Time for Christmas and Holiday Shorts!

by Paula Gail Benson



On the day before
Thanksgiving, Dru’s Book Musings featured Sleigh Bells and Sleuthing,
an anthology of 16 cozy mystery novellas to celebrate the season. Here’s a link
to Dru’s post. One hundred percent of the
proceeds from sales of the anthology will benefit Good Fortune Farm Refuge, a non-profit ranch
located in Semmes, Alabama, which rehabilitates abused and abandoned animals
and finds homes for rescued animals.

Dru’s post reminded me
that this is the time for reading seasonal shorts, so here are a few anthologies you might wish to consider:

Murder Under the
Christmas Tree: Ten Classic Crime Stories for the Festive Season
, edited by Cecily Gayford, has stories by Ian Rankin, Val McDermid,
Arthur Conan Doyle, Dorothy L. Sayers, Edmund Crispin, G.K. Chesteron, Ngaio
Marsh, Carter Dickson, Margery Allingham, and Ellis Peters.

Otto Penzler’s The
Big Book of Christmas Mysteries
 contains 60 stories divided into
categories like traditional, funny, Sherlockian, pulpy, uncanny, scary,
surprising, modern, puzzling, and classic. It features authors like Mary
Higgins Clark, Sara Paretsky, Max Allan Collins, Edward D. Hoch, John D. McDonald,
and O. Henry.

Mistletoe Mysteries,
Tales of Yuletide Murder
 were
compiled by Charlotte McLeod. It contains 16 stories by McLeod, Mary Higgins
Clark, Sharon McCrumb, Marcia Muller, Bill Pronzini, Peter Lovesey, and others.

Last year, I
discovered and was completely charmed by The Usual Santas. It
includes stories by Helene Tursten, Mick Herron, Martin Limón, Timothy
Hallinan, Teresa Dovalpage, Mette Ivie Harrison, Colin Cotterill, Ed Lin,
Stuart Neville, Tod Goldberg, Henry Chang, James R. Benn, Lene Kaaberbøl &
Agnete Friis, Sujata Massey, Gary Corby, Cara Black, Stephanie Barron and a
Foreword and story by Peter Lovesey.
In
2013, my December post for Writers Who Kill was
the final installment of a series about writing short stories and compared the
story structures of three excellent 
holiday short stories:

B.K. Stevens’ “Little
Dumber Boy” (individually published under the Fingerprints imprint by Untreed
Reads, December, 2010) (available on Amazon).
Barb Goffman’s
“Christmas Surprise” in the collection Don’t Get Mad, Get Even: 15
Tales of Revenge and More 
(Wildside Press April, 2013).
Earl Staggs’ “Caught on
Christmas Eve” in the collection Short Stories of Earl Staggs: 16 Tales
of Mystery from Hard Boiled to Humor
 (Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
2011).

At the end of the post,
I listed the following holiday anthologies:



Lori Avocato, Dana
Cameron, Mary Daheim, Cait London, Suzanne Macpherson, Kerrelyn Sparks, Sugarplums
and Scandal 
(HarperCollins Publishers 2010).

Carols and Crimes, Gifts
and Grifters
 (Wolfmont Press
2009) (Authors Tony Burton, Austin S. Camacho, Thomas H. Cook, Herschel Cozine,
Gail Farrelly, Margaret Fenton, Chris Grabenstein, Sue Ann Jaffarian, Frank
Zafiro, and others).
John M. Floyd,
editor, The Gift of Murder (Wolfmont Press 2009) (Authors
Austin S. Camacho, Hershel Cozine, Bill Crider, Kris Neri, Randy Rawls, Carolyn
J. Rose, Elizabeth Zelvin). 
Steve Hockensmith, Naughty:
Nine Tales of Christmas Crime
 (an e-book collection of stories that
previously appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine or Ellery Queen
Mystery Magazine).
Stuart MacBride, 12
Days of Winter: Crime at Christmas
 (HarperCollins Publishers 2011).
Margaret Maron, Five
Christmas Gifts 
(Maron & Company; Ebook edition December, 2012).

John Mortimer, A
Rumpole Christmas 
(Penguin Books, 2009).




May all your holiday reading be merry, bright, and only a little murderous!

5 replies
  1. Paula Gail Benson
    Paula Gail Benson says:

    Thanks so much, Art and Barb, two fabulous short story writers–please add their books to your list for Christmas and personal gift giving! Hope you are both looking forward to wonderful holidays!

    • Paula Gail Benson
      Paula Gail Benson says:

      Thanks, J.M.! I've just preordered your The Christmas Spirit: a paranormal holiday adventure. Can't wait to read it!

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