Holiday Thriller

Miranda did not put adventure on her Christmas list, but thanks to her 85-year-old neighbor Joy, that's exactly what she's getting this year. When Joy tells Miranda that she plans to drive an old RV decked out in Christmas decorations from their Chicago neighborhood to her new retirement digs in Phoenix - in the dead of winter, no less - the much younger Miranda insists that Joy cannot make such a trip by herself. Besides, a crazy trip with Joy would be more interesting than another Christmas home alone.

As beautiful as it may be, their friends’ country house is not where Lady Vespasia wishes to spend Christmas with her new husband, Victor Narraway. She’d have preferred a relaxing holiday at home with him - especially as Victor, former head of the London Special Branch, seems to be hiding undercover dealings with the other guests who have gathered at the spacious estate.

Part-time bookstore clerk, part-time author, necromancer in training, and full-time caretaker of a ghoul are titles that Ava Harper never dreamed of applying to herself.

Peace on Earth isn’t everyone’s cup of tea in Charlotte MacLeod’s “A Cozy for Christmas”. Peter Lovesey’s “The Haunted Crescent” delivers a holiday ghost story with a twist. A training session for department-store Santas turns up Saint Nicks who are anything but angels in Isaac Asimov’s “Ho, Ho, Ho”. Marcia Muller’s “Silent Night” finds a tough private investigator searching San Francisco’s Tenderloin district - and discovering something unexpected.

Sarah Booth and Tinkie are shopping with little Maylin when they see Sandra and Janet outside a bookstore, fur flying, and when Sandra vanishes from her own gala later that night, suspicion turns to Janet. Janet accuses Sandra of attempting to manipulate the media by a fake disappearance, but is it a stunt, or is something more sinister at play? Sarah Booth and Tinkie will have to dive deep into the history of Bay St. Louis, and even Al Capone himself, to get to the bottom of this case.

With Halloween just around the corner, the fall colors in Georgetown are brilliant. As manager of the Color Me Read bookstore, coloring book creator Florrie Fox has arranged for psychic author Hilda Rattenhorst to read from Spooktacular Ghost Stories. But the celebrity medium arrives for the event in hysterics, insisting she just saw a bare foot sticking out of a rolled-up carpet in a nearby alley. Is someone trying to sweep murder under the rug? Florrie calls in her policeman beau, Sergeant Eric Jonquille, but the carpet corpse has disappeared without a trace.

Mamie Simon is a grim and miserly old banker who rules over the financial world from the top of her Gotham City tower - and she absolutely hates Bitcoin. On Christmas Eve, she discovers Bob Cratchit, her chief clerk, is leaving his banker's job with her in order to follow the path of Bitcoin. The cringey hag blows her top upon hearing this news, and a battle of wits and wills ensues. Will Bob Cratchit succeed in following his Bitcoin dream, or will cold, heartless Mamie Simon succeed in stopping him? You'll have to listen to the story to find out!

Lumi Northrop is a powerful guardian of the north - the North Star Reindeer Sanctuary, that is. When Rudolph vanishes the week before Christmas, Lumi is thrust from the peace and quiet of her family's farm, into the magical town of Holiday Haven to help find him. Lumi quickly discovers that Rudolph isn't the only local celebrity who's gone missing. Jack Frost is also MIA, just days before his coronation as the next Frost King.

Mayor Cora Mae Bingham has a new friend that has come to town to straighten up the coal mine’s failed finances and keep the paychecks flowing faithfully through the holiday, but his financial fixes may cause some unanticipated fallout. Canine Officer Briscoe helps find a missing photographer, but the developments turn dark when the police probe into her marriage. Only the dark room offers some light on the situation. Despite these concerns, the citizens of Spicetown have a full heart at Christmastime and are busy preparing for the community play and choral presentation.

Several years have passed since the war with the djevels ended, the reality they'd infested was destroyed, and their king killed. But that left Sean and the lions faced with another problem: the million or so djevels currently in the world that needed to be hunted down and killed. Part of the solution was to fence in the biggest area that was infested to stop them from spreading any further, while teams began hunting down the ones that had escaped. It's not an easy job, but it's a lot easier than the previous one by far.

The Halloween Parade is coming up, and former CIA agent-turned-suburbanite Merry Wrath's Girl Scout Troop hopes to repeat a 1st place trophy for the 3rd year in a row. But when they find a dead woman dressed as a witch, a mysterious treasure, and face a ruthless kidnapping, it looks like Merry's in for a different kind of triple threat. To add fuel to her bonfire, Mom's in town—meaning Merry has to replace all that bullet-riddled furniture in the guest room—and with her wedding date approaching, her groom-to-be's twin taxidermist sisters are insisting on doing the decorating.

When a beautiful Christmas package appears on Grandmama's porch, it's much too heavy for the Christmas pudding it holds. With her family away for the holidays, Grandmama digs in to the pudding, only to find a cannon ball baked inside. Instantly, her memory flies back to a friendship she destroyed a decade before. Hoping to make amends, Grandmama travels to Surrey and joins up with her former friend's grandson to solve the murder of his grandfather - who Grandmama once loved and whose death she blamed, out of jealousy, on her friend.

It's Lex's first day back at work after maternity leave. She worries about the separation from her daughter as she leaves her with the nanny - but it's normal to worry, right? But Lex isn't a 'normal' mother. She's an elite-trained killer who works for a covert department within Her Majesty's Secret Service. She's just been given the assignment of her life, but can she juggle motherhood with the life of an assassin?

It's a week before Christmas, and my quaint holiday town, Marshmallow Hollow, is chock-a-block with seasonal activities. Some less fun than others...like the ice sculpting competition my bestie, Stiles, has talked me into. Let's just say, as a pair, Michelangelo we ain't. I'm secretly relieved when our epically awful ice display gets damaged. It gives me a chance to watch my new beau, Hobbs, compete in the sled race. But not five seconds in, and Hobbs' sled-loving dog, Stephen King, escapes my grip to get in on the action - and boy, does he.

Christmas has come early to the town of Paterson, New Jersey, in the form of a snowstorm that dumps two feet of snow on the ground. Lawyer Andy Carpenter likes snow – white Christmas and all that – but it can cause problems for the walks he takes his dogs on every day. When Andy’s golden retriever, Tara, goes to play in the snow and instead discovers a body, Andy ends up on the phone with the local newspaper editor. The murder victim is Mayor Alex Oliva, who had an infamous relationship with the newspaper.

Carrie's best friend has an accident and can no longer make the round-the-world trip they'd planned together, so Carrie decides to go it alone. Violet is also travelling alone, after splitting up with her boyfriend in Thailand. She is desperate for a ticket on the Trans-Siberian Express, but there is nothing available. When the two women meet in a Beijing Hotel, Carrie makes the impulsive decision to invite Violet to take her best friend's place. Thrown together in a strange country, and the cramped cabin of the train, the women soon form a bond

Claudine Burroughs, a volunteer in Hester Monk's clinic for sick and injured prostitutes, no longer expects closeness with her coldly ambitious husband and dreads the holidays. Then, at a glittering Yuletide gala, she meets the attractive poet Dai Tregarron, and suddenly her spirits lift. But an hour later, this fascinating man is enmeshed in a nightmare - accused of killing a young streetwalker who had been smuggled into the party.

Christmas morning 1902, London, England. A bottle of fine French wine from the Côte de Beaune region of France, intended as a gift from Mr. Sherlock Holmes to his old friend Dr. Watson, is found to have been drained of its aromatic spirits during the night and filled with sand. But not just any sand.

Every town has a history. Ours is just a little darker than most. For years, I've celebrated Halloween and Hollow Bridge's history with everyone else who lives here. Parades, festivals, and insane Halloween parties have always been a staple for us. Some bad behavior is expected, given what we're celebrating. But murder has never been on the table before. Someone in Hollow Bridge wants to bring the stories to life, and they're not firing any warning shots. When rumors of someone wearing a Halloween mask surface, it isn't long before the first person is killed.

Thanksgiving is Bailey King's busiest holiday weekend. This year promises to be even more hectic, since Bailey's candy shop is providing desserts for Harvest, Ohio's first village-wide Thanksgiving celebration. Yet the event's organizer, Margot Rawlings, is unfazed . . . until she discovers her mother, former judge Zara Bevan, will be in attendance. Zara's reputation as a harsh critic is matched only by her infamy as a judge. No one is prepared when she arrives with much younger boyfriend Blaze Smith. Then Blaze suffers an allergic reaction to something he's eaten and dies on the spot.