Holiday Mystery Thriller

Bessie Frone, the beloved owner of the Enchanted Bookstore and Café, is in BIG trouble. Her family wand, made of pure gold and passed down for generations, has been stolen. Of course, Bessie is heartbroken, and now she’s ready to sell the shop and the building unless the wand is found. I can’t let her sell the Enchanted. It’s the heart of Holiday Hills, the place where gossip is always the daily special, and Bessie’s coffee is to die for! Well, not literally, thank Goddess!

"Eggnog Murder": When a gift-wrapped bottle of eggnog proves to be a killer concoction for a Tinker's Cove local, all Lucy Stone wants for Christmas is to find the murdering mixologist who's stirring up trouble. "Death By Eggnog": Food and cocktails columnist Hayley Powell has never cared much for Bar Harbor's grouchy town librarian, Agatha Farnsworth. But after the Scroogy senior has a fatal - and suspicious - allergic reaction to supposedly non-dairy eggnog, it's up to Hayley to ladle out some justice.

Since Father Tibor Kasparian escaped the Soviet Union, he has done his best to keep his philosophy to himself - not out of fear, but because he knows that few people could stomach an honest account of life under Stalinism. When he gets an invitation to spend a semester teaching philosophy at Independence College, Kasparian hesitates, but his friend Gregor Demarkian, a former FBI investigator, convinces him to accept. They will both wish he had decided to stay away.

There's one corpse too many in this ingenious mystery featuring husband-and-wife sleuth duo PI Rosco Polycrates and crossword editor Belle Graham. The residents of the bucolic Massachusetts hamlet are up in arms. A developer has bought the sprawling Quigley homestead, and his construction crew is causing a ruckus digging up the land. The noise stops abruptly when a female skeleton is found buried in the garden.

Things are finally getting back to normal for the residents of the posh neighborhood where she works after the death of their Homeowner's Associate President. But when Shelby enters Mr. Newmar's garden to hang up some outdoor fairy lights, she finds another body.

Christmas is quickly approaching in Brentfield, and self-proclaimed crazy cat lady Olivia Wright has just opened Poe's Place, the small Vermont town’s first cat-rescue shelter. Olivia receives a request to pick up three stray kittens at an old roadhouse in a rough part of town and is relieved that the kittens are okay, but she's horrified when she discovers a body. When her former contractor is arrested for the murder, Olivia not only jumps in to uncover the truth, she takes in his 18-year-old son, Jack, because she fully believes that no one should be alone during the holidays.

Ainsley Holloway had come to Gooseberry Bay to find answers about her past. She’d come to find an explanation for the dreams that haunted her after the death of the cop who’d both rescued and raised her. And she’d come to identify the family she couldn’t remember but knew in her heart she’d once belonged to.

Sydney Whitmore, a forensic psychologist, moves to Shipwreck Island and renews her relationship with Ezra Reinhold, a reclusive billionaire who enjoys poking around in cold cases. In book four, Arden Haynsworth has been kidnapped after being sentenced to death for her part in the death of the kidnapper's daughter Daisy. Arden insists she’s innocent of the crime she’s been accused of and is certain she was set up to take the fall. With only five days to prove the woman’s innocence or watch her perish, the team jumps into action.

Having lost her post as a governess, when Annabeth Watson returns home for Christmas, she's returning home to stay. A less-than-welcome reception from her father isn't surprising, but the murder of a maid is quite shocking. Can Annabeth find the truth of what happened during the house party, against her father's wishes? Or will the lecherous Lord Gresham and mysterious Lord Wright keep her from investigating?

Ainsley is out walking her dogs, Kai and Kallie, when she finds a man dressed as Santa sitting on a bench. The man has blood on his jacket and looks to be confused, and when she discovers that the man seems to have some sort of amnesia and cannot remember who he is or why he is in Gooseberry Bay, Ainsley decides to take him back to the peninsula. They find evidence that a man dressed as Santa was last seen running from the scene of a murder. Deputy Todd figures he has all the proof he needs and arrests the man, but Ainsley still isn't sure,

Lori Maddox chooses to spend the year after university travelling and visits China, where she finds casual work as a private English tutor. Back in Manchester her parents, Joanna and Tom, who separated when Lori was a toddler, follow her adventures on her blog. When Joanna and Tom hear nothing for weeks, they become increasingly concerned and travel out to Chengdu in search of their daughter.

Himmlische Ruh? Niemals nicht! Wenn die Königin der Krimödie Weihnachten feiert, geht es alles andere als besinnlich zu. Da treffen Gangster im Rauschgoldengelkostüm mit Pumpguns unterm Kleidchen auf giftige Schoßschlangen, da angelt man beim Eisfischen menschliche Füße, da wird der Weihnachtsmann zum Axtmörder, da färbt sich weißer Schnee blutrot - und der Weihnachtself ist unpässlich, weil ihm ein Pitbull in den Hintern gebissen hat.

The year is 1986. The increasing popularity of video-game consoles and home-video recorders render requests for traditional toys at an all-time low. With his workshop rapidly losing popularity and demand among the children of the world, Santa Claus decides to take his business in a new direction. International drug trafficking. After all, why lose money making Christmas crackers, when he can earn money making Christmas crack heads. One of the elves escapes to the big city to enlist the help of Dallas Stone, a maverick cop who only knows one way to fight crime.

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. But the more she gets to know the quiet, lonely Angela, the more she trusts her.

Es ist Advent auf Sylt. Ernst Mannsen hat zwar nichts gegen Weihnachten, aber die Insel ist ihm ohne Touristen zu leer, die Tage sind lang und dunkel. Seine Frau Gudrun freut sich hingegen auf den Weihnachtsmarkt, aufs Schmücken des Hauses und auf die Weihnachtsfeiertage mit der Familie. Als der gelangweilte Ernst erfährt, dass der Filialleiter der Bank mitsamt den Spenden für die bedürftigen Kinder verschwunden ist, ergreift er seine Chance auf Abwechslung: Er wird sich um das Problem kümmern! Und das Geld für die Weihnachtsgeschenke beschaffen.

As usual, 17-year-old Alice Teale walked out of school at the end of a bright spring day. She's not been seen since. Alice was popular and well-liked, and her boyfriend, friends and family are desperate to find her. But when the police start asking questions, it becomes clear that almost everyone has something to hide. Torn between a host of suspects, Detectives Beth Winter and Lucas Black don't know which way to turn. But then they receive a disturbing package: pages from Alice's precious diary. Who could have sent them? And have they done with Alice?

Private detective Nick Bozic works the mean streets of 1950s Portland, Oregon, shadowing unfaithful spouses and nabbing thieving employees. He may be lonely, but at least he’s not crooked. Despite the festive season, Christmas simply means less dough in his pocket. With the holiday only a few days away, a regular client drops a new case on him: Yet another being has come through the Rift and needs help finding his way home. Maybe Evindal the elf will help Nick find something, too - a bit of cheer and magic amid the usual brew of corruption and betrayal.

House flippers Jack and Juniper agree to lend and help prep their latest purchase - the Doctor's House, an old Victorian mansion - to act as the eerie setting for the town's Halloween bash. They're expecting to find missing floor boards and pesky bats, not the ghostly specter of the murdered doctor's wife. But when the head of the council is found stuffed in a trunk in the attic, it appears history is repeating.

Language Arts teacher Mrs. Kelsey Swan randomly has her students pick a writing assignment to be completed in two weeks from a top hat. Seventeen-year-old Veronica "Vroni" Swan draws the legend of her two times great-grandfather having buried treasure somewhere in Swanson. Not only must she write about her family, but her partner on this assignment is the awkward Suzie Carmichael.

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!