It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Murder - Christmas Mysteries/Gifts Group Read

As a complement to the December MysteryCAT, and by popular demand*, the Christmas-themed group read is coming back this year! We had a good time with our 2013 edition, reading lots of (sometimes hilariously titled) Christmas mysteries and books set during the holiday season.

*Roberta asked if I was going to make the thread again, and I said "Sure!"

Here are some books that participants read last year:



Holmes for the Holidays – Martin H. Greenberg
Not a Creature Was Stirring – Jane Haddam
How the Light Gets In – Louise Penny
The Chocolate Snowman Murders – JoAnna Carl
Ringing in Murder – Kate Kingsbury
A Killer’s Christmas in Wales – Elizabeth J. Duncan
Rest You Merry – Charlotte MacLeod
A Rumpole Christmas – John Mortimer
Christmas at the Mysterious Bookshop – Otto Penzler

The cozy mystery site Linda linked to on the MysteryCAT thread has an extensive section on Christmas-themed reads:
http://www.cozy-mystery.com/Holiday-Mystery-Books/Christmas-Mystery-Book-List.ht...

There is also a LibraryThing tagmash for Christmas mysteries:
http://www.librarything.com/tag/Christmas,+mystery

New this year is an extra way to participate: read books that you received LAST Christmas and haven’t read yet. (Or if you have books from several Christmases ago…*looks guiltily at bookshelves*) Overlap between any of this month's CATs and this aspect of the group read is welcome.



Have fun!

I plan to read Death at Sandringham House, by CC Benison, as my MysteryCAT/Christmas mystery read, and The Far Side of the Dollar, by Ross Macdonald, as my as-yet-unread Christmas gift.

I hadn't intended to put this thread up for another week or so, but since all the CATs are up, I figured why not. Also, I've been officially cut off from buying any more books until Christmas, so this is a nice diversion ;) Does anyone else get cut off from book buying for oneself around this time of year?

I have The Alto Wore Tweed so will plan on reading that.

Oh dear. Cut off from buying books???? Poor thing!

Thanks for setting this up. My plans for December are still up in the air, depending on whether I finish my challenge, as hoped, by the end of this month.

I'd love to finally get to Holmes for the Holidays, though I've been saying that for years.

I cut my husband off from buying ANYTHING ! before Christmas. He always mentions what he likes/needs and the goes and buys it. I never get cut off because despite the fact that everyone knows how much I like to read, I never get any books for Christmas. Sometimes a gift card for a local bookstore.

Also, I have a couple of Christmas books planned but I might start reading them in Nov just to get ahead before the holiday rush starts.

>3 majkia: Fortunately there's the library! I just have to borrow the more random/obscure stuff that my parents won't think of as gift ideas.

>4 lindapanzo: Good luck with finishing your challenge! :)

>5 dudes22: My BF does that too! And he never wants much to begin with, so that makes it difficult to come up with ideas. But I think the best gift I could give him would be new furniture and shelving that gets all of MY junk more organized.

It certainly feels festive today, at least here -- it snowed this morning and apparently we can expect 5 to 10 cm tomorrow.

I get a double whammy out of Death at Sandringham House. It's a Christmas mystery and I received it as a gift last Christmas!

>5 dudes22: I never get books for Christmas either! At least someone usually gets me an Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card, though. :)

I was already planning to read The Twelve Clues of Christmas by Rhys Bowen next month, so that'll work perfectly!

I am planning on a couple of seasonal reads, but I don't think they are mysteries as such. Comfort & Joy by India Knight and You Better Not Cry by Augusten Burroughs. I know I have books that I was given last Christmas that I haven't read yet, so I will have to go take a look and see what I have.

I am definitely planning to finally read Cold Comfort Farm, which I received last Christmas and which I think will be a nice light read for the holidays.

>1 rabbitprincess: *squee* Thanks for setting this up! I love the bonus category too.

>10 sturlington: I love Cold Comfort Farm! Get ready to giggle a lot.

Originally, I was going to get an anthology of short story Christmas murder mysteries like I did last year. When I was looking through the library catalog for Christmas murder mysteries I came across A Bitter Truth by Charles Todd. It is book one in the Bess Crawford mysteries. Julia (rosalita) read it earlier in the year and it sounded like a series I would like. I wish listed it but still did not think I would choose it first. When the RandomCAT came out I definitely picked it because Bess is a WWI nurse and I wanted to be a nurse since I was 5 years old. This is my Christmas murder mystery pick.

For the other part of the challenge I received Let Him Go by Larry Watson in last year 75 group Christmas Swap. I saved it to read in Mark's American Author's Challenge. December is Larry Watson month.

Whoop! I love when things work out this way.

I'm considering An English Murder by Cyril Hare. I might also read The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett to finish up my Noir/Hardboiled category.

I have at least four on my shelves mocking me from last Christmas when I didn't get around to them:

Man With A Load of Mischief
A Catered Christmas
The Body in the Sleigh
An English Murder

I think I tried A Catered Christmas last year, but it didn't hold my interest at the time. I'll try again, and if not, onto the donation pile it goes.

So far, my Christmas reading plans include the following:

--Holmes for the Holidays
--Mystery in White by J. Jefferson Farjeon

I'm planning to read An Irish Country Christmas by Patrick Taylor, A Christmas Visitor by Anne Perry and maybe 1225 Christmas Tree Lane by Debbie Macomber. I know these aren't all murder mysteries, but they fit into my categoryies for my challenge.

I think I'll read Murder for Christmas which is an anthology of 26 stories - one a day through Christmas plus one extra for Boxing Day according to the flap. (Boxing Day is the day after Christmas, right? :-) )

I'm loving all the covers at the top, so I'll decorate my post with the cover, too.

I have a few lined up. If I manage to finish my categories I'll be reading:

The Fat Man : a tale of North Pole Noir by Ken Harmon
A Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg
Wishin' and Hopin' by Wally Lamb
Christmas at Fairacre by Miss Read
The Virago Book of Christmas
Comfort and Joy by India Knight
A Reversible Santa Claus by Meredith Nicholson

>16 streamsong: I've read that! It was a fun anthology, I thought.

>18 christina_reads: That's good to know! It looks like an interesting mix of authors.

Somehow I missed this was also for non-mystery books. I picked up this one at a library sale, so will probably read it:



Where Angels Go: Shirley, Goodness & Mercy are Back - Debbie Macomber

and I may try to listen to A Redbird Christmas - I've wanted to read that one for several years.

I'm going to read A Highland Christmas by M. C. Beaton, a Hamish Macbeth mystery. I plan to reread A Redbird Christmas by Fanny Flagg too. I've read it once, probably 4 or so years ago, so it's time for a reread. I also read A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote every year.

Last year I read the first Anne Perry Christmas novella and was going to read another this year. Can someone tell me if they are really a "series" and should I read them in order? Like are there repeating characters, etc? I was thinking of getting one on Overdrive and the second is not available in that format so I'm wondering if I can just read another one.

>21 dudes22: Perry's Christmas novellas each feature a different supporting character from one of her two Victorian series. They usually fill in a back story for that character. I don't think order matters much for the Christmas novellas. You might not want to get too far ahead of where you are in her other series since some of the most recent Christmas novellas feature characters who are introduced partway through the other series.

I'm not doing any of her other series so I guess it won't much matter then. Maybe I'll just try to get the next one they have on Overdrive.

Finished Death at Sandringham House today. It is best read after its predecessor, Death at Buckingham Palace, because it discusses the ending of D at BP. In this one we spend Christmas with the British Royal Family and solve a mystery with intrepid royal housemaid Jane Bee. This series was a favourite of mine as a teenager, so it was fun to revisit now that I'm older than the protagonist ;)

I finished A Christmas Visitor by Anne Perry. I don't follow her other series as I'm not a big fan of the Victorian time period ( although I really like the Charles Finch series), so this was just a so-so read for me. I did like the main character Henry Rathbone whom I'm assuming is the character in another of her series that they're showcasing in this book. (See #22 above)

I finished The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett, featuring the husband-and-wife team of Nick and Nora Charles. Even though it was set during the Christmas season, there were few references to the holiday. On the other hand, it seemed fitting as a Christmas mystery because it was lighter and more charming than the typical noir/hardboiled fare though it did have some of those genres' characteristics as well.

I also finished Agatha Christie's The Thirteen Problems, which doesn't count as a Christmas mystery overall but it did have one story, "A Christmas Tragedy", related to that theme.

I'm in the middle of my Christmas gift read, The Far Side of the Dollar, by Ross Macdonald. It's nice to have one more thing from last Christmas read before the inevitable influx of new books this Christmas (which is next week! how did that happen?).

>26 mathgirl40: I also read The Thin Man although I didn't choose it as a Christmas read. But it does fit!

Forgot to mention that I have finished Rhys Bowen's The Twelve Clues of Christmas! Another fun installment of the Royal Spyness series. Georgie gets a job as a social hostess at a country estate, only to discover that there has been a recent streak of deaths in the village. They all *look* like accidents, but Georgie investigates the possibility that they could be murders.

Just started A Christmas Secret by Anne Perry and realized I've read it before but as I've forgotten many of the details, I'll continue with it.

I enjoyed A Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg. Even better was Wishin' and Hopin' by Wally Lamb and my favourite Christmas book - but not a mystery - Comfort and Joy by India Knight.

I finished the audio of Sugar Cookie Murder in the car this evening. It's the kind of fluff I enjoy this time of year, but I'd get tired of a steady diet.

I'm reading Miracle and Other Christmas Stories by Connie Willis right now, and it turns out that there is a mystery story in the bunch! "Cat's Paw" involves a Poirot-esque detective who is invited to an English manor for Christmas. Of course someone ends up dead, and the solution to the mystery is very bizarre! I'm really loving the entire collection of stories.

I read The Alto Wore Tweed a Liturgical Mystery. Pretty funny, and with a good convoluted murder mystery. North Carolina meets the Met (as in the Metropolitan Opera).

I finished A Bitter Truth by Charles Todd. My library system had it listed as book one but it is actually book four in the series. Grrr!!! I don't like to read series out of order, but it didn't seem to leave me lost. The family involved in the murder mystery were annoying to me. They were very selfish and self absorbed. I probably would have abandoned this book but I liked Bess Crawford.

Now I will start Let Him Go a gift from last Christmas.

Merry Christmas everyone!

I have just read Agatha Raisin and kissing Christmas Goodbye, bringing me nearly up to date with the series (well, at least the ones I have at home!).