Holiday Thriller

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.

Every year, the town of Happy Hills holds its haunted house contest. In a spooky old manor, teams of kids come up with new ways to frighten people. The scariest team wins. But this year, all the teams are going to lose. Because this year the house itself has awakened...and it won’t be happy until it’s devoured all the people inside. What started out as a game has turned into something much more deadly. Is there any way out?

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.

Lou is invited by good friend Abby Sullivan to co-host a writer's retreat in an isolated hunting and fishing lodge off the beaten path. Lou and Abby, along with helpers Georgia and Velma, think they've done everything they needed to do to host the twelve writers for a week of creativity and workshops, but what they couldn't have prepared for was the death of one of the writers during what turned out to be the biggest blizzard in decades.

Regan Reilly, is a young PI who has come from L.A. to ski and celebrate with her parents and their rich Aspen friends. It ends up being a busman's holiday for Regan, who gets swept up in art theft intrigue after some multimillion-dollar paintings are stolen from her parent's friends. The thieves continue to elude capture, but Regan is on their trail. She's up agaist time, though, as the clock ticks down to Aspen's biggest party of the season—at which the town's most valuable painting of all will be unveiled.

On Christmas Eve, 1943, the newly formed but undermanned Homicide division of the Melbourne police force is called to investigate the vicious double murder of a father and son. When Military Intelligence becomes involved, Homicide's Inspector Titus Lambert must unravel the personal from the political. If only the killings had stopped at two. The police are desperate to come to grips with an extraordinary and disquieting upsurge of violence.

The group discovers a purebred Maltese whimpering in the snow-covered grove - right beside a dead body. Pete, a squatter who camped out on the land, apparently met his end after a fallen fir-tree branch fell on his head. But as Melanie and Aunt Peg investigate Pete's complicated history, it's clear his death was no accident. Now, Melanie must run through a flurry of likely suspects and muzzle a dogged murderer in time - or she'll be next on someone's deadly list.

This anthology contains Angels in the Snow, The Good Shepherd, and Welcome to Bethlehem.

Once upon a Christmas in a quaint and cozy town by the sea, bookstore owners Lou Prescott and Velma Crawford find themselves knee deep in shiny ornaments, strings of garland, and tangled bundles of Christmas tree lights. When full time employee Eden Halliwell introduces them to a teenager with a secret looking for a part time job, the newest merchants in Holiday Bay decide to hire her, which ultimately sets off a chain of events that will change everything.

When local businessman Jed Greenberg is found dead with a Chocolate lab whimpering over his body, the police start sniffing around Robbie Jordan's country restaurant for answers. Was it something in Robbie's hot cocoa that killed Jed, or was it Cocoa the dog? As the suspects pile as high as her holiday tree, Robbie attempts to get to the bottom of the sickly sweet murder.

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.

After working for Charlotte and Thomas Pitt for years, Gracie thought her maid-work was behind her. But when her good friend turns up at her doorstep just before the holidays, frantic because she's lost her job and has no references for a new one since she was unceremoniously fired, Gracie knows she has to find out what happened. Her friend, it seems, was concerned about what was going on in the house, and the husband and wife who lived there got rid of her to stop her talking.

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.

This Christmas season, genealogist Ellie McLellan is put in charge of organizing the Percyville holiday festivities. Together with her dwindling senior genealogist group, she endeavors to plan an exceptional event for the town. But when a family feud is unexpectedly thrust upon her, she must find a Percyville treasure before the last generation renews the feud or destroys the the town's Christmas tradition. Will the elders of the community have the clues Ellie needs to solve this mystery?

After twenty years apart, Matthew and Helena have rekindled their college romance and are away in Iceland on their first holiday together. Swept up in the romance on a mountain hike, one moment they are taking the perfect photo, the next Helena is hanging from the cliff edge…

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.

It’s December in Boston, and Spenser is busy planning the menu for Christmas dinner when he’s confronted in his office by a young boy named Slide. Homeless and alone, Slide has found refuge with an organization named Street Business, which gives shelter and seeks job opportunities for the homeless and lost. Slide’s mentor, Jackie Alvarez, is being threatened, and Street Business is in danger of losing its tenuous foothold in the community, turning Slide and many others like him back on the street. But it’s not a simple case of intimidation....

It's the Christmas season and veterinarian Kate Turner is not feeling very jolly. She's overworked, unappreciated, and dealing with two dissatisfied clients. Throw in a very complicated personal life and Kate's definitely got a case of the holiday blues. To make matters worse, Kate's ex-boyfriend, Jeremy, is mugged and robbed after they have a heated argument in the hospital parking lot. Then, two of her dissatisfied clients turn up dead (which really gets Kate's tinsel in a tangle). All of these events seem like coincidences, but they add up to something much more venomous.

Libby Sarjeant is deep into rehearsals for the annual pantomime when a body is found in a doorway two weeks before Christmas - and Libby and her friend Fran are called into action once again, when their investigation leads them to a local brewery and the sale of many of its pubs. With the help of a team of local publicans, can Libby and Fran unravel the case before it's too late?

Camille's been unwillingly drafted to help prevent a Christmas catastrophe in snowy Hidden Haven. Magic from the annual Spirit of Christmas Ball keeps the town hidden from humans for the rest of the year, but the magic from the ball can't be captured without the town's holiday cheer vessel: a wand that adorns the town's tree as its crowning star. Camille arrives dressed in a red ball gown, receives a pair of glass slippers that magically don't pinch, and is assigned a canine companion to assist in her mission: find Hidden Haven's pilfered holiday cheer wand.