From the Reading Room
Mistletoe Murders
2011-11-30 13:40:24 Posted By: Mary
Need a break from the stress of the holiday season? Get yourself in the spirit by solving these Yuletide mysteries.
Ballard, Mignon Franklin – Hark! The Herald Angel Screamed
Augusta Goodnight, guardian angel, sometime sleuth, and a boarder at the South Carolina home of Lucy Nan Pilgrim, becomes involved in the case of a mysterious stranger who plunges to his death from the balcony of an abandoned mansion.
Beaton, M. C. – Busy Body
When a Scrooge-like officer with the Health and Safety Board spoils the Costwolds holiday festivities by trumping up reasons to ban town decorations and May Dimwoody's hand-made toys, Agatha Raisin is called on to investigate the officer's subsequent murder.
Brett, Simon – The Shooting in the Shop
Several days after Carole Seddon and her best friend Jude visit a trendy village shop called Gallimaufry, the shop burns down and the burned body of the owner's stepdaughter is found inside, leading Carole and Jude to begin investigating.
Brightwell, Emily – Mrs. Jeffries and the Mistletoe Mix-Up
With assistance from housekeeper Mrs. Jeffries, Inspector Witherspoon investigates the bloody murder of an art collector and tries to find the sword-wielding culprit before Christmas.
Clark, Mary Higgins – Dashing Through the Snow
In Branscombe, N.H., novelist Nora Regan Reilly and her PI daughter, Regan Reilly, and their close friends Alvirah and Will Meehan, track down a missing employee of Conklin's Market who is connected with a $160 million lottery and the winnings.
Davis, Krista – The Diva Cooks a Goose
A scrooge steals the gifts from Sophie Winston's family and neighbors, and even takes their holiday meals. She ends the neighbors' finger-pointing by organizing a toy swap for the kids, which restores the spirit of the Christmas season, until a murder enters the picture. With Sophie's detective boyfriend, Wolf, out of town, it's up to Sophie to solve the murder and thefts so that the town's Christmas won't be ruined.
Delany, Vicki – Winter of Secrets
When Constables Molly Smith and Dave Evans are called to the scene of a car accident on Christmas Eve in the midst of the snow storm of a decade, the pair have no clue that an autopsy on the victim will lead them into a world of recreational drugs and sexual predators.
Fluke, Joanne – Gingerbread Cookie Murder
Contains 3 novelettes. Hannah Swensen of the Cookie Jar in Lake Eden, Minn., discovers her neighbor's head bashed in; Jaine Austen's holiday stay at her parents' home in the Tampa Vistas retirement community is enlivened by the murder of an elderly lothario; and, Maine reporter Lucy Stone investigates a four-year-old boy's disappearance.
Goldenbaum, Sally – A Holiday Yarn
While Mary Pisano's family is staying at her new bed-and-breakfast to discuss her grandfather's will, her cousin is found murdered, and soon the Seaside Knitters areon the case.
Kingsbury, Kate – Mistletoe and Mayhem
After two staff members are murdered and her friend's baby disappears, Pennyfoot Hotel owner Cecily Sinclair Baxter must find the perpetrator before her staff and guests' holiday is ruined in the worst possible way.
Maron, Margaret – Christmas Mourning
After a beautiful young cheerleader dies in a car crash that was not an accident, Judge Deborah Knott and sheriff's deputy Dwight Bryant must uncover what really happened before more death further clouds the Christmas season in North Carolina's Colleton County.
Perry, Anne – A Christmas Homecoming
Traveling up the Yorkshire coast with her husband and his acting troupe, Caroline, the mother of Charlotte Pitt, anticipates their arrival at the famed fishing village landing site of Count Dracula in Bram Stoker's tale and develops an awareness about inviting and disallowing evil.
Washburn, L. J. – The Gingerbread Bump-Off
While baking goodies for two large events and opening her home as part of the annual Christmas Tour of Homes, Phyllis Newsom discovers the murder of a close friend on her front porch.
