Christmas Thriller

The year is 1857, soon after the tragic Siege of Cawnpore. In the British garrison, a guard is killed and an Indian prisoner escapes, which leads to yet more British deaths. Cries for revenge are overwhelming. Despite no witnesses and no evidence against him, a luckless British medical orderly named John Tallis is arrested as an accomplice simply because he was the only soldier unaccounted for when these baffling crimes were committed.

When Iris Woodmore visits Winchester for their annual pantomime, murder is the last thing she expects to find. And there seems to be no valid reason as to why anyone would want to hurt lead actress, Rachel Lacey – kind and philanthropic, she organized the Christmas performance to raise funds for the Winchester Cathedral Great War Fund. Determined to uncover the sinister forces at play, Iris and her dear friend Percy embark on a perilous journey through the snow-lined streets of Winchester, where secrets lurk around every corner and danger looms in the shadows.

Meet Marcia Banks...I’m a normal person. Well, I do have an unusual first name, pronounced Mar-see-a, not Marsha. And an abnormal vocation - I train service dogs for veterans with PTSD. But otherwise I’m normal...Except I tend to get sucked into other people’s messes, which has led to my unusual avocation - amateur sleuth. Romp along with me and my four-legged best friend, Buddy through our first three big adventures, plus a bittersweet Christmas tale!

Mildred Kilgore and Earlynne Biddle are planning to open a bakery on the square - if they can come up with the right recipes. Charlie Dickens faces two of the biggest puzzles of his career as an investigative reporter, and one of them involves his wife. Cute little Cupcake's talent as a singer and dancer makes her a tempting target for an unscrupulous exploiter. Lizzy must enlist the Dahlias to protect her while she herself is confronted by a romantic puzzle. And Sheriff Norris is forced to reopen a puzzling mystery that the town thought was solved.

After five years of running the Holiday Haven Inn, Carolyn Highcrest thinks she can handle anything. She and her best friend Mercy are determined to make their festive weekend celebrations the best they can possibly be, despite being surrounded by scheming rivals, melodramatic theatre group members and overenthusiastic carollers.

As Naples prepares for its holiday celebrations, behind the facade of order and happiness imposed by the fascist regime lurks terrible poverty and blinding desperation. In a luxurious apartment on the Mergellina beach, the bodies of a fascist militia officer and his wife have been found. The woman's throat has been cut while the man has been stabbed over 60 times. Seemingly, the hands of two separate killers have been at work.

It’s Christmas in Riddleton and crime-novelist-turned-amateur-sleuth Jen is in desperate need of a cozy festive season running the town's local bookstore. But, between trying to drum up business for Ravenous Readers and attempting to finish her latest novel, Jen is totally run off her feet. Matters get worse, however, when a man's body is found outside the bookstore, along with a scrap of paper in his pocket with none other than Jen's address on it!

Henry Rathbone is called by an old friend whose son has gone missing 10 days before the Christmas holiday. Now in his early twenties, Lucien has known trouble for some time and has often fallen victim to the vices of drugs, alcohol and women. His father now fears the worst. Their old friend and reformed brothel-owner, Squeaky Robinson, volunteers to help. Henry agrees and, joined by Crow, a young doctor at the clinic, the pair trawls the pubs, brothels, and opium dens of the West End in search of clues.

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?

DI Tom Stonem’s peaceful holiday is cut short when a body is discovered nearby, in the shadow of the Angel of the North. The dead man is bound, his arms outstretched in the sculpture’s iconic pose. In the man’s pocket is what appears to be a little girl’s Christmas list, with the first item – 1. Angel delight – crossed off. When a second body is found – a woman, stabbed in the abdomen after her work Christmas do – Stonem can’t help but notice a grim connection between the crime scenes and the items on the seemingly innocent list. 2. Red party dress. Could this be a murderer’s twisted code?

Fearne Dixon hates Christmas. As the long-suffering wife of the Ellsbury Christmas Market’s manager, she’s sick to the back teeth of it and it’s still only November. But then the bodies start piling up, an old rival arrives back in her life, and Fearne reaches breaking point.

Scuff has come a long way from his time as a penniless orphan scraping together a living on the banks of the Thames. Now he's studying medicine at a free clinic run by Dr. Crowe. Lately Crowe has grown distracted after witnessing an altercation between a former patient of his named Ellie—a woman he not only treated but grew to love—and her controlling fiancé. It seems someone is forcing Ellie to marry the man, and as Crowe's emotions come flooding back, he sets out to uncover the troubling connection between Ellie, her father, and her betrothed.

Identical twin sisters Alex and Hannah are the owners of Murder and Mayhem, a mystery bookshop that sells their famous poison-themed Killer Chocolates. But now, there’s a real killer in their midst. Shortly before Christmas, their septuagenarian neighbor, Jane, confides to Alex that a murderer from a true-crime show has taken up residence in the village. Unfortunately, she’s also shared her suspicions with town gossip Netta. The next morning, Alex shows up at Jane’s house to watch the show, but instead she discovers Jane's body, with a box of Killer Chocolates nearby.

As the owner of Mrs. Claus's Treasures, Merry Wilkinson knows how to decorate homes for the holidays. That's why she thinks her float in the semi-annual Santa Claus parade is a shoe-in for best in show. But when the tractor pulling Merry's float is sabotaged, she has to face facts: there's a Scrooge in Christmas Town. Merry isn't ready to point fingers, especially with a journalist in town writing a puff piece about Rudolph's Christmas spirit. But then she stumbles upon the reporter's body on a late night dog walk....

This holiday season, join two of today’s most popular paranormal authors for a special look into their worlds, where creatures are always stirring and no one sleeps through the night. The Bite Before Christmas: Teddy Brunswick knows about the immortals among us. He’s worked with them, called them friend - but he never counted on being snowed in with one over Christmas. Home for the Holidays by Jeaniene Frost: Cat and Bones are looking forward to a normal holiday - at least as “normal” as it gets for the combustible vampire couple....

Alice loves Christmas, it's her favorite holiday. This year, Alice is going to spend Christmas in France. She'll be living in a Parisian apartment with a French family. Alice is very lucky to be sharing Christmas with this family. But watch out! A party can quickly turn into a tragedy....

In a gloomy flat off Islington High Street, Chief Inspector Brett Nightingale and Sergeant Beddoes find an old woman dead. The Princess Olga Karukhin, who fled from Russia at the time of the Revolution, has lived in terror of being discovered ever since. Olga's grandson, Ivan, appears to have run from the scene but is later seen returning to the flat as though oblivious to the terrible crime. Taking place between 22nd and 24th December, Nightingale's enquiry takes him across London, culminating in the wrapping up of the mystery on Christmas Eve.

Christmas is all about lists. To do lists. Shopping lists. Lists to bloody Santa. And doesn’t Anna Johnson know it. Waking up on Christmas Eve after the annual Johnson party, she's hungover, exhausted and really sick and tired of Christmas already. All she wants is to tick the last things off her endless list and sit down with the world’s biggest glass of wine. ​A mysterious death in her home really is the last thing she has time for right now, but with police officers and a husband and two kids intent on watching Christmas films, it looks like it’s up to her.

Uncle Willie has come to stay with the Redpaths for the holidays. It is just their luck for him to be found dead the morning after Christmas day, dressed in his Santa Claus costume, seemingly poisoned by his favourite chocolates. Or was there something sinister in the mince pies? If so, was it the ones stashed in his room or those sent to him mysteriously by post? More importantly, since his will was recently redrafted, who stands to gain by this unseasonable crime?

Throughout the years, the ladies of the Sisterhood have delivered their own style of vigilante justice to those who most deserve it. But this Christmas, instead of finding and punishing bad guys, all Maggie Spitzer wants is to bring a little more joy to the world - and especially to a beloved teacher from her past. And as the Sisters unite to find her, they learn that no holiday treat is as fulfilling as giving to others....