Christmas Thriller

When financial executive Bob Vanags takes a job at ominous Turaida Bank in Latvia, he hopes to learn of his heritage and to fight economic fraud in Eastern Europe. Instead, Bob finds himself pulled into a world of political intrigue, blackmail, and murder. Aided by his son David, his beautiful colleague Agnese, and a fearless Latvian journalist named Santa Ezeriņa, Bob begins to unravel his employer’s darkest secrets, discovering their sins and conspiracies beyond his wildest fears. Secrets that Turaida wants to keep hidden, even at the cost of Bob’s life.

Christmas, the happiest time of year. Plum puddings, candy canes, carols by the fireside. But outside, the mist lies deep and still. Frost gnaws at your fingertips. Shadowy forms lurk in the evergreens. It’s the season for ghost stories.

The Vengeful One: A Christmas Tale, the second novel by Aydin Guner, takes the listener on an exhilarating journey of magic and wonder. Adam Goldman is alarmed by a ruckus in the early hours of Christmas morning and nervously leaves his bedroom to investigate. Frightened by an ominous figure, he hits the perceived burglar over the head with a vase. After the subsiding shock, he turns on the light, and to his horror, lying before him is a motionless Santa Claus.

Christmas should be the happiest time, but at Pennington’s dramas are seething beneath the surface. For Cornelia Culford, a divorce hearing looms where she could lose custody of her sons to her unfaithful husband. For Stephen Gower, being head of security at Pennington's is the perfect refuge from a tragic past at Scotland Yard. But soon Joseph Carter and Elizabeth Pennington beg him to help solve the murder of Joseph's first wife, now that the killer has struck again.

In 1968, a couple of KGB agents in Germany wanted to defect. Too bad for them that the CIA and the US Army wanted no part of this action. A group of US soldiers decided to facilitate these defections without any official coordination. What could possibly go wrong? More things than you can probably imagine.

As Christmas approaches and the snow falls deep, a malevolent force stalks the ancient corridors of Castle Kintochlochie. Someone, or something, is determined to derail Lady Ophelia's love affair with estate manager Hamish, so ruggedly handsome yet wildly unsuitable. She must call upon her wits—not just to discover the culprit...but, perhaps, to escape murder.

Charles Kendrick, a senior U.S. senator, is a suspect in the disappearance of a young female staff member. A multi-state manhunt is already underway, and the district attorney is pressuring Kendrick for an interview, which his lawyer, Marty, doesn't want to grant. At the same time, Marty and her law partner and lover, Harry Madigan, are preparing the defense of a man accused of murdering a priest. Both defendants are lying, but to whom? And can their actions be justified?

Edna Davies is frantic. Concern for an invalid husband has put her behind and now, with less than a week before Christmas and with family gathering for the first time in years, she hasn't even put up a tree. As a winter storm descends on the town, the owner of a local cat shelter is found dead and Mary Osbourne disappears. Trying to juggle holiday plans with the search for her neighbor, Edna meets a killer and may miss Christmas.

Christmastime in London. When three seemingly unconnected victims are murdered with matching sequential Roman numerals carved into their foreheads, Metropolitan Police Commander Austin Grant finds his answer in one of the last places he'd expect: the Holy Bible. Each of the deaths correspond to a transgression of one of the Ten Commandments, and Grant must find the killer before the remaining Commandments are commemorated with homicides.

Book four in the Kate Lawrence Mystery series: Christmas has never been Kate Lawrence's favorite time of year, but when a body turns up at Hartford's venerable Wadsworth Atheneum, she knows the holidays are really going to be murder this year. In the long-awaited fourth installment of this popular mystery series, Kate's realty business is on hiatus due to the down economy, friends and family are falling victim to the flu, and daughter Emma has a loathsome new beau. To top off the merriment, Kate's ex-husband has persuaded her to host an at-home wedding for their nephew. And then a murderer strikes....

Kyle Colbert just wants to go home for Christmas. So, why does everyone suddenly want to kill him? Kyle savors his train commute from a hectic Manhattan job to his idyllic, small town. But as he arrives on Christmas Eve, his family tries to kill him. His neighbors and the entire community suddenly want him dead. He can’t flee to the authorities because even the FBI is in a deadly pursuit.

A renovation. In the countryside. Just over an hour's train ride from London. An ideal family home. Sold unseen. At auction. Married couple Al and Liz Greenaway love London, but when they discover an impressive country property for sale. A fine house. Once. Solitary, romantic, isolated, and quiet. So quiet that, for the first time in years, Liz can hear her own thoughts as long buried memories emerge. And there's an echo in them, a whisper... For someone else in the house, memories are emerging too.

Arianna Tate has a simple and fulfilling life - until four days before Christmas when her young son is kidnapped. For two decades, she grieves the loss of Chase and struggles with her marriage to her husband Alan. Meanwhile, Lydia Feller mourns the death of her estranged sister, who spent years living on the streets with mental illness and substance abuse.

Trouble's newly minted sheriff, Garrett Galloway, is determined to move on from his traumatic past. But when Laurel McCallister tracks him down and begs for help, he can't say no to the smart, beautiful CIA analyst. She's desperate to find the assailant who killed her niece's family - and now wants her dead.

An abused widow, a dead doctor and a suspicious stranger. Not exactly the stuff of a merry little Christmas; but a parish minister can't really escape the holidays, or can she? Olympia Brown is the interim minister in the exclusive town of Loring by the Sea where a prominent doctor is about to be murdered. Shortly before Christmas, two very different people come to the church seeking refuge. One is the about-to-be widow and her twin daughters. The other, an undocumented man, living in the shadows of polite society. Both need help and sanctuary. Both will become suspects in the murder. Olympia battles history, tradition and the rule of law as she tries to season justice with mercy, seek truth and convince the church elders open their hearts and their doors as easily as they do their wallets.

A drive-by murder signals the end of a relaxed Christmas. Donna refuses to accept that organized crime is moving into town, but to do so, she must find the murderer. In the meantime, she needs to host a Victorian tea, pin down a certain detective's romantic intentions, keep a boozy Santa sober, deal with a cursed clown doll, and hide a hunky underwear model. It's just another holiday at The Painted Lady Inn.

The small Christmas obsessed town of Kissing Bridge is thrown into a holiday mystery when the famous Landers ladies' blue ribbon winning cookie recipe is stolen. All of the Christmas Eve Silver Bells cookie contestants are possible suspects. If that isn't worrisome enough, they also have the curse to contend with. Meanwhile, their neighbor has gone Hollywood crazy and is accosting innocent men all over the town with her wanton, unwanted kisses under the mistletoe. It seems as if all may be lost, but miracles and magic occur in Kissing Bridge all the time, so anything can happen....

Paisley Burger runs the best-known pet store in Wrangler’s Hill. She’s known as much for her clumsiness as her critters—snakes, turtles, and raccoons have a habit of escaping into the city, sometimes terrorizing schoolchildren. When Paisley is found dead in her store shortly before Christmas—having struck her head against the corner of a table—her friend Geneva Pomolo suspects foul play.

The last survivor of a Polish town that once numbered 25,000, WWII resistance fighter Michael Rain (born Moshe Rainewicz) makes his way to the place of his dreams—America—determined to start a new life after the war. His skills as a mechanic land him a job with Ford Motor Company, and he marries a resilient woman who has overcome her own troubled past. Michael’s daughter, Samantha, has every opportunity her working-class father can provide, as well as his razor-sharp mind, steel nerve, and boundless optimism. But she needs it all to meet the demands of single motherhood.

Kay Bishop is no stranger to the supernatural. As a Medium, spirits have always flocked to her like a beacon. But after a run-in with a demon and his Halfling creatures, Kay promised herself that this Christmas would be different...completely spirit-free and ordinary. But as usual, things don’t exactly go as planned. When a group of paranormal investigators unleash something dark and terrifying into the world, the evil follows Kay home after a holiday party, making her much-needed vacation week a living hell.