Christmas Thriller

Defendant Henry Edmonds, a homeless man who believes he works for Santa Claus, is on trial for stealing a flash drive full of secrets which may hold the key to Christmas but which is zipped tight in an evidence bag. Several people want Edmonds in jail, including a man who says he works for an international toy company. Witness by witness the facts come out but who is to be believed and are there any True Believers? As the courtroom clock ticks down on Christmas Eve, it becomes clear that the fates of the defendant and Christmas are inextricably intertwined.

Lori Shepherd and her family spend Christmas in the cottage willed to her by her late Aunt Dimity, but when she discovers a stranger barely alive in the snow, she teams up with a priest and together they unveil the tragic secret that led the stranger to her door.

Lucy normally loves planning for the holidays, but this year, Tinker's Cove has fallen on hard times. With so many residents struggling, Christmas festivities are a luxury some can't afford. But the story's not so bleak at Downeast Mortgage, whose tightfisted owners, Jake Marlowe and Ben Scribner, are raking in profits from everyone's misfortune. Half the town is in their debt, so when the miserly Marlowe is murdered, the mourners are few and the suspects are many. Scribner believes Marlowe's ghost has come to warn him of his own demise, and when he starts receiving death threats, Lucy wonders if there's more to the omen....

It's Millie's and Jeremiah's first Christmas in their new desert home, and it should be a fun one. But then six-year-old Caleb disappears while in their care. Searching for him on their dirt bikes, they come upon a lifeless body. They're in need of a Christmas miracle, but will they get one in time?

Attorney Thad Raker is a man who believes in Santa Claus. And for good reason. He’s won two trials for defendants who said they worked for Santa Claus, and he saved Christmas both times. But when Raker is hired 11 years later to defend the toy company that made the most popular Christmas present in 50 years - the Reindeer Hoverboard - he becomes entangled in the greatest threat to Christmas yet.

Christmas is a time for family and giving, and a wealthy woman in Adelaide, Oklahoma, is about to embrace both. Discovering that she has a young grandson, the dowager decides to change her will to leave the bulk of her fortune to the young boy, an alteration that stuns the rest of her family. But a scrooge of a determined heir makes sure she never signs the new document. When she is found dead, it's up to that irrepressible spirit Bailey Ruth to save Christmas.

When miserly millionaire Barnaby Galen is found dead in his dilapidated mansion, two corpses are on the scene - the murder victim and the murder weapon. Staring into the skeleton face of a horror prop called Granny, Galen dies of fright, leaving only enemies and suspects behind. With echoes of Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, Blue Christmas is a witty, heartfelt romantic mystery that will make fans of Emma Jameson's best-selling series want to stand up and cheer.

Jolene Bails may come off as a tough-as-nails, no-nonsense kind of woman, but underneath it all, she has a softer side. Now that she has a Secret Santa who seems to know her well, she finds herself opening to the idea of wanting more from life. But first, she has to figure out who is leaving her mysterious gifts and why it is Wil, her old flame, is acting so strange.

Southern girl Verity Long needs a Christmas miracle...Verity is ready to deck the halls, jingle some bells, and maybe, just maybe have a merry Christmas with her boyfriend’s stuffy family. Truly, if she doesn’t extend the proverbial olive branch to the overbearing Wydells, she’s afraid she’ll hit them over the head with it. But when her boyfriend’s mother pulls a shocking stunt, Verity finds herself with a big decision to make. And if that’s not enough, there’s an unexpected guest at her door.

The Darkness of New Orleans dozed fitfully during the war years, waiting for its chance to play with its toys again. It was a Darkness as carefully hidden as the gates to the small courtyards that lurk between buildings in the French Quarter. In the Le Prete Mansion, a movie is just now wrapping up, having spawned madness in trying to film a seductive tale of death and mystery. Disenfranchised spirits have been sent to the hell of their birth. One lost spirit has found a new home in the body of a French Quarter policewoman.

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?

Half angel. Half demon. One hundred percent teenager. On Halloween, Esme's life changed. On Thanksgiving, she counted her blessings - and her curses. This Christmas, she confronts her greatest fears - and discovers her true gift.

Jill and Mrs V are both in big trouble until salvation comes from the most unlikely quarter.

Discover clean and fun best-selling cozy mysteries by Amber Crewes to enjoy! A light cozy-mystery series with an amateur female sleuth, mouth-watering culinary desserts, and 13 gripping murder mysteries!

It’s late December between Ground Zero and Fatal Error, a winter of discontent for Jack who’s perhaps spending too much time hanging at Julio’s. An old contact, Edward Burkes, convinces him to take on a missing-person fix. As usual, nothing is as it seems, and the missing person isn’t exactly a person. In fact, it’s like nothing anyone has ever seen. And in the middle of all this, the mysterious Madame de Medici hires him to safeguard a valuable object. Simple, right? Not even close. Yep, Jack is back and, as usual, weird trouble is on his heels.

England 1923. No sooner does Kitty Worthington arrive at Wynchcombe Castle for her sister’s holiday nuptials than she makes a gruesome discovery—the remains of a woman who perished long ago. Her death was not natural; she suffered a violent end. And there’s a mysterious connection to the Wynchcombe family that must be explained.

A short story from British Library Crime Classic The Christmas Card Crime and Other Stories. A Christmas Eve party at Clevere Hall ends in tragedy when the host is found stabbed to death. Major Ceely certainly wasn’t short of enemies, but who hated him enough to commit the crime?

Two years ago, Candice’s life changed in a single night. The apartment she shared with her mother and special-needs son burned to the ground, forcing her to accept the help of a stranger. Gary Ford, her knight in soot-coated bunker gear, helped to save their lives and then gave them a home so they could recover from the loss. Convincing her to marry him, they wed on this past Christmas Eve and hoped that their lives had finally hit the plateau we all like to think of as normal. No such luck.

Pathologist Toni Day and her husband, Hal, are mystified when she starts receiving grisly Christmas cards depicting murders, each accompanied by a twisted verse from The Twelve Days of Christmas, and she and her partners are suddenly inundated with autopsies on the corresponding bodies. The victims are members of a jury that convicted Toni’s old boyfriend Robbie of kidnapping and sent him to prison.

It’s a cold and snowy Christmas Eve in the rowdy mining town of Deadwood in the Dakota Territory. Rather than enjoy some drinks in front of a warm fire with her friends, contracted Slayer Clementine Johanssen has her horse saddled and weapons packed to head out into the hills and hunt down some deadly scallywags—alone. When her friends catch wind of her intentions, they set out to waylay her long enough to change her way of thinking...in spite of her mule-headedness.