Murder under the Mistletoe:
Golden Age Christmas Mysteries
Listed below is a small selection from a very large list I have of detective fiction set around Christmas. The vast majority are from the Golden Age, of course, but I've listed a few great contemporary titles as well. I hope you enjoy unearthing new reads as well as rediscovering old favourites. I'll be adding more as I track them down but do let me know of any you'd like me to include - theoldman@cambridgecrime.com
Nicholas Blake: Thou Shell of Death (9780099565369)
The Case of the Abominable Snowman (9780099565550)
Christopher Bush: Dancing Death (9781911579731)
Little Levington Hall, the site of the seasonal house party, is owned by Martin Braishe, inventor of a lethal gas. Unfortunately for him and his houseguests, their fancy-dress ball might more accurately be described as a fancy-death ball. After the formal festivities have taken place place, nine guests remain at the snowbound Hall, along with a retinue of servants.
It is at this point that dead bodies most inconveniently begin to turn up at Little Levington, like so many unwanted Christmas presents. It will be up to the eccentric Ludovic Travers, with his companions John Franklin and Superintendent Wharton of Scotland Yard, to solve this most intricate and ingenious of Yuletide mysteries.
Agatha Christie: Midwinter Mysteries (9780008328962)
Hercule Poirot’s Christmas (9780007527540)
The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding (9780008509347 (hbk); 9780008164980 (pbk)
Joan Coggin: Dancing with Death (9781912916603)
“AM IN GREAT TROUBLE, please come at once. Duds.” - It is the aftermath of the Second World War and Tommy and Duds Lethbridge have inherited a manor house in Buckinghamshire. The couple invite their friends to an old-fashioned Christmas house-party to keep their minds off the dreariness of the times, England still being in the grip of post-war austerity.
The party begins favourably enough, though not much time passes before everything begins to go awry, as guests seem to be falling out with each other, in particular twin sisters, Flo and Jo. With drinks running low, Duds is beginning to regret ever embarking on a week-long celebration. Unfortunately, in the early hours of New Year’s Day, events take a turn for the worse…
Duds thinks it might be a good idea to call in the services of her good friend and amateur detective, Lady Lupin, the somewhat scatterbrained wife of the Glanville vicar.
Hugh Conway: Dark Days and Much Darker Days (9780008137748)
Moray Dalton: The Night of Fear (9781912574896)
A Christmas gathering of young and old in a great country house in England--a masquerade—and the lights are turned off for a game of hide and seek. Silence—then a man’s cry for “Lights!” The lights come on, revealing Hugh Darrow, blind since the War, standing in the main hall, fresh blood dripping from his hands and covering his white Pierrot costume. He tells the story of having discovered a dead man, stabbed through the heart, lying in a curtained window embrasure next to the one in which he was hiding. The murdered man proves to be Stallard, one of the visitors, and a writer of mystery tales.
Moray Dalton: The Night of Fear (9781912574896)
A Christmas gathering of young and old in a great country house in England--a masquerade—and the lights are turned off for a game of hide and seek. Silence—then a man’s cry for “Lights!” The lights come on, revealing Hugh Darrow, blind since the War, standing in the main hall, fresh blood dripping from his hands and covering his white Pierrot costume. He tells the story of having discovered a dead man, stabbed through the heart, lying in a curtained window embrasure next to the one in which he was hiding. The murdered man proves to be Stallard, one of the visitors, and a writer of mystery tales.
Carter Dickson: The White Priory Murders (9780712354226)
Francis Duncan: Murder for Christmas (9781784703455)
Martin Edwards (Ed): Silent Nights (9780712356107)
Crimson Snow: Winter Mysteries (9780712356657)
The Christmas Card Crime (9781464210914)
A Surprise for Christmas (9780712353373)
Brian Flynn: Exit Sir John (9781915393388)
Brian Flynn: The Murders Near Mapleton (9781913054410)
Christmas Eve at Vernon House is in full swing. Sir Eustace’s nearest and dearest, and the great and the good of Mapleton, are all there. But the season of comfort and joy doesn’t run true to form. Before the night is out, Sir Eustace has disappeared and his butler, Purvis, lies dead, poisoned, with a threatening message in his pocket.
J. Jefferson Farjeon: Mystery in White (9780712357708)
Cecilia Gayford (Ed): Murder in the Falling Snow: Anthology (11/22) (9781800812451)
Murder on a Winter’s Night: Anthology (9781788168014)
Cyril Hare: An English Murder (9780571339013)
Mavis Doriel Hay: Santa Klaus Murder (9780712356305)
Georgette Heyer: A Christmas Party (aka Envious Casca) (9781784754686)
Footsteps in the Dark (9780099493693)
Michael Innes: There Came Both Mist and Snamzn.to/3ihbmRVow (9781912194377)
Mary Kelly: The Christmas Egg (9780712353106)
C. H. B. Kitchin Crime at Christmas (9780571325931)
Rupert Latimer: Murder after Christmas (9780712353892)
Ngaio Marsh: Tied up in Tinsel (50th Anniversary edition) (9780008511012)
Anne Meredith: Portrait of a Murderer (9780712356862)l
A. A. Milne: The Red House Mystery (9780099521273)
Gladys Mitchell: Death Comes at Christmas (aka Dead Man’s Morris) (9781529110920)
Murder in the Snow (aka The Groaning Spinney) (9781784708320)
Lorna Nichol Morgan: Another Little Christmas Murder (9780751567700)
Ellery Queen: The Egyptian Cross Mystery (9781613161784)
E. & M.A. Radford: Who Killed Dick Whittington? (9781912574759)
Molly Thynne: Crime at Noah’s Ark (9781911413578)
Patricia Wentworth: The Clock Strikes Twelve (New Year’s Eve, 1940) (9780340682623)
Clifford Witting: Catt out of the Bag (9781912916375)
It’s far from a festive occasion for young couple, former bookseller and narrator of the story, John Rutherford and his wife, Molly, staying with indomitable & micro-managing, Sybil de Frayne, and her long-suffering husband, Charles. Under sufferance, there’s no escape for them from any of their hostess’s arrangements, organised with military precision - especially the carol singing round the parish. But how, where and why did a man disappear from a group of carollers on that cold December night in Paulsfield. It hardly seemed likely that he’d absconded with the collection-box. But the more that Inspector Charlton found out about the missing person, the less certain he became that he would find him alive…With a cast of well-drawn characters, light invitational style and a story suffused with humour and misdirection, there’s a real treat to be enjoyed here.
Here’s a choice of contemporary crime fiction too:
D. M. Austin: A Christmas Murder of Crows (9781915036506)
Ann Cleeves: The Darkest Evening (9781509889556)
Celia Fremlin: The Long Shadow (9780571348107)
Elly Griffiths: Smoke & Mirrors (9781784290283)
Val McDermid: Christmas is Murder: A Chilling Short Story Collection (9780751581768)
Edward Marston: A Christmas Railway Mystery (9780749021696)
Louise Penny: A Fatal Grace (9781529388183)
Georges Simenon (Translated by David Coward): Maigret’s Christmas and Other Stories (9780241356746)
Nicola Upson: The Dead of Winter (9780571353255)
And a few favourite stories and poems just to finish:
U. A. Fanthorpe: Christmas Poems (9781900564137)
Laurie Lee: A Village Christmas (9780241243671)
George Mackay Brown: Christmas Stories (9781912916535)
Diana Tesdell (Ed): The Everyman Christmas Stories (9781841596006)
Dylan Thomas: A Child’s Christmas in Wales (9781858810119)
Angela Thirkell: Christmas at High Rising (9780349004303)
And there you go - by no means an exhaustive list! I’m sure you will have your favourites too.
Richard Reynolds (theoldman@cambridgecrime.com).