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“Anyone who cares about the best mystery writing of the past century and beyond would be lucky to receive this thick volume during the holidays." —The Washington Post
This collection touches on all aspects of the holiday season, and all types of mysteries. They are suspenseful, funny, frightening, and poignant.
Included are puzzles by Mary Higgins Clark, Isaac Asimov, and Ngaio Marsh; uncanny tales in the tradition of A Christmas Carol by Peter Lovesey and Max Allan Collins; O. Henry-like stories by Stanley Ellin and Joseph Shearing, stories by pulp icons John D. MacDonald and Damon Runyon; comic gems from Donald E. Westlake and John Mortimer; and many, many more. Almost any kind of mystery you’re in the mood for—suspense, pure detection, humor, cozy, private eye, or police procedural—can be found in these pages.
FEATURING:
• Unscrupulous Santas
• Crimes of Christmases Past and Present
• Festive felonies
• Deadly puddings
• Misdemeanors under the mistletoe
• Christmas cases for classic characters including Sherlock Holmes, Brother Cadfael, Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, Ellery Queen, Rumpole of the Bailey, Inspector Morse, Inspector Ghote, A.J. Raffles, and Nero Wolfe.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
October 22, 2013 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780345802996
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780345802996
- File size: 4694 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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December 9, 2013
Penzler mines the rich vein of American and British Christmas stories from the 19th to the 21st centuries for this impressive collection of 59 short stories featuring authors still in their prime as well as others mostly forgotten by today's readers. In mood the stories range from happy endings as in Colin Dexter's Morse's Greatest Mystery to vastly amusing like Donald Westlake's The Burglar and the Whatsit. Max Allan Collins's A Wreath for Christmas plays nicely off of Dickens' A Christmas Carol. A few authors merit two entries. Agatha Christie stories bookend the collection with Poirot and Miss Marple sharing honors. Ellis Peters, Peter Lovesey and Gabrielle Long under both her Marjorie Bowen and Joseph Shearing pseudonyms also get double billing. Some of the older choices show their age as does Ellery Queen's florid The Adventure of the Dauphin's Doll and Robert Louis Stevenson's turgid Markheim. Overall Penzler has succeeded in gathering a representative and entertaining selection of yuletide stories that mystery fans might like to see on Christmas morn. -
October 15, 2013
This anthology lives up to its name, featuring nearly 60 Christmas mystery stories from a variety of well-known authors such as Agatha Christie, Ellery Queen, Sara Paretsky, Mary Higgins Clark, Ellis Peters, and Arthur Conan Doyle. The wide-ranging stories (many difficult to find anywhere else) were published between 1877 and 2011 and are arranged by category, from "classic" to "uncanny." There's something for everyone in another great collection from two-time Edgar Award-winning editor (The Big Book of Pulps) and mystery bookstore owner Penzler. VERDICT Mystery readers will not be able to resist the "festive felonies, deadly puddings" or "misdemeanors under the mistletoe."
Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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