Holiday Mystery

Christmas is supposed to be a happy time, but Aisling Grimlock is feeling anything but festive. For her, the world seems to be shrinking, and good cheer is hard to find. Aisling’s worry about meeting her live-in boyfriend Griffin Taylor's mother takes a backseat when a new enemy appears, this one haunting Aisling in mirrors and turning up at the exact wrong time. The creature seems fascinated with Aisling - following her from one mirror to the next and threatening her very survival.

With Christmas right around the corner, four children find that their holiday may be in jeopardy when their parents are called away for an emergency with the family business. Hope is restored when their favorite uncle agrees to babysit. However, when their uncle mysteriously comes up missing, the children must find where the ghost of the little girl in their house has hidden him before Christmas is really ruined.

Detectives Patrick Holling and Julian Ives work to solve the cases assigned to New Jersey PD’s Holiday Crimes Unit. Known to their coworkers as Holly and Ivy, this unlikely duo find themselves grappling with a series of more and more difficult cases, as they struggle to make their partnership a success even as they slog through dirty snow, spend time in the morgue, grapple with the mob, and attempt to outsmart the feds. Now, their first three Christmas cases have been brought together in one convenient package.

December 1860. Headed for the morning shift at the Swindon Locomotive Works is an army of men pouring out of terraced houses built by the GWR, a miniature town and planned community that aims to provide for its employees from cradle to grave. Unfortunately, boilersmith Frank Rodman is headed for the grave sooner than he'd expected, or he will be once his missing head is found. Colbeck, the Railway Detective, finds his investigation into Rodman's murder mired in contradictions.

The best thing about the holiday season is spending time with family. At the same time, sometimes the worst thing about the holiday season is spending time with family. The stories in this collection touch on that and more as Mandy Nichols, Jeff Resnick, and Judi Straub struggle through what's supposed to be the joyous season. One family contemplates murder; another wants to end what they see as a bad relationship, while another can only see their loved one for what she can do for them. Sound familiar? Happy Holidays? puts the Christmas fun into dysfunction!

Three irritable curmudgeons, each successful in their respective fields, find themselves thrown together on a comically arduous journey - all at the behest of a mysterious host. Arriving at their destination, the three men find their cantankerous hearts melting in the presence of a newborn infant.

This time, Savannah and Rafe have their infant daughter with them, and everyone’s cooing over the new addition. But Carrie isn’t the only thing that’s changed. Several other people have news, and some of the directions things are going might alter the course of several lives, including Rafe’s and Savannah’s, for the foreseeable future.

It’s Christmas in Salem, and Winter Allen isn’t just playing the Ghost of Christmas Past in the community theater’s production of A Christmas Carol, she’s actually seeing them. And this spirit is worried that the people responsible for her murder are now after her daughter. Somehow the ghost knows Winter is a witch, and her ice magic may be the key to saving the ghost’s daughter. Jackson Walker is a PI in Salem, but he’s also a werewolf, and his heightened senses give him an edge. When a witch from the Coven of Light contacts him asking for help in finding a missing woman, he’s quick to agree.

After the shocking events of last Christmas, Jess Croft is determined this festive season will be the one to remember, for all the right reasons. But when a stranger turns up on her doorstep claiming to be her estranged father, Jess is shocked. Moreso, when the man claims that the little girl with him is none other than Jess’s sister - a child she knew nothing about. Jess isn’t sure she wants these strangers to stay, but she can’t turn them away, especially when she learns that their lives are in danger.

It’s Christmastime, but one old movie studio watchman won’t be celebrating. It’s now up to two patrolmen to solve the case in this murder mystery set in 1943 Hollywood. Murder On Santa Claus Lane was adapted from a pulp-fiction story by William G. Bogart, first appearing in G-Men Detective magazine.

Deliver a gift. A seemingly simple mission until Mathias runs into some complications, namely a clumsy lady with an obsession for sweaters. A woman who knows how to heat his blood without even trying. Snowmen aren’t the only ones with frozen hearts. Mathias, a career assassin, isn’t a man to give in to emotion. Feelings are messy, and a smart guy would run away. But that won’t get the job done. He needs to get closer.

It's New Year's Day, a time for new beginnings and setting the stage for things to come. Factory worker Kevin usually starts with a day off, but this year he's working the year-end inventory. He is disgruntled but doing as he's asked until he can get out of there and return home to his wife and kids.

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.

Emily y Linda están invitadas a la mejor fiesta de Halloween que se celebra en Blossom Creek. Pero las bromas dejan paso al terror cuando, en plena celebración, resuena un disparo. ¡Alguien ha matado...a la Muerte! De hecho, la víctima vestía un lúgubre disfraz de Ángel de la Muerte. ¡Un caso espeluznante para la Agencia Wright!

Librarian and solver of mysteries, Kit Sorel has a lot on her plate this December. The eccentric but cozy island of Greengage can do that to a person. All Kit wants is to settle into her first holiday season on this quaint English isle - torn away from her past home, family, and old friends - as she is.

There’s a Grinch in Pomme Valley! Someone is stealing presents right from under the noses of unsuspecting homeowners and leaving no trace of how he broke in. And, to make matters even more baffling, he’s stealing only presents! Corgis Sherlock and Watson are on the case! Accompanied by their reluctant human, Zack, the unlikely trio must find out who’s responsible for the thefts and stop him before anyone gets hurt. The townsfolk are scared. City officials are nervous. Can Zack and the dogs put a stop to this crime spree before Christmas is ruined for everyone?

Those two bad men, Lanky Len and Hefty Hugh, are back! They may be in the city instead of the farm, but they haven't changed their thieving ways. In fact, they're even more ambitious. They're planning to steal a monkey from the zoo and use it to pinch the Queen's crown. It's a pity for them that a certain crime-busting ladybird is holidaying in the very same city...and she's got a good idea that will ensure the dastardly pair won't get away with it!

For Lucy Stone, the best thing about Christmas in Tinker’s Cove, Maine, has always been the annual Cookie Exchange. But the usual generosity and goodwill are missing from this year’s event, which turns out to be a complete disaster. Petty rivalries and feuds that have long been simmering finally come to a boil, leaving a bad taste in the mouths of many guests, including Lee Cummings - who accuses Tucker Whitney of stealing her recipe for low-fat, sugar-free cookies. But the icing on the cake is when Tucker is found strangled in her apartment the following morning.

Tinker’s Cove, Maine, has a long history of Thanksgiving festivities, from visits with TomTom Turkey to the annual Warriors high school football game and Lucy Stone’s impressive pumpkin pie. But this year, someone has added murder to the menu, and Lucy intends to discover who left Metinnicut Indian activist Curt Nolan dead - with an ancient war club next to his head. The list of suspects isn’t exactly brief. Nolan had a habit of disagreeing with just about everybody he met.

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.