Photo: Books!

I have never been one to brag about material things, but I do think I have one of the best collections of Christmas mystery short stories in the world!!

Santa climbs up and down the ladder to music, and he absolutely knows if you've been bad or good or have committed an undetected Yuletide-related crime!

Christmas Mysteries

regshoe asked for my favourite stories from my Christmas mystery short story collections. Here are a few [in no order, with the anthology in brackets].

I like Clever. More than atmosphere, characters, or anything else.

1. "Death on Christmas Eve" by Stanley Ellin. I love Stanley Ellin, and in terms of role models for my own writing, he's definitely one of them. This is the story of a lawyer's encounter with a highly dysfunctional family. [Murder for Christmas, ed. by Thomas Godfrey]

2. all four stories in P.D. James' The Mistletoe Murder and other stories with a special gift in the stocking for the final two which are Adam Dalgliesh tales, "The Boxdale Inheritance," which is a very, very clever twist, and "The 12 Clues of Christmas" which is a spoof of Agatha Christie, but very well done.

3. "The Trinity Cat" by Ellis Peters (of Cadfael fame). An old lady gets murdered and a stray cat reveals clues. [Murder on Christmas Eve, edited by Cecily Gayford].

4. "On Christmas Day in the Morning" by Margery Allingham. Campion as detective and the critical clue is rather a sweet one. [A Surprise for Christmas and Other Seasonal Mysteries ed by Martin Edwards].

5. "Sister Bessie or Your Old Leech" by Cyril Hare. An excellent blackmailing story. [The Christmas Card Crime and Other Stories edited by Martin Edwards].