Holiday Mystery

Adventszeit 1881. Im Stadtgraben von Nürnberg wird ein Junge tot aufgefunden. Im Mund entdeckt die Polizei ein Stückchen Lebkuchen. Wenig später wird der Ratsherr Jakobus Ehrenhoff am Henkersteg aufgeknüpft. Um seinen Hals baumelt der Rest eines vergifteten Lebkuchenherzens. Pistoux scheint der rechte Mann an der rechten Stelle zu sein, denn die Ermittlungen drehen sich im Kreis und der in einer stadtbekannten Zuckerbäckerei arbeitende Meisterkoch kennt sich aus mit dem Gebäck.

It's the Christmas season, and Mr. Timothy Cratchit, not the pious child the world thought he was, has just buried his father. He's also struggling to bury his past as a cripple and shed his financial ties to his benevolent "Uncle" Ebenezer by losing himself in the thick of London's underbelly. He boards at a brothel in exchange for teaching the mistress how to read and spends his nights dredging the Thames for dead bodies and the treasures in their pockets.

Called to investigate the bloodstained aftermath of an eventful Christmas party, detectives Anderson & Costello discover that the holiday season can be anything but merry. A family man is stabbed to death at a crowded Christmas Ice Show. Murder in plain sight. No clues, no witnesses, no known motive.

Newcomers to Tinker's Cove, Ty and Heather Moon have moved into a dilapidated house reputed to be a haven for ghosts. Now strange noises and flickering lights erupt from the house at all hours and neighborly relations are on edge. And when a local boy goes missing near the house, it's up to Lucy Stone to unravel the mystery of the eccentric couple and their increasingly frightful behavior.

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?

On the Day of the Dead, the citizens of Venice make their way to the cemetery island of San Michele to pay their respects to the departed. When an empty coffin is unearthed in the English section of the graveyard, a day of quiet reflection for Nathan Sutherland becomes a journey into the dark past of a noble Venetian family. A British journalist, investigating the events of 40 years previously, disappears. A young tourist - with an unhealthy interest in Venice's abandoned islands- is found drowned in the icy lagoon. A terrible secret is about to be brought to light.

If love for his father makes a man weak, what’ll happen when he gives his heart to a woman? When Special Agent Finnegan O'Reilly gets shot, and the news brings on his father’s heart attack, he decides to take leave from further undercover assignments. The O'Reilly has suffered enough, and Finn can’t be the cause of more distress for this beloved old rascal. Unexpectedly, his boss forces one more case on him - to take place in their own pub.

Ainsley decides to set aside her search for answers to her past and enjoy her first Gooseberry Christmas by volunteering along with the rest of the gang for the Christmas festival on the boardwalk. Normally Ainsley didn’t bother much with Christmas and all its trappings, but this year she is excited to join in as most of the locals are prone to do. Of course it does put a bit of a damper on the festivities when a body is found in the tree lot where the gang had offered to help out.

In addition to feeding the felines Aubrey and Vincent, Jeremy Goodman has a new responsibility: filling a recently vacated trustee role at a local charity that works tirelessly to house the homeless. Jeremy is initially enthusiastic—but soon begins to suspect that all is not as it seems at the nonprofit’s headquarters.

Everyone knows a Juniper Holiday Halloween party is to die for. To get an invite is the most talked about topic in Crescent Cove. To experience the Holiday mansion in all its (supposedly) haunted glory is the stuff of legend. Of course, no one has actually seen a ghost in residence—but how could they when they’re having the time of their life?

It looks like a regular advent calendar. Until DC Becky Greene starts opening doors...and discovers a crime scene behind almost every one. The police hope it's a prank. Because if it isn't, a murderer has just surfaced - someone who's been killing for 20 years. But why now? And why has he sent it to this police station? As the country relaxes into festive cheer, Greene and DS Eddie Carmine must race against time to catch the killer. Because there are four doors left, and four murders will fill them....

Three American fishermen disappear along the North Carolina coast, their sport fishing yacht blown to pieces. The CIA keeps the details a secret, undertaking an intense investigation while family and friends search for answers on their own. Why are the Russian and Cuban military conducting secret meetings along the Mid-Atlantic Coast? What does an intense treasure hunt for Spanish gold off Cuba's coast have to do with a clandestine operation to rescue American citizens from Cuba? And how does Chechnya's fight for independence directly threaten the security of the United States?

It's Christmas and a chocolatier shows up at Sweet's Sweets, offering to create a special line of hand-dipped chocolates for Sam's customers. He says he will work for no pay, just to prove himself. But she learns that he has connections to the wooden box that seems to give Sam her mystical powers, and discovers that certain evil people will do just about anything to take it away from her.

Rue Cyprus and her Golden Retriever puppy, Kasey, are at it again. With Halloween around the corner, Kasey finds a black kitten hiding in the bushes. Rue and Kasey want to keep their new friend, but Rue's mom reminds her that the kitten probably has her own family. Can Rue and Kasey return the kitten to her rightful home before the ghosts and goblins appear?

After suffering a personal tragedy Abby Sullivan buys a huge old seaside mansion she has never even seen, packs up her life in San Francisco, and moves to Holiday Bay Maine, where she is adopted, quite against her will, by a huge Maine Coon Cat named Rufus, a drifter with her own tragic past named Georgia, and a giant dog with an inferiority complex named Ramos. What Abby thought she needed was alone time to heal. What she ended up with was, an inn she never knew she wanted, a cat she couldn't seem to convince to leave, and a new family she'd never be able to live without.

It's nearly Christmas, but seventeen-year-old Hope Novak just can't seem to get into the Christmas spirit. Over the summer she broke up with Shane Culver, the hottest guy at Oakmont High and Shane won't let her go. Everywhere Hope goes, Shane turns up. He finds a way to catch her by surprise, in a place where she can't get away. He tells her they were meant to be together, that he loves her, that if he can't have her . . . no one will.

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.

Die junge Gärtnerin Mags freut sich auf Weihnachten mit ihrer Familie und auf heimelige Stunden vor dem Kamin. Kurz vor dem Fest möchte ein Fotograf Aufnahmen des Gartens machen, den Mags in ein wahres Winterwunderland verwandelt hat. Doch dann bricht ein Schneesturm über Cornwall herein, das Cottage ist eingeschneit. Mags nimmt es mit Humor - bis sie im Schnee über die Leiche des Fotografen stolpert. Die Polizei wird Stunden brauchen, um zum Cottage zu gelangen. Muss Mags den Mörder unter ihren Gästen suchen?

‘The Signalman’ (1866) is a short story by the English writer Charles Dickens (1812-1870). In the story, a practical-minded narrator meets a railway worker who has been seeing supernatural visions. The narrator doubts the man at first, but at the story’s conclusion a strange event makes him a believer.

When a traveling Egyptian exhibit stops in picturesque Pomme Valley, all hell breaks loose when a valuable artifact is stolen and a dead body turns up in an unexpected location. The prime suspect has already been identified, but there's a catch: He's more than 3,000 years old. Pomme Valley's newest crime-fighting crusaders are on the case with Sherlock, new packmate Watson, and their reluctant human, Zack. Can they solve the murder and locate the missing loot before any more misfortune can befall the town?