Christmas Thriller

The 26th instalment of the internationally best-selling DCI Banks series. When the body of a teenage boy is found stuffed into a wheely bin on the East Side Estate, Banks and Annie have a homegrown murder case to solve. But Banks' attention is also on Zelda, who, in helping him track down his old enemy, has put herself in danger and alerted the stone-cold Eastern European sex traffickers who brought her to the UK.

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.

Kiki is eight months pregnant and trying to cram as much ho-ho-ho into the holidays as possible. When a customer drops dead during an offsite event, this intrepid scrapbooking sleuth is left holding the bag. After her name is cleared, Kiki isn't one to sit around while her friends are threatened with false imprisonment. Instead, she vows to wrap up this case and tie it with a bow. Leave it to Kiki to determine who was nice, and who was very, very naughty, indeed. A nasty Christmas Grinch is targeting one of Kiki's friends—and that's just not kosher.

When financial executive Bob Vanags takes a job at ominous Turaida Bank in Latvia, he hopes to learn of his heritage and to fight economic fraud in Eastern Europe. Instead, Bob finds himself pulled into a world of political intrigue, blackmail, and murder. Aided by his son David, his beautiful colleague Agnese, and a fearless Latvian journalist named Santa Ezeriņa, Bob begins to unravel his employer’s darkest secrets, discovering their sins and conspiracies beyond his wildest fears. Secrets that Turaida wants to keep hidden, even at the cost of Bob’s life.

A collection of interlinked tales of crime and retribution laced with dark humour, set around the festive season – from the number-1 best seller Stuart MacBride. Thieves, drug dealers, lap-dancers, gangsters, and even the odd good guy populate these 12 tales exploring the seedier side of life in North East Scotland.

December, 1959: The Korean War rages on. Protesting the bloody conflict, a Korean-American man by the name of William Yang suddenly blows himself up in the middle of a Los Angeles department store just before Christmas, which leads the U.S. government to reopen the internment camps used during World War II. President Joseph McCarthy's America has never been more on edge, paranoid, and above all, dangerous.

December in Savannah, Georgia, is a sight to behold. Twin sisters Tabby and Sage Winslow are busier than ever setting up for the big celebration. But that isn’t the only thing on the sisters’ minds. Both Sage and her fellow employee Mary Nicole are vying for the sought-after assistant-manager job at the plant nursery. But when Loren Lee, their boss, is found dead and Sage becomes the police’s favorite suspect, both Winslow girls know that they’ll need more than a flicker of magic and their sisterhood to solve the murder and clear Sage’s name.

Christmas in New Orleans—a city brimming with cheery jazz, red and green bulbs lighting the streets, the spicy aroma of gumbo, and the cold chill of spirits asking Santa for the gift of redemption. After a string of challenging cases, paranormal investigator Kimberly Wantland is looking forward to spending the holidays quietly with her friends in the Big Easy. But ghosts don’t rest at the Cardinal Hotel.

When Edie O’Sullivan wins a three-day Christmas break in a hotel on a remote Scottish island, she’s looking forward to a picture-perfect Christmas full of winter walks, roaring fires, good books and even better whisky. But when a guest dies in mysterious circumstances, Edie realises that they have a killer amongst them. As more guests begin to die, it is up to Edie to solve the strange riddles found in the victims’ Christmas crackers if she is to stop the murderer’s killing spree. But as she gets closer to the truth, she puts herself in the way of a devious and clever killer.

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.

After the shocking events of last Christmas, Jess Croft is determined this festive season will be the one to remember, for all the right reasons. But when a stranger turns up on her doorstep claiming to be her estranged father, Jess is shocked. Moreso, when the man claims that the little girl with him is none other than Jess’s sister - a child she knew nothing about. Jess isn’t sure she wants these strangers to stay, but she can’t turn them away, especially when she learns that their lives are in danger.

Lady Marjorie's plans for a quiet time are in tatters when her son asks her to host his business guests the week before Christmas. Time to bring in reinforcements. The "awesome foursome" get together again. Pandemonium isn't a word Marjorie Snellthorpe is used to, but when an array of eccentric guests descend on her London home, along with a quirky cook and a large dog, even Edna Parkinton's advice is welcome.

Finding a severed hand at a client's house might throw lesser decorators off their games. But Chloe Carstairs and her mother, Amanda, won't let a little thing like murder keep them from decking the halls. With a body under the partridge's pear tree and a dead Santa in a sleigh, they have to crack the case before the killer strikes again - this time much too close to home.

Private investigator Shawn West is stunned when the attack victim he rescues is Addy Williams—the one woman he never forgot. She’s turning a quiet upstate New York town inside out to bring her missing sister home by Christmas. Shawn offers to help if she'll provide a cover for his own investigation into a suspicious company in town, but can they work together to find Addy's sister…or are they already too late?

Mina Scott will do anything to escape the drudgery of her life. She saves every penny to attend a finishing school, dreaming of the day she'll become a real lady - and catch the eye of William Barlow. William is a gentleman's son, a charming, but penniless, rogue. However, his bachelor uncle will soon name an heir. In an effort to secure the inheritance, William gives his uncle the impression he's married, which works until he's invited to bring his wife for a visit. William asks Mina to be his pretend bride, only until his uncle names an heir on Christmas Day.

When tragedy brings Merrin McKenzie back to St Ives, she knows adjusting might take time, even with the comfort of Christmas back in her hometown. Stepping back from her career as a solicitor, she agrees to clean holiday rentals for her friends who own cottages nearby. She anticipates dirty laundry and sandy floors, but she didn't sign up for a dead body, neatly tucked up in one of the guest beds. The police are baffled by the young man's identity and the strangeness of his death. For Merrin, however, coincidences are beginning to stack up.

Tom Christmas came to picturesque Thornford Regis with his young daughter to escape the terrible experience of losing his wife in the city. Her murder sent him packing to the bucolic and charming town, where violent crime isn't supposed to happen and the greatest sin is supposed to be nothing a member of the clergy can't handle. Then, at the town fair, a woman is found murdered. Tom soon learnsthat everyone in Thornford Regis has a secret to hide - infidelity, theft, even past murders. Twelve Drummers Drumming showcases a lovely place to live and/or die....

Detective Alex Cross is called into action on Christmas Eve - and he'll be lucky to see the New Year. Christmas celebrations with his family are cut short when Detective Alex Cross receives a phone call. A drug-crazed man has taken his own family hostage and their lives depend on Alex. But it's not just them. As the suburban nightmare unfolds, a greater threat arises - a terrorist attack like Washington has never seen. And Alex is caught in the middle.

Trouble's newly minted sheriff, Garrett Galloway, is determined to move on from his traumatic past. But when Laurel McCallister tracks him down and begs for help, he can't say no to the smart, beautiful CIA analyst. She's desperate to find the assailant who killed her niece's family - and now wants her dead.

Book four in the Kate Lawrence Mystery series: Christmas has never been Kate Lawrence's favorite time of year, but when a body turns up at Hartford's venerable Wadsworth Atheneum, she knows the holidays are really going to be murder this year. In the long-awaited fourth installment of this popular mystery series, Kate's realty business is on hiatus due to the down economy, friends and family are falling victim to the flu, and daughter Emma has a loathsome new beau. To top off the merriment, Kate's ex-husband has persuaded her to host an at-home wedding for their nephew. And then a murderer strikes....