I can’t believe it’s been a whole year since I started writing this column! All good things come to an end and since my projects have become a bit overwhelming, I’m saying goodbye. But before I go, I wanted to recommend some Christmas mysteries from authors I’ve recommended over the year. I hope you have a wonderful holiday season - with only paperback murders!
I’ve talked about Benjamin Stevenson before in my column on Australian mysteries. You may want to read the first two books in the series (EVERYONE IN MY FAMILY HAS KILLED SOMEONE and EVERYONE ON THIS TRAIN IS A SUSPECT) before tackling this novella.
Benjamin Stevenson returns with a Christmas addition to his bestselling, “deviously good fun” (Nita Prose), Ernest Cunningham mysteries. Unwrap all the Christmas staples: presents, family, an impossible murder or two, and a deadly advent calendar of clues. If Knives Out and The Thursday Murder Club kissed under the mistletoe.
I’ve mentioned how much I love Donna Andrews in an earlier column, and I recommend you don’t miss this one!
SIX GEESE A-SLAYING by Donna Andrews
Meg Langslow
Meg and Michael’s house is serving as the marshaling point for the annual Caerphilly Christmas parade. The theme is “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” and it features twelve drummers from the school marching band, eleven bagpipers, ten leaping lords costumed in medieval finery from the college drama department, etc. There are also assorted Christmas-themed floats, a live nativity scene on a flatbed truck, the Three Wise Men on Caerphilly zoo camels, and Santa Claus in a bright red horse-drawn sleigh (eight reindeer were beyond the zoo’s scope).
Meg has been volunteered to organize the parade, which is to proceed from her house to the local campus, where Santa will take up residence to hear the Christmas wishes of the town’s children. Of course, getting all the camels, pipers, leapers, and drummers in order is proving every bit as difficult as Meg feared it would be. Then her nephew Eric, wide-eyed and ashen-faced, whispers, “Meg, something’s wrong with Santa.”
The local curmudgeon, whose beard and belly made him a natural for the role, has been murdered. Now Meg and Chief Burke, who is playing one of the wise men, are faced with the two-fold mission of solving the murder and saving Christmas!
Readers can look forward to another zany Meg Langslow mystery---this one filled with outrageous Christmas spirit…and mayhem.
Mystery Woman Sleuth [ Minotaur Books, On Sale: October 28, 2008, Hardcover, ISBN: 9780312536107 / ]
Buy SIX GEESE A-SLAYING: Amazon.com | BN.com | Books-A-Million | Indie BookShops | Ripped Bodice | Walmart.com |
I’ve also mentioned Carlene O’Connor’s Irish mysteries. This one is a must read for the holidays!
MURDER AT AN IRISH CHRISTMAS by Carlene O'Connor
Irish Village Mystery Series #6
Garda Siobhán O'Sullivan’s holiday plans hit a sour note when murder rearranges the yuletide carols into unexpected eulogies . . .
This December in Kilbane, if you’re planning to warm up with a cuppa tea at Naomi’s Bistro, you may have a bit of a wait—the entire O’Sullivan brood has gone off to West Cork to spend the holidays with brother James’s fiancée Elise’s family, including her grandfather, the famous orchestral conductor Enda Elliot. Siobhán is so happy for James and Elise but also quietly disappointed that she must put her own wedding to fellow garda Macdara Flannery on hold. Mac will have to join them later, so he can spend part of the holidays with his mam.
When the O’Sullivans learn everyone will choose a name from a hat to buy a music-related Christmas gift for someone else at the gathering, it seems like their greatest concern—until the cantankerous conductor is discovered crushed under a ninety-pound harp in a local concert hall.
With the extended family—including Enda’s much-younger new wife Leah, a virtuoso violinist—suspected in his murder, it's up to Siobhán to ensure the guilty party faces the music. But as a snowstorm strands both families in a lavish farmhouse on a cliff, Siobhán had better pick up the tempo—before the killer orchestrates another untimely demise . . .
Mystery | Thriller Crime [ Kensington, On Sale: October 26, 2021, Mass Market Paperback / e-Book (reprint), ISBN: 9781496719096 / eISBN: 9781496719126 ]
Buy MURDER AT AN IRISH CHRISTMAS: Amazon.com | Kindle | BN.com | Apple Books | Kobo | Google Play | Books-A-Million | Indie BookShops | Ripped Bodice | Walmart.com | Amazon CA | Amazon UK | Amazon DE | Amazon FR
A huge thank you to everyone who read and enjoyed this column! I had a lot of fun writing it.
Leslie Langtry
Why the hell not?
Leslie Langtry does not like to write bios. Seriously, she’s just not good at it. You’d think that after fifty books, she’d be able to pull off a few sentences, but no, she can’t. It’s very disappointing. At least her books are good, which counts, in her mind, as a win.
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