other Stories. In this festive short story featuring Francis Durbridge’s favourite debonair amateur detective, Paul Temple journeys to Switzerland to identify an elusive criminal.

A Christmas wedding in a monastery— what could be more idyllic? And Felicity has never been happier, in spite of her over-bearing mother who wants to turn the whole event into a royal affair and Antony’s worries over the television series he is narrating on the English Mystics. Then Felicity takes on responsibility for directing an Epiphany pageant for Kirkthorpe’s wayward youth. At least, most of the vexing disruptions occurring on the filming locations are miles away from the Community of the Transfiguration. Until the threats move closer. Close enough to threaten Felicity’s life....

Tommy and Evelyn Christie are looking forward to a quiet Christmas holiday at the home of Hugh Norton-Cavendish, the 9th Earl of Clifford, who recently married Tommy's cousin, Elise. However, the suspicious death of Albert Lewis, a businessman hoping to buy land from Hugh, means the Christmas festivities are quickly over. Tommy is distracted by his sister's new relationship with a man he distrusts. Evelyn is busy with her pack of dogs, brought for the traditional Boxing Day shoot.

Cantankerous and vinegar-tongued Grandmama, from Anne Perry's Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series, is the leading character in this Christmas novel, which unfolds in the chilly, windswept Romney Marshes off the English Channel. Grandmama arrives on a holiday visit to the home of Charlotte's parents, where a fellow guest--an outcast from her own family--is subsequently murdered. Like the heroes before her in Anne Perry's Christmas novels, Grandmama is called upon to play the role of amateur detective.

The Mrs. Holmes mystery series distinguishes itself by offering stories that can be enjoyed in just a few minutes. It is the ideal series for fans of cozy mysteries, thrill-seekers, busy people, and those who prefer quick reads over lengthy 50,000-word novels. Opening this book quickly turns into a whirlwind of intrigue with “Slumber, Sneakers, and Stardust: Mrs. Holmes and the Mall Mystery.” On the busiest shopping day of the year, known as Black Friday, a mysterious man with a soldier-like vibe enters a mattress store and lies down. However, when he fails to wake up, the cozy ...

If there was one piece of advice Olive Crisp always followed, it was that "one should never attempt to solve a crime on an empty stomach..." 1970s. Cambridge, England. A COLD CASE AT CHRISTMAS: After officially launching her Biscuit Tin Detective Agency, Olive is delighted when she receives her first case. Miss Westmacott asks her to investigate a cold case: the disappearance of her sister, Enid, over 50 years ago. Having waited months for a bite, the detective agency café is finally in business! A COSY COMMUNITY: Together with Hugo, Olive reopens the case and tracks down the remaining ...

In a gloomy flat off Islington High Street, Chief Inspector Brett Nightingale and Sergeant Beddoes find an old woman dead. The Princess Olga Karukhin, who fled from Russia at the time of the Revolution, has lived in terror of being discovered ever since. Olga's grandson, Ivan, appears to have run from the scene but is later seen returning to the flat as though oblivious to the terrible crime. Taking place between 22nd and 24th December, Nightingale's enquiry takes him across London, culminating in the wrapping up of the mystery on Christmas Eve.