Christmas Crimes at the Mysterious Bookshop (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781613165720)

The oldest mystery specialty bookstore in the world, The Mysterious Bookshop, has for most of its forty-five-year history commissioned an original short story as a holiday gift for its customers. Written exclusively for the store and never published elsewhere, the stories were given as a holiday gift to its customers as a thank you for their business, handed out or mailed between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day.

The prompt for the story requires three elements: that it be set at Christmastime, that it involve a crime of some kind, or the suspicion of one, and that it be set at least partially in the bookstore. And from these loose structural guidelines, diverse tales took flight. The dozen tales included in this volume are among the finest to be produced in this annual tradition, sure to charm any reader looking for a holiday-themed escape.

Included herein are the ingenious "Snowflake Time" by Laura Lippman; Lyndsay Faye's tale of vengeance "A Midnight Clear"; the challenging brainteaser, "A Christmas Puzzle," by Ragnar Jónasson; "Hester's Gift," an impossible crime story by Tom Mead; the suspenseful "The Christmas Party" by Jeffery Deaver; Thomas Perry's hilarious comedy of errors, "Here We Come A-Wassailing;" and other tales appropriate for the season, collected and introduced by Otto Penzler. The result is, objectively speaking, the finest "stocking stuffer" that a mystery fan could hope to find.

Author: Otto Penzler
ISBN-10: 1613165722
ISBN-13: 9781613165720
Publisher: Mysterious Press
Language: English
Published: 10/22/2024
Pages: 288
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.90lbs
Size: 7.10h x 5.10w x 1.20d

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 09/01/2024 pg. 64
Publishers Weekly 09/02/2024
Kirkus Reviews 10/15/2024