Christmas Mystery Thriller

After suffering the tragic loss of her best friend, Lottie Beck is struggling. Aged eighteen, she's flunked school and spends her days lying in a darkened room, doing nothing. Finally, she is forced to get a job in Silver Birches Care Home. Once there, and after meeting the residents, particularly the feisty, no-nonsense Bobby, she settles in, appreciating how much history lies behind each person. A history she can read, in her own special way, via the simple touch of a hand.

Fawn is back home, and Christmas Eve 1849 has finally arrived. As Santa, Mary, Wajic, and the legendary team of reindeer leave to begin the monumental task of delivering gifts to children around the world, a sun pillar appears not far away. But the purpose of the bright and beautiful column of light is dark and dangerous. Upon Santa’s return, the moment his sleigh touches down, its occupants and the faithful reindeer will all disappear forever. Only someone pure of heart and with an unblemished soul can extinguish the pillar safely.

Some say that casting crusty attorney Allen Sharpe as Scrooge in the Kindred Players production of A Christmas Carol is just playing to type. He's not the most beloved man in town. In fact, you'd have a dickens of a time finding someone who liked him. Still, it's a shock when the Ghost of Christmas Past stabs him during the first rehearsal. Suzanne, the co-owner of the Cackleberry Club Cafe (Kindred's favorite combination diner, craft store, and bookshop), chases the murderer out of the building but loses him in the alley. As the days pass, the list of suspects grows longer.

When Gina Temple decides to go Christmas shopping for her girlfriend, Detective Sergeant Kate Brannon, in the Norfolk town of King's Lynn, it seems like an easy enough task. If only life were that simple. A split-second event, months in the planning, tips their safe world upside down.

Gemma Rose, ihres Zeichens Tearoom-Besitzerin und unfreiwillige Detektivin, freut sich auf ein Fest voller köstlicher weihnachtlicher Leckereien, auf Zeit mit Freunden und Familie und mit etwas Glück sogar auf „weiße Weihnachten“, die in Oxford nur alle Jubeljahre einmal vorkommen. Doch dann schneit sie auf einem Landsitz ein und stolpert über einen rätselhaften Mord - mit einer Leiche in der Bibliothek, einem Haus voller Verdächtiger und einer Spur aus mysteriösen Fußabdrücken!

Trinity Ashford is happy with the lull in crime around Waterfall. Until someone breaks into her car and steals a box of donations for the local animal shelter. Even then, she doesn't want to go nosing around, despite the urging of her friend and mother. But then, someone breaks the front window of Tail Waggin' and drags away the Christmas tree. The war is on!

In this Zoe Donovan novella, Zoe is invited to Ireland to attend the wedding of one of her Irish cousins after contacting the man as part of her research into her Irish heritage. The wedding is being held at Dunphy Castle, the castle where Zoe first learned of her relationship to Lady Catherine, one of the ghosts she met during her last visit to the Emerald Isle.

Meghan takes a walk down memory lane and remembers the fright that was before Christmas when she was an aspiring actress in Hollywood. She thought she had gotten the role of a lifetime until she discovered the role she got was for something totally different. Things go from bad to worse when she's identified as a prime suspect for the murder of a key person on set. Meghan knows there are several women who had plausible reasons to want to do something diabolical to the boss from hell. She's one of those women, but she knows she didn't do it. So if it wasn't her, who was it?

Christmas is on trial, and time is running out. Attorney Thad Raker represents an eccentric client living in a house with a Christmas secret. When the county goes to court to take the client’s property, Raker must battle conspiring adversaries, a cantankerous judge, and his own personal feelings and doubts. If he loses the case, Christmas won’t come for hundreds of thousands of children. Can Raker save Christmas and, in the process, save himself?

Chloe Walsh’s skills as location manager have come up trumps again - Serenity Bay is now the setting for cosy crime drama The Montgomery Mysteries, starring amateur sleuth Dominic Montgomery and his crime-solving dog, Agatha. But Chloe is in a race against time. Filming has to finish before the village Midwinter Festival, but schedules are tight - and a mystery saboteur is intent on slowing things down even further. Not only is Chloe facing problems with the shoot, she also has some personal conundrums to solve.

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.

Kris Kringle had a hell of a Christmas last year. This year isn't shaping up to be any better. The Workshop might have provided the enemy with a piece of jewelry she now wears around her neck. What is the purpose?

With Christmas around the corner, Izzie Jenkins is ready to kickstart the new Snowflakes and Christmas Cakes course at Villa Limoncello with chef and business partner Luca Castelotti. However, secrets are stirring with their latest guests, and when nasty accidents keep befalling the group, it looks like Izzie will have to turn detective once more to protect the Villa’s fledgling reputation.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year…and for Heather Andrews, security manager at Timberwoods Mall, undoubtedly the busiest. But this Christmas, Heather has more to contend with than frazzled parents and disgruntled Santas. Angela Steinhart, a young woman who designed the mall’s spectacular holiday displays, has had a premonition that tragedy will strike on Christmas Eve. And Angela’s visions have a habit of coming true. Heather would love to dismiss the warning as holiday stress.

After more than a decade away, Mira James isn’t keen on returning to her Minnesota hometown for the holidays. Her childhood memories aren’t particularly jolly. Even less festive is the news of a serial killer on the loose. With only ten shopping days till Christmas, the Candy Cane Killer has been very busy slashing through the snow. Eager to earn her official PI stripes, Mira is anxious to track him down. But when the latest victim is a woman from her high school graduating class, the investigation hits a little too close to home.

The Christmas season is supposed to be a time of joy and celebration. But for Private Investigator Melody Clue, the holidays can quickly go awry, as she discovers in this three-story collection.

Cringe with embarrassment, as Lady Amanda Golightly acts like a bad-tempered five-year-old in the face of a family crisis. Cheer her on, as she and her live-in friend at Belchester Towers, Hugo Cholmondley-Crichton Crump, plan a new business venture for the old place. Join them for Christmas, then wish them luck as they embark on a trial run of their new enterprise. Then gasp at Lady Amanda's reaction (delight!) at the discovery of the body of a dead guest, found slumped on the library table, murdered FIVE TIMES!

Summer had passed, and the holidays were fast approaching. Everyone at the Shipwreck Cafe was getting ready for The Seashells and Christmas Bells Ball. Jay, true to his word, delivers a letter to the selectman of Anchor Point stating his intentions of taking his privately owned beach and parking lot back from town use. Sid Swann, a selectman used to getting his own way, confronts Jay in public about his decision and heated words are exchanged. The next morning, Sid is found murdered in his office at the town hall and Jay is the number one suspect.

After experiencing a murderous Christmas and Valentine's Day with his love, Shannon O'Hara, Detective Nick Spinelli assumed Saint Patrick's Day couldn't be any worse. He should have known better. While out on a geocaching adventure in Door County, Shannon and her friend Anna find more than they bargained for in the cache box. When Shannon disappears, Spinelli is sent racing to find her. Amidst the chaos of an unruly Irish celebration, and a decades-old Irish family feud, he must rescue her from the hands of a madman.

Nothing ruins a good walk on the beach like finding a mysterious suitcase full of damaged bones and a skull. The discovery rocks the peaceful community of Mermaid Bay, known for its historic beach cottages. The gruesome find is nothing like the usual summer ills of litterbugs and teens drinking under the pier for the idyllic seaside community, located a few miles from Virginia’s historic triangle of Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Yorktown.