Christmas Mysteries

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

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].

Comments

[smallhobbit]

I like The Trinity Cat and Sister Bessie as well.

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Two very good ones.

[regshoe]

Ooh, these sound good—thank you for sharing! I don't think I've read any of them, so I'll have to check some of them out—I do like a good clever twist in a mystery story...

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

You're welcome. Thanks for asking. It was a good exercise.