Monday, December 31, 2012

New Year's Mysteries: New Year Crime Fiction

New Year's Mysteries! I wish you a safe, healthy and prosperous 2013. May mystery and mayhem only happen in crime fiction!

Crime Fiction Set at the New Year
As always, let me know if I've missed any titles.

Marian Babson: Line up for Murder
T. L. Barnett: Murder for the New Year
George Baxt: The Marlene Dietrich Murder Case
Nero Blanc: A Crossworder's Gift
Jon L. Breen: Touch of the Past
Rita Mae Brown: Full Cry
Alison Cairns: New Year Resolution
Lillian Stewart Carl: The Blue Hackle
Lee Child (ed): Killer Year: Stories to Die for
Anne Cleeves: Raven Black
Anna Ashwood Collins: Deadly Resolutions
Patricia Cornwell: Cause of Death
Mark Costello: Bag Men
Alisa Craig: Murder Goes Mumming
Jeffrey Deaver: The Devil's Teardrop
Colin Dexter: The Secret of Annexe 3
Carter Dickson: Death and the Gilded Man
Carole Nelson Douglas: Cat on a Hyacinth Hunt
Loren D. Estleman: Stress
Janet Evanovich: Plum New Year
J. Jefferson Fargeon: Death in Fancy Dress (aka The Fancy Dress Ball)
Quinn Fawcett: Siren Song
Jerrilyn Farmer: Dim Sum Dead
Frederick Forsyth: The Fourth Protocol
Janet Gleeson: The Grenadillo Box
J.M. Gregson: The Lancashire Leopard
Jane Haddam: Fountain of Death
Karen Harper: The Queene's Christmas
Lee Harris: The New Year's Eve Murder
Ellen Hart: Hallowed Murder, Merchant of Venus
Roy Hart: Seascape with Dead Figures
Lauren Henderson: Pretty Boy
Reginald Hill: Killing The Lawyers
J.A. Jance: Name Withheld
Rufus King: Holiday Homicide
Frances and Richard Lockridge: The Dishonest Murderer
Heather Dune Macadam: The Weeping Buddha
Ed McBain: Lullaby
Johnston McCulley: New Year's Pardon; New Year's Duty
Philip McLauren: Scream Black Murder
Elisabeth McNeill: Hot News
Leslie Meier: New Year's Eve Murder
James Melville: Body Wore Brocade
David William Meredith: The Christmas Card Murders
Miriam Ann Moore: Stayin' Alive
Tamar Myers: A Penny Urned
Leonardo Padura: Havana Blue (starts with a New Year's Eve hangover)
Elizabeth Peters: The Golden One
Edward O. Phillips: Sunday's Child
Ellery Queen: Calamity Town
Gillian Roberts: The Mummer’s Curse
Cindy Sample: Dying for a Date
Dorothy L. Sayers: The Nine Tailors (begins on New Year's Eve)
Joan Smith: Don't Leave Me This Way, Why Aren't They Screaming
Meg Taggart: Murder at the Savoy
Kathleen Taylor: Cold Front
Charles Todd: A Long Shadow
Patricia Wentworth: Clock Strikes Twelve
Valerie Wolzein: 'Tis the Season to be Murdered (aka And a Lethal New Year)
Mark Richard Zubro: The Truth Can Get You Killed

Sunday, December 30, 2012

The Art Forger: Guest post by B.A. Shapiro

Today I welcome B.A. Shapiro, author of The Art Forger (Algonquin Books).

B.A. Shapiro: 
The Art Forger

It was just a bit after midnight on March 18, 1990, and the city of Boston hadn’t even begun to recover from a raucous St. Patrick’s Day celebration, when two men dressed as police officers bound and gagged two guards at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. They spent 81 minutes ripping paintings from their frames, then threw them into their rusty Datsun hatchback and drove away with thirteen pieces of art today worth over $500 million. The heist remains the largest art theft in history.

The cache included priceless masterpieces such as Rembrandt’s Storm on the Sea of Galilee, Manet’s Chez Tortoni and Vermeer’s The Concert. Despite thousands of hours of police work, a lapsed statute of limitations and a $5 million reward, none of the art has ever been recovered.

I was fascinated by the crime and began spinning “what ifs.” What if one of those priceless paintings wasn’t priceless at all? What if Rembrandt didn’t paint Storm of Galilee? What if some unknown artist did instead? Would the painting be any less beautiful? Would it no longer to be admired? Would it suddenly be worthless? What is it that gives an object or a person value anyway? These are the questions that form the premise of The Art Forger.

The New York Times estimates that 40% of all artwork put up for sale in any given year are forgeries. Theodore Rousseau, an art expert from the Metropolitan Museum in New York, once said, “We can only talk about the bad forgeries, the ones that have been detected; the good ones are still hanging on museum walls.”

It didn’t seem possible. But a quick Google search, which I did immediately after reading Rousseau’s statement – and exactly what Claire Roth, the protagonist of The Art Forger, does in a similar situation – provided me with more forgery examples than I could ever have imagined.

There was a story about a dealer named Gianfranco Becchina who, in 1985, convinced the J. Paul Getty Museum to pay him almost ten million dollars for a forged Greek statue he claimed was from the sixth century BC. Before they did, the Getty hired antiquities experts, geologists, lawyers and authenticators who used every high-tech technique – from electron microprobe to mass spectrometry – to verify Becchina’s claim. Every expert was fooled, and the museum purchased the fake.

Then there was John Myatt, who pulled off what is considered the greatest art con of the twentieth century by painting and selling over two-hundred “undiscovered” works by well-known dead artists, all his own original creations. But the con isn’t the best part. It turns out that after a short stint in jail, Myatt established a successful business selling his forgeries as forgeries at between one-thousand and ten-thousand dollars a pop.

I was hooked and spent the next few weeks reading everything I could get my hands on about forgery. It seemed the perfect metaphor for my questions, but theoretical questions only drive the heart of the novel; it’s the plot twists and characterizations that make it a story worth telling. And something told me the key to this lay within the life of an art forger. I just  needed to find him or her.

The day I discovered Han van Meegeren was the day I knew I had the makings of a novel. Van Meegeren was a frustrated Dutch painter who spent years formulating the chemical and technical processes needed to create the perfect forgery. His intention was to hoodwink the art dealers and critics who refused to recognize his own artistic genius. He became a great, if unacknowledged, success.

An unappreciated artist, struggling for recognition, using his ingenuity and talent while sacrificing his ethics to exact revenge along with money and fame. What more could a novelist ask?
Van Meegeren used toaster parts to create an oven to bake his canvases. He came up with chemical concoctions that dried the paint between layers so carbon dating couldn’t detect its freshness. He devised a method of scraping an old painting down to its lowermost layer, using the old sizing, canvas and stretchers as a base to make the forgery appear to be hundreds of years old. Though she is not exactly based on van Meegeren, Claire uses his techniques and shares many of his same personal problems.

As The Art Forger opens, Claire is a pariah in the art world because of a scandal – perhaps of her own making, but then again perhaps not – involving the provenance of a celebrated modern painting. She spends her days working for a legitimate company called Reproductions.com, for whom she creates copies of the great masters to be sold online. She spends her nights creating her own works, but no gallery or museum will consider them. Nothing she creates is deemed to be of any value. Then in walks the most prominent gallery owner in Boston, offering her everything she has ever desired – money, fame and revenge – for a small price…

There’s an old saying that goes: A strange man approaches a woman and asks, “If I give you five dollars will you have sex with me?” The woman is horrified. “How dare you ask me such a thing?” she cries. “I absolutely will not.” The man then asks, “How about for a million dollars?” and the woman hesitates.

We all have our price. There’s a point where sacrifices will be made and ethics thrown to the wind. It might be for money, it might be for fame, it might be for revenge. Or perhaps it’s something nobler: to give up your own life to save a child or some other greater good.

To me, though, magnanimous choices don’t make for an intriguing story. I prefer to explore the darker side of human nature. It’s a character’s unprincipled choices that make us wonder what we might do under similar circumstances, what we might be willing to compromise to get what we want most. And the answers aren’t usually pretty.

So I went back to my original question about authenticity, about how someone or something acquires value, and flipped it on its head. What if the tables were turned and Claire was taken into the fold, her paintings acclaimed? What if the critics were in awe, the collectors clamoring for these very same canvases that have hung, unsellable, in her studio? What if suddenly her work was being snapped up for six figures, and Claire was heralded as a major talent? Are the paintings any better than they were before? Is Claire a more gifted artist because art critics, the powers-that-be, have deemed her work to be fine art?

I used to teach a sociology course at Tufts University called “Deviant Behavior,” and there was one important idea I wanted my students to take away from the class: What is considered deviant is defined by a society for a particular situation at a particular moment in time. An executioner at a federal prison isn’t a murderer. Slavery was once legal in the United States.

So who’s to say what’s right or wrong? What valuable and what isn’t? It’s a fluid judgment, compounded by the fact that the human animal is a messy species. There are rarely purely good guys and purely bad guys. More often, there are just good people who do bad things and bad people who do good things – and most of the time it’s difficult to tell which is which. Claire is no different from any of us. The Art Forger may or may not answer my original questions, but it sure raises them.

***
B.A. Shapiro is the author of six novels (The Art Forger, The Safe Room, Blind Spot, See No Evil, Blameless and Shattered Echoes), four screenplays (Blind Spot, The Lost Coven, Borderline and Shattered Echoes) and the non-fiction book, The Big Squeeze. In her previous career incarnations, she has directed research projects for a residential substance abuse facility, worked as a systems analyst/statistician, headed the Boston office of a software development firm, and served as an adjunct professor teaching sociology at Tufts University and creative writing at Northeastern University. She likes being a novelist the best.

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Tardis Bookshelf

The DIY Tardis Bookshelf: Bigger on the inside to hold all those books! And, this DIY project has plans for lighting and music when you open the 'box'! You can build this..



Hat Tip: Flavorwire.com via Forevergeek.com

Friday, December 28, 2012

Sightseeing is Murder: A Killer New York Tour by Cleo Coyle

Rockefeller Center. Photo: James G. Howes
Planning on spending time in New York during the holidays? Don't mis this Killer New York Tour by Cleo Coyle. 

Sightseeing is Murder: A Killer New York Tour by Cleo Coyle 

Fans of crime stories know that New York means murder, whether you’re inside the grim, blighted city from the novels of Lawrence Block or chasing down the perps and skells of TV shows like The Naked City, NYPD Blue, and Law & Order.

At the theater, we’ve gotten cozy with the Big Apple’s criminal element in films like The French Connection, Dog Day Afternoon, Taxi Driver, and American Gangster. Theirs is a nasty, brutish world with a drug dealer on every corner, shootout at the neighborhood bank, and the corpse of a cheating husband, ex-wife, or conniving mistress cluttering up most luxury suites.

Reality check: These days, the NYPD will tell you that our fair city is one of the safest in the country. Then again, that’s a per capita view. With eight million inhabitants there’s still plenty of by-the-numbers crime, which means New York will clock up more homicides, burglaries, robberies and muggings than most urban areas in the USA.

Of course, every crime has a scene, some more interesting than others, so whether you live here or are planning to join one of the fifty million who come here annually, we invite you to visit a few of our favorites…

BRYANT PARK 
Bryant Park Carousel. Phoeo: Jim Henderson

Back in the 1970s, this midtown green space was nicknamed Needle Park because it had been taken over by heroin addicts, smack dealers, prostitutes, and the homeless. As part of the revitalization of nearby Times Square, this park has been transformed into an urban oasis complete with London plane trees, a restored fountain, Wi-Fi, and a lovely hand-painted carousel just right for a not-so-merry-go-round of murder. It’s precisely where our amateur sleuth finds her first corpse in Holiday Buzz—our latest Coffeehouse Mystery.

ROCKEFELLER CENTER 

Has a body ever been found under the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree? J D Robb came close with her own “holiday” mystery, Holiday in Death, when she executed a character on the adjacent ice rink. In Murder by Mocha, our tenth Coffeehouse Mystery, we introduced readers to the Loft and Garden at Rockefeller Center, an open space high above Fifth Avenue, with a spectacular view of the spires of St. Patrick’s Cathedral—“available for weddings, birthday parties, and…”( we can just hear Hitch saying…) “that special murder.”

FAO SCHWARZ 

Although Tiffany & Company is just down the block (and who doesn’t associate jewels with the holidays—or heists?) our criminal inspiration came from the most extravagant toy store in America. In the movie Big, actor Tom Hanks danced across the giant floor piano. In Holiday Buzz those keys get a workout again—from a forensics team looking for DNA evidence. Before the murder, we used the store as a staging area for lesser crimes, as well: an assault by a masher and an attack by a remote control toy car (neither of which is recommended for children twelve and under).

CENTRAL PARK 

Muggings, robberies, and assorted nastiness are all associated with Central Park (not to mention Charles Bronson’s famous shootout in Death Wish). In A Brew to a Kill, we added our own crime scene to the list with a hit-and-run murder on one of the park’s winding, tree-lined roads—and, no, the hurtling delivery system for a vehicular homicide was not a horse and carriage.

THE STATUE OF LIBERTY 
Photo: Alice Alfonsi

Lady Liberty is a spectacular location for murder. In fact, filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock beat us to it by dropping a villain off the Statue’s torch in Saboteur. (We didn’t have that kind of budget.) In our first holiday mystery, Holiday Grind, we had to settle for tossing someone off the Staten Island Ferry into the waters beneath Lady Liberty.

FUTURE HOT SPOTS… 

We hope you enjoyed our mini crime scene tour of the Big Apple. We actually have twelve books worth with a thirteenth set for publication later this year. If you take our complete tour, you’ll see that in the Coffeehouse Mysteries, location matters—and, like any dedicated developer, we’ll continue to search for hot new spots to make a killing.

Alice Alfonsi & Marc Cerasini, who write as Cleo Coyle

CLEO COYLE is the pen name for Alice Alfonsi and Marc Cerasini. When not haunting coffeehouses, hunting ghosts, or rescuing stray cats, Alice and Marc are New York Times bestselling media tie-in writers who have penned properties for NBC, Lucasfilm, Disney, Fox, Imagine, Marvel, and MGM. They live and work in New York City, where they also write the bestselling Coffeehouse Mysteries and Haunted Bookshop Mysteries for Penguin. To learn more, visit their website: http://www.coffeehousemysteries.com/about_coffeehouse_mystery_books.cfm

 

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

A Boxing Day Mystery

December 26 is Boxing Day. I've put together a very long list of mysteries that take place at Christmas, and I'm sure there are several that continue through Boxing Day, but here's a mystery that focuses specifically on Boxing Day: Nicholas Blake's Thou Shell of Death (1936). Nicholas Blake is the pseudonym of Cecil Day Lewis, late British poet laureate.

Thou Shell of Death focuses on Fergus O'Brien, a WWI flying ace. Fergus receives four letters predicting that he will be murdered on Boxing Day. Despite this, or maybe because of this, he plans a party and invites all the suspects (there are several people who might want to do him in) plus private detective Nigel Strangeways. O'Brien does die, and it's up to Nigel Strangeways with the help of Inspector Blount of Scotland Yard to solve the crime. This is Blount's first appearance in the series. Thou Shell of Death is an oldie but goodie, especially if you like houseparty mysteries.

And, in case you're not familiar with Boxing Day, it's the day after Christmas, when "servants and tradesmen traditionally would receive gifts from their superiors." Today it's a national holiday in the U.K. and Ireland. As far as why it's called Boxing Day, there are several different theories:

A ‘Christmas Box’ in Britain is a name for a Christmas present.
Boxing Day was a day off for servants and when they received a ‘Christmas Box’ from the master.
The servants would also go home to give ‘Christmas Boxes’ to their families.
A box to collect money for the poor was placed in Churches on Christmas day then opened the next day.
Great sailing ships when setting sail would have a sealed box containing money on board for good luck. If the voyage were a success the box was given to a priest, opened at Christmas and the contents given to the poor.

Any Boxing Day Mysteries I've forgotten?

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Retro Christmas Typewriter Ads

You all know I have a softspot for Typewriters. I often choose typewriters as my theme at the Flea Market. I don't collect them (no space or I would), but I do take photos of them.. and occasionally post here on Mystery Fanfare. I also love Retro Ads, so here's the marriage of both... retro typewriter advertisements for the holidays!

The Typewriter: Perfect gift for Christmas from the 20s through the 70s. Happy Holidays!














Friday, December 21, 2012

Ed Kaufman: R.I.P.

Just learned that Ed Kaufman, the magic behind M is for Mystery and a huge supporter of everything and everyone in mystery, has passed away. Very sad. A Memorial Service is planned for early 2013. I'll post when the date is set.

Update: Here's a link to the obituary in the San Mateo Times
http://www.smdailyjournal.com/article_preview.php?id=1760490amp;title=Mystery+bookstore+owner%2C+Edmund+Kaufman%2C+dies+at+82

and from The San Francisco Chronicle:
http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/Edmund-Kaufman-bookstore-owner-dies-4153322.php

Winter Solstice Crime Fiction

Happy Solstice.  I'm so glad the days will begin to lengthen from this day forth. I'm big on light. Of course, since I'm a list maker, I searched out Winter Solstice Mysteries. Any other mysteries set during the Winter Solstice?

Ngaio Marsh, Off with His Head
Joan Hess, A Holly Jolly Murder

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Christmas Mysteries, Authors S-Z

The end of the Christmas Crime Fiction list and none too soon. Only 5 more days 'til Christmas. Here is the final list of authors who set their mysteries during Christmas. Christmas Mysteries, Authors S-Z. Happy Holidays!

Here are the links that will complete this list:
Be sure and check out Christmas Crime Authors A-D,  Authors E-H Authors I-N and Authors O-R. As always, let me know if I've forgotten an author and title. Have a great holiday!

Sample, Cindy. Dying for a Dance
Sanders, Lawrence. The Fourth Deadly Sin
Santangelo, Elena. Poison to Purge Melancholy, Double Cross
Saums, Mary. When the Last Magnolia Weeps
Sawyer, Corinne Holt. Ho Ho Homicide
Sayers, Dorothy L. The Nine Tailors
Scherf, Margaret. The Gun in Daniel Webster’s Bust
Schumacher, Aileen. Framework for Death
Schweizer, Mark. The Alto Wore Tweeds, The Christmas Cantata
Sedaris, David. Holidays on Ice
Sefton, Maggie. Fleece Navidad
Sellars, M.R. Perfect Trust
Serafin, David. Christmas Rising
Shaber, Sarah. Shell Game (UK title: Burying Ground)
Shannon, Dell. No Holiday For Crime
Shelton, Connie. Sweet Holidays
Sibley, Celestine. Spider in the Sink
Simenon, Georges. Maigret's Christmas
Slater, Susan [anthology] Crooks, Crimes and Christmas
Smith, Barbara Burnett. Mistletoe From Purple Sage, 'Tis the Season for Murder (with Fred Hunter)
Smith, Frank. Fatal Flaw
Smith, George Harmon. The Christmas Angel
Smith, Joan. Don't Leave Me This Way
Smith, Terrence. The Devil and Webster Daniels
Smoak, Amanda. Generals' Row
Soles, Caro (ed) Blood on the Holly
Sparks, Kerrelyn. Sugarplums and Scandal (anthology)
Sprinkle, Patricia. A Mystery Bred in Buckhead
Stagge, Jonathan. The Yellow Taxi
Stanley, J. B. The Battered Body
Stout, Rex. And Four to Go
Strohmeyer, Sarah. Bubbles All the Way
Swanson, Denise. Murder of a Barbie and Ken
Symons, Julian. The Detling Secret
Talley, Marcia. Occasion of Revenge
Taylor, Elizabeth Atwood. The Cable Car Murder
Taylor, Sarah Stewart. O' Artful Death
Temple, Lou Jane. Death is Semisweet
Tesh, Jane. Mixed Signals
Thames, Nancy. Waiting for Santa
Theorin, Johan. The Darkest Room
Thompson, Carlene. The Way You Look Tonight
Todd, Charles. The Walnut Tree
Tooke, John. On the Twelfth Day of Christmas
Tourney, Leonard D. Knaves Templar
Tremayne, Peter. The Haunted Abbot
Trocheck, Kathy. A Midnight Clear, Fatal Fruitcake (written as Mary Kay Andrews)
Underwood, Michael. A Party to Murder
Unsworth, Barry. Morality Play
VanLeeuwen, Jean. The Great Christmas Kidnapping Caper
Victor, Cynthia. What Matters Most
Viets, Elaine. Murder With All the Trimmings
Wainwright, John. The Life and Times of Christmas Calvert...Assassin
Walker, Persia. Darkness and the Devil behind Me
Waller, Gail & Jim Gilber. A Kudzu Christmas
Walsh, Thomas. The Resurrection Man
Ward, Donald. Our Little Secret
Washburn Livia. The Christmas Cookie Killer, The Gingerbread Bump-Off
Webb, Peggy. Elvis and the Blue Christmas Corpse
Webber, Heather. Trouble Under the Tree
Weir, Charlene. A Cold Christmas
Welk, Mary. Deadly Little Christmas, A Merry Little Murder
Wildwind, Sharon. First Murder in Advent
Williams, David. Murder in Advent
Willig, Lauren. The Mischief of the Mistletoe
Windsor, Patricia. The Christmas Killer
Wilson, Gahan. Murder for Christmas: 26 Tales of Seasonal Malice
Wingfield, R.D. Frost at Christmas
Wishart, David. Last Rites
Wolzien, Valerie. Deck the Halls With Murder, 'Tis the Season to be Murdered, We wish You a Merry Murder
Wright, Eric. The Man Who Changed His Name
Yaffe, James. Mom Meets her Maker 
Zelvin, Elizabeth, Death Will Get You Sober 

For the complete list, be sure and check out Christmas Crime Authors A-D,  Authors E-H Authors I-N and Authors O-R.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Eliot Pattison: Mandarin Gate

Eliot Pattison has just published the 7th in his Inspector Shan series, and I'm so pleased that he agreed to write an essay for Mystery Fanfare. I really enjoy his writing, and I'm looking forward to this new Inspector Shan novel, Mandarin Gate.

Eliot Pattison’s award-winning Inspector Shan books have been praised not only for their poignant characters and unorthodox plots but also for their stark, heart-wrenching depiction of life in modern Tibet. Translated into twenty languages, the books have been adapted to radio dramas and become popular on the black market in China. Featuring an exiled and disgraced Chinese investigator who makes a new life among Tibetan lamas after being released from prison, the books cast a long overdue light on an important but oft-neglected part of the world. 

Described as "a writer of faraway mysteries," Eliot Pattison's travel and interests span a million miles of global trekking, visiting every continent but Antarctica. An international lawyer by training, he brings his social and cultural concerns to his fiction and has written several books and dozens of articles on legal and business topics, published on three continents. He is the author of the Edgar award-winning Inspector Shan Series, the Bone Rattler series, and Ashes of the Earth, the first novel in a new dystopian series. But his sentiments for Tibet and the Tibetan resistance run deep. His Inspector Shan books have been characterized as a new "campaign thriller" genre for the way they weave significant social and political themes into their plots. Translated into twenty languages, the books have been adapted to radio dramas and become popular on the black market in China. For more info visit: www.eliotpattison.com 

ELIOT PATTISON:

Years ago when I tested the waters at publishers with my manuscript for the first Shan novel, The Skull Mantra, the typical reaction was “why would you want to set a mystery in such an unfamiliar place as Tibet?” Many rejected the idea out of hand, saying no one would read possibly read such a novel, especially one with heavy doses of esoteric Buddhism woven into the text. Others suggested moving my characters to Brooklyn or the Chinatown of some major American city. I resisted all the armtwisting to shift away from my Tibetan venue and I would venture to say that after an Edgar and now seven books in international translation those early critics somewhat underestimated the audience.

Even today, though, the most frequent question I get from readers is “Why Tibet?” so let me anticipate the point and explain a little more deeply. Tibet was not some random venue chosen for its dramatic landscape and exotic culture. After a million miles of travel around the planet I had begun to feel that modern Tibet had a vital, important message that was largely overlooked in the West. I was interested in writing a mystery, but I was also deeply interested in conveying that message to a broader audience—eventually I realized that writing a mystery set in Tibet was the way to achieve both goals.

What is that vital message that underlies Mandarin Gate and the other Shan books? The juggernaut of the global economy has diminished cultural identities, religion, and human engagement for all of us. Our world steadily becomes less personal, less spiritual, less contemplative—and in Tibet these effects have been magnified a thousandfold. Many of my Western characters are fleeing in some fashion from that juggernaut, but none are prepared for what they encounter at the roof of the world. There is no better example on the planet of how global economics and geopolitics can crush a traditional non-industrial society, or how a faceless police state saps the humanity out of humans.

The totalitarian government in Beijing may be directly responsible for the day-to-day destruction of Tibet but we all have to answer for it, for it has happened on our watch. So many of us bemoan what happened in another century to the original populations of the Americas without ever considering how the same—and in many ways a worse—process is occurring today in Tibet. The Tibetan people have been punished solely because a more technically advanced people wanted their land, wanted their resources, wanted to increase their leverage on the global stage. We allowed that to happen. We empowered Beijing. We are the cause. We are the effect. As an ancient Greek once said, when a good man is hurt, all who would be good suffer with him. We are all Tibetans. The damage to the Tibetan world is an injury to our entire world.

That is the broad stage on which I chose to write, but of course underlying this theme are also counterpoints of compassion and cruelty, spirituality and material greed. Tibet would be worthy as a setting for its people alone. There is a great joy and harmony among Tibetans that has very little to do with what we in the West tend to link to happiness. They are technologically poor but spiritually rich, intellectually sophisticated but materially impoverished. Year after year they stand up to unthinkable acts of repression. The adversity they face, and the heroes and saints it generates, merit much more attention on the world stage.

These are the people I have chosen to inhabit my books. Mandarin Gate thrusts these characters into the gears of the Chinese machine that is crushing their country, which inevitably takes them into the network of prisons and internment camps that have become the Chinese gulag. There is great suffering in and around Tibetan prisons but there is also great nobility. The heart of traditional Tibet may have been in temples and shrines but the essence of modern Tibet lies in its gulag.

Ken Bruen's The White Trilogy Reissue & Video

MysteriousPress.com is bringing back Ken Bruen¹s The White Trilogy in print and electronic format. Below is a video of Ken Bruen on Irish Noir.

Ken Bruen has been called the father of Irish Crime for his fiction's candid reflection of the Irish spirit. Bleak yet humorous, his work is highly regarded around the world, from Galway to New York City.

In The White Trilogy, Bruen explores the dark, seedy streets of London through the eyes of two tough, aging cops on their search for their White Arrest--­every policeman¹s dream. The White Arrest is a high-profile success that makes up for all past failures. For Roberts and his brutal partner Brant, this means going up against a mysterious hitman in Taming the Alien, and a cunning kingpin in The McDead.

Monday, December 17, 2012

Christmas Mysteries, Authors O-R

Here's the list of Christmas Mysteries, Authors O-R.  Hope you're having fun with the titles and authors. Let me know if I've forgotten any! Be sure and check out Christmas Crime Fiction Authors A-D Authors E-H and Authors I-N.

O'Connell, Carol. Judas Child
O'Marie, Sr. Carol Anne. Advent of Dying, Murder in Ordinary Time, A Novena for Murder
Stewart O’Nan. Last Night at the Lobster
Page, Katherine Hall. The Body in the Big Apple, The Body in the Bouillon, The Body in the Sleigh
Palmer, William. The Dons and Mr. Dickens
Papazoglou, Orania. Rich, Radiant Slaughter, Charisma
Parker, Gary E. Death Stalks a Holiday
Parker, Robert. The Widening Gyre
Patterson, James. Merry Christmas, Alex Cross
Paul, Barbara. A Chorus of Detectives
Pearl, Jack. Victims
Pearson, Carol Lynn. A Stranger For Christmas
Pence, Joanne. Two Cooks A-Killing, The Thirteenth Santa
Penhallow, Sara. The Christmas Tree Farm Murders
Penny, Louise. A Fatal Grace
Penzler, Otto (ed). Christmas at the Mysterious Bookshop
Perry, Anne. A Christmas Beginning, A Christmas Grace, A Christmas Guest, A Christmas Journey, A Christmas Secret, A Christmas Visitor, Silence in Hanover Close, A Christmas Promise, A Christmas Garland, A Christmas Odyssey, A Christmas Secret.. and more.
Peters, Elizabeth. He Shall Thunder in the Sky, Trojan Gold
Peters, Ellis. A Rare Benedictine, The Raven in the Foregate
Philips, Scott. The Ice Harvest
Plunkett, Susan. Silent Night (anthology)
Pomidor, Bill. Mind Over Murder
Pronzini, Bill. Snowbound
Pryce, Malcolm. Don't Cry For Me Aberystwyth
Pulver, Mary Monica. Original Sin
Purser, Ann. Murder on Monday
Quashie, Colin. Spirits in a Material World
Queen, Ellery. The Finishing Stroke, Cat of Many Tails, Calamity Town, The Egyptian Cat Mystery, Murder at Christmas
Quentin, Patrick. Follower
Raphael, Lev. Burning Down the House
Rawls, Randy. Jingle’s Christmas
Ray, Robert J. Merry Christmas Murdock
Raybourn, Deanna. Silent Night: A Lady Julia Christmas Novella
Reinsmith, Richard. Body for Christmas
Richards, Emilie. Let There be Suspects
Rickman, Phil. Midwinter of the Spirit
Riggs, John R. Haunt of the Nightingale
Riley, Kelly Ann. Homespun Holidays
Ripley, Ann. The Christmas Garden Affair
Rizzolo, S.K. The Rose in the Wheel
Robb, J.D. Holiday in Death
Roberts, Gillian. The Mummer’s Curse, Philly Stakes
Roberts, Sheila. On Strike for Christmas, The Nine Lives of Christmas
Robinson, Peter. Past Reason Hated, The Price of Love and Other Stories (anthology)
Roosevelt, Eliot. The White House Pantry Murder
Roper, Gail. Caught in the Act
Rosett, Sara. Mistletoe, Merriment and Murder
Rowe, Jennifer. Death in Store, Love Lies Bleeding
Rubino, Jane. Fruit Cake, Homicide for the Holidays
Ruell, Patrick. Red Christmas
Ryan, Jenna. Mistletoe and Murder

Don't forget to check out Christmas Mysteries, Authors A-DAuthors E-H, Authors I-N.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Cool Gingerbread Cookie Cutters & Chocolate Gingerbread Cookie Recipe

I posted this on DyingforChocolate.com this week, but for those of you who don't read that blog, here's a repost. I think it works well on a mystery blog, too! Happy Holidays!

Christmas is a great time to bring out the Cookie Cutters. Here are some favorites that are perfect for Chocolate Gingerbread Men. Be sure and scroll down for a Recipe for awesome Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies and some Gingerbread Cookie Icing Tips!
 
Yoga Cookie Cutters Set 1: Lotus Group from Patti Paige Baked Ideas

Yoga Cookie Cutters Set 2: Down Dog from Patti Paige Baked Ideas


GingerDead Men Cookie Cutters: 

NinjaBread Men: 

Fred ABC Cookies Cutters: Which part do you eat first?
Chocolate Gingerbread Cookie Recipe
This awesome recipe is from Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito - Food & Wine Magazine

Cookies
3-1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1/3 cup unsweetened DARK cocoa powder
1 tablespoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 tablespoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons sweet butter, softened
1/3 cup solid vegetable shortening (Crisco)
1/2 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1/2 cup molasses
2 ounces dark chocolate (65-85% cacao), melted and cooled

1. In medium bowl, whisk flour with cocoa powder, ground ginger, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In bowl of standing electric mixer fitted with the paddle, beat softened butter with shortening at medium speed until mixture is smooth, about 30 seconds. Add brown sugar and beat until fluffy, about 2 minutes.
2. Add egg to cookie batter and beat until incorporated. Beat in molasses and then melted chocolate. Add flour mixture in 3 batches, beating between additions. Divide dough into 3 equal parts. Shape each part into a disk, then wrap each one in plastic wrap and refrigerate cookie dough until chilled, about 2 hours.
3. Preheat oven to 350°. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. On lightly floured work surface, roll out 1 disk of dough 1/4 inch thick. Using 4- to 5-inch cookie cutters, cut dough into shapes and transfer to prepared baking sheets. Reroll dough scraps and cut out more cookies.
4. Bake cookies for about 7 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through baking until tops are dry. Let cookies cool in pans for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Repeat process with remaining dough.

Gingerbread Cookie Icing Tips!!


You can make Royal Icing or try this Recipe for Mascarpone Filling that doubles as Decorating Icing. Put it in a bag and pipe! Or use Wilton Decorating Icing in the squeeze bottles.

Decorate your cookies. Let stand until icing dries, about 30 minutes.

Make Ahead: Chocolate gingerbread cookies can be kept in an airtight container for up to 5 days.    

Friday, December 14, 2012

Christmas Mysteries: Authors I-N

Here's the Third installment of Crime for the Holidays: Christmas Crime Fiction Authors I-N. What a long list. Makes for more reading which is always fine with me!

Be sure and go back on Mystery Fanfare for Christmas Crime Fiction Authors A-D and Authors E-H. Let me know if I've forgotten any.

Iams, Jack. Do Not Murder Before Christmas
Indridason, Arnaldur. Voices
Innes, Michael. A Comedy of Terrors, Christmas at Candleshoe
Irving, Karen. Jupiter’s Daughter
Ivie, Judith. Drowning in Christmas
Jackson, Melanie. Murder on Parade
Jaffe. Jody. Chestnut Mare, Beware
Jahn, Cathie. Add One Dead Critic
Jahn, Michael. Murder on Fifth Avenue
Jarvis, Nancy Lynn. Buying Murder
Jeffers, H. Paul. Murder on Mike
John, Cathie. Add One Dead Critic
Johnson, Craig. Death Without Company, Christmas in Absaroka
Jordan, Cathleen. A Carol in the Dark
Jordan, Jennifer. Murder Under the Mistletoe.
Kane, Henry. A Corpse for Christmas (Homicide at Yuletide)
Kaplan, Arthur. A Killing for Charity
Katz, Fred. Not a Creature Was Stirring
Kaufman, Karin. The Witch Tree
Kavanaugh, Brian. A Canterbury Crime
Kaye, M. M. Death in the Andamans
Kellerman, Faye. Sacred and Profane
Kelley, Lee Charles. 'Twas the Bite Before Christmas
Kelly, Mary. The Christmas Egg
Kelner, Toni L.P. Mad as the Dickens, Murder Under the Tree (ed)
Kendrick, Stephen. Night Watch
King, Laurie R. A Monstrous Regiment of Women
Kingsbury, Kate. No Clue at the Inn, Ringing in Murder, Shrouds of Holly, Slay Bells, Decked with Folly, Mistletoe and Mayhem, Herald of Death
Kisor, Henry. Season’s Revenge
Kitchen, C.H.B. Crime at Christmas
Kleinholz, Lisa. Exiles on Main Street
Knight, Alanna. The Dagger in the Crown
Knight, Bernard. Crowner's Quest
Knight, Kathleen Moore. They're Going to Kill Me
Knight, Stephen. Corpse at the Opera House, Murder at Home, More Crimes for a Summer Christmas
Koch, Edward I. Murder on 34th Street
Koontz, Dean R. Mister Murder, Santa’s Twin, Robot Santa
Lake, M.D. A Gift for Murder, Grave Choices
Landreth, Marsha. The Holiday Murders
Lane, Vicki. In a Dark Season
Langley, Bob. Death Stalk
Langston, Josh & Barbara Galler-Smith. Christmas Beyond the Box
Langton, Jane. The Shortest Day: Murder at the Revels, The Memorial Hall Murder
Lanyon, Josh & Sarah Black. I'll be Dead for Christmas
Lathen, Emma. Banking on Death
Lavene, Joyce and Jim. Treacherous Toys
Lawrence, David. Cold Kill
Lawrence, Hilda. Blood Upon the Snow
Lawrence, Treat. Q As in Quicksand
Leach, Christopher. A Killing Frost
Lee, Wendy. Murder, Mayhem and Mistletoe (anthology)
Leon, Donna. Blood from a Stone
Levine, Joan. The Santa Claus Mystery
Levine, Laura. Candy Cane Murders (with Joanne Fluke & Leslie Meier), Gingerbread Cookie Murder (with Joanne Fluke & Leslie Meier)
Lewin, Michael Z. The Enemies Within
Lewis, Ted. Carter's Law
Little, Constance. The Black-Headed Pins
Livingston, Nancy. Quiet Murder
Locke, William J. A Christmas Mystery
Lockridge, Richard. Dead Run
London, Cait. (and others) Sugarplums and Scandal
Long, Manning. Vicious Circle
Lord, Christopher. The Christmas Carol Murders
Lourey, Jess. December Dread
Luber, Philip. Deadly Convictions
Macbride, Stuart. Cold Granite
MacLeod, Charlotte. Rest You Merry; ed.Christmas Stalkings: Tales of Yuletide Murder, The Convivial Codfish; Mistletoe Mysteries (ed)
MacDonald, John D. Pale Gray for Guilt
MacLeod, Charlotte. The Convivial Codfish, Murder Goes Mumming, Rest You Merry
MacPherson, Rett. A Comedy of Heirs, The Blood Ballad
MacPherson, Suzanne (and others) Sugarplums and Scandal
Malliet, G. M. Death of a Cozy Writer
Malmont, Valerie. Death, Snow, and Mistletoe
Manson, Cynthia (ed). Christmas Crimes, Merry Murder, Murder Under the Mistletoe, Mystery for Christmas, Murder at Christmas
Marantz, Bill. Christmas Eve Can Kill You
Markham, Marion. Christmas Present Mystery (anthology)
Markowitz, Jeff. It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Murder
Marks, Jeffrey. Canine Christmas
Maron, Margaret. Corpus Christmas, Rituals of the Season, Christmas Mourning
Marsh, Carole. Haunted Christmas Tree Mystery
Marsh, Ngaio. Tied Up in Tinsel
Matesky, Amanda. Murder is a Girl’s Best Friend
McBain, Ed. And All Through the House, Downtown, Ghosts, Sadie When She Died
McCloy, Helen. Mr. Splitfoot
McClure, James. The Gooseberry Fool
McGinley, Patrick. Goosefoot
McGown, Jill. Murder at the Old Vicarage
McKevett, G.A. Cooked Goose, Poisoned Tarts
McLean, Donna. A Sparrow Falls Christmas
McLintick, Malcolm. Death of an Old Flame
McMullen, Mary. Death by Bequest
Mehl, Nancy. There Goes Santa Claus
Meier, Leslie. The Christmas Cookie Murder, Mistletoe Murder, Mail Order Murder, Candy Cane Murders (w/Joanne Fluke & Laura Levine), Gingerbread Cookie Murder, A Winter Wonderland
Meredith, David W. The Christmas Card Murders
Meredith, D. R. Murder by Sacrilege
Michaels, Kasey. High Heels and Holidays, Bowled Over
Miles, Terry. Dog Gone Christmas
Milne, A.A. A Table Near the Band, Christmas Party
Miner, Valerie. Murder in the English Department
Minichino, Camile. The Helium Murder, The Oxygen Murder
Misto, Joh. The Devil's Companions
Mitcheltree, Tom. How Still We See Thee Lie (with Elizabeth Gunn & Connie Shelton)
Moore, Christopher. The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror
Morrell, David. The Spy Who Came for Christmas
Mortimer, John. A Rumpole Christmas
Moyes, Patricia. Season of Snows and Sins
Muller, Marcia. There's Nothing to be Afraid Of
Murphy, Shirley Rousseau. Cat Deck the Halls, Cat Coming Home
Nabb, Magdalen. Death of an Englishman
Nash, Anne. Said with Flowers
Neel, Janet. Death's Bright Angel
Nelson, Hugh. The Season for Murder
Nesbo, Jo. The Redeemer
Nesser, Hakan. Woman with Birthmark
Nixon, Joan. The Christmas Eve Murder
Norden, Robert. Death Beneath the Christmas Tree

Christmas Crime Fiction Authors A-D and Christmas Mystery Authors E-H. If I forgot you on any of these lists, let me know.

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Anne Hillerman to continue Tony HIllerman's series

Breaking news! 

According to the Albuqueque Journal, Anne Hillerman, the daughter of the late Tony Hillerman plans to continue her father's Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee series. Spider Woman's Daughter will be published in Fall 2013 (HarperCollins). Anne Hillerman has published several non-fiction books. This will be her first novel.

Read more at Omnimystery News


C.C. Benison: the Reverend Tom "Father" Christmas Series

Today I welcome C.C. Benison, author of the Reverend Tom "Father" Christmas series 

C. C. Benison is the pseudonym of Doug Whiteway. He has worked as a writer and editor for newspapers and magazines, as a book editor, and as a contributor to nonfiction books. He is the author of four previous novels, including Death at Buckingham Palace that won the Arthur Ellis Best Novel Award.C.C.  Benison's sixth and latest novel is Eleven Pipers Piping, the second in the series of crime novels inspired by the verses of the well-known carol, The Twelve Days of Christmas.

C.C. BENISON: 
The Twelve Days of Christmas

When I was a lad – many, many, oh, many years ago – in the days when Canada had but a single television channel, two items were staples of Christmas morning programming: the Queen’s Christmas message and a short film, On the Twelfth Day, featuring a young Edwardian man on a penny-farthing bicycle visiting his lady love at her snow-covered terraced London house and bringing her gifts, starting with a partridge in a pear tree. It’s significant that he starts with the partridge in a pear tree – not with twelve drummers drumming as I do in the Father Christmas mystery series – because each time he brings his true love another gift – six geese a’laying, say – he also (to conform to the repeating verses of the Christmas carol “The Twelve Days of Christmas”) brings another set of his earlier gifts. Thus, by the end of the film, the woman’s home is stuffed with 22 pipers piping, 30 lords a’leaping, 36 ladies dancing, 40 maids a’milking, an appalling number of birds, and not a few cattle, such that the only escape from this mad house is from the roof, by hot-air balloon, conveniently supplied by the young man, whose plan it likely was all along to secure his true love to himself.

Unlike Her Majesty and her Christmas message, On the Twelfth Day – designed by cartoonist Ronald Searle – disappeared from Christmas morning viewing by the Sixties (though it has since reappeared on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRijElQVlVk). But I never quite forgot its madcap energy. Any time the song was sung ever after, the images from the film would slip into my head.

Skip ahead several decades, and I am in a bookshop devoted to mystery novels, in Winnipeg, where I live, trawling with the shop owners through the computer, admiring all the clever concepts for mystery series, whether letters (A is for Alibi) or numbers (One for the Money) or kings (Bertie and the Seven Bodies) or queens (Death at Buckingham Palace). It is Christmas time. Snow is everywhere. Seasonal music pours from every shop speaker, including one that features gift giving on a grand scale. I am reminded of Ronald Searle’s film. Has anyone framed a mystery series around the carol, “The Twelve Days of Christmas”, I ask, presuming the computer to immediately spit out a list?

No one had.

And so the holiday that inspired a carol that inspired a film inspired me, and the Father Christmas series was born. The protagonist is Tom Christmas, an Anglican priest living in small village in rural England. He’s a widower, a single father, a reluctant detective, and he suffers more than endorses the droll pairing of his profession and his surname. He – and the villagers, too – are seemingly oblivious to the strange pairing of the crimes in their community and a certain Christmas song. A young woman is found dead in a taiko drum in Twelve Drummers Drumming. A member of a Scottish pipe band dies mysteriously in Eleven Pipers Piping. And yet, for all this Christmasness, neither mystery is set at Christmas time. Twelve is set in May, Eleven in January. Ten Lords a’Leaping, scheduled for autumn 2013, is set in August. One day, one volume of the series will be set at Christmas, but I won’t say which one. This may disappoint some potential readers, those who are avid for crime novels set at Yuletide. But I agree with Jerry Herman who wrote a song for his musical Mame called “We Need A Little Christmas”. We need a little Christmas. Not a lot.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

1950s Special Holiday Gifts: No Comment

Just had to pin these two comic book ads from the 1950s. Is this what you wanted for Christmas?



Christmas Mysteries, Authors E-H

Today, I continue the Christmas Mystery/Crime Fiction list. It's amazing how many mysteries are set during the holidays, but it's such a stressful time, I shouldn't be all that surprised.

Today Christmas Crime Authors E-H. Be sure and check the previous Christmas Mysteries list, Authors A-D. I've updated it. Please let me know if I've forgotten an author or book.

Eberhart, Mignon G. Postmark Murder
Eddenden, A. E. A Good Year for Murder
Egan, Lesley. Crime for Christmas
Eickhoff, Randy Lee. Then Came Christmas
Ekwensi, Cyprian. Restless City, Christmas Gold
Emerson, Kathy Lynn (Kaitlyn Dunnett). A Wee Christmas Homicide
Englehart, Steve. Christmas Countdown
Erskine, Margaret. A Graveyard Plot
Estleman, Loren D. The Glass Highway
Evanovich, Janet. Visions of Sugar Plums
Faherty, Terence (ed). Murder, Mayhem and Mistletoe
Fairstein, Linda A. The Deadhouse, The Crime and the Crystal, A Small World of Murder
Farjeon, J.J. Mystery in White
Fawcett, Quinn. Siren Song
Feddersen, Connie (ed). Murder Under the Tree
Fennelly, Tony. Home Dead for Christmas
Ferrars, E.X. Smoke Without Fire, The Small World of Murder, The Crime and the Crystal
Ferris, Monica. Crewel Yule
Finch, Charles. The Fleet Street Murders
Finnis, Jane. A Bitter Chill
Fletcher, Jessica and Donald Bain. A Little Yuletide Murder, Manhattan and Murder
Floyd, John (ed). The Gift of Murder
Fluke, Joanne. Candy Cane Murders (with Leslie Meier & Laura Levine), Sugar Cookie Murder, Plum Pudding Murder, Gingerbread Cookie Murder (w/Laura Levine & Leslie Meier)
Flynn, Brian. The Murders near Mapleton
Foley, Rae. Hundreth Door
Ford, Leslie. The Simple Way of Poison 
Fowler, Earlene. The Saddlemaker’s Wife
Fraser, Anthea. The Nine Bright Shiners
Frazer, Margaret. The Servant's Tale, The Widow's Tale
Freydont, Shelley. A Merry Little Murder
Frommer, Sara Hoskinson. Witness in Bishop Hill
Furlong-Bolliger. Christmas in Killarney
Furst, Clyde Bowman. The Observations of Professor Maturin
Gaarder, Jostein. The Christmas Mystery
Gagnon, Michelle. Kidnap and Ransom
Galenorn, Yasmine. Ghost of a Chance
Gano, John. Inspector Proby's Christmas
Garner, James Finn. Politically Correct Holiday Stories: For an Enlightened Yuletide Season
Garnet, A. H. The Santa Claus Killer
George, Anne. Murder on a Bad Hair Day
Giroux, E. X. Death for a Dietician
Godfrey, Thomas (ed) Murder for Christmas: 26 Tales of Seasonal Malice
Goldenbaum, Sally. A Holiday Yarn
Goodman, Jonathan. Murder on the Aisle
Gordon, Alan. Thirteen Night, The Moneylender of Toulouse
Gorman, Edward. Murder on the Aisle
Gouze, Roger. A Quiet Game of Bambu
Grabenstein, Chris. Hell for the Holidays, Slay Ride
Grace, Alexa. Deadly Holiday 
Grace, C.L. The Merchant of Death
Grace, Margaret. Mayhem in Miniature
Grafton, Sue. “E” is for Evidence
Graham, Heather. The Last Noel, A Season of Miracles
Granger, Ann. A Season for Murder
Graves, Sarah. Wreck the Halls
Greeley, Andrew. The Bishop and the Three Kings
Green, Christine. Deadly Partners
Greenberg, Martin H. (ed) Cat Crimes for the Holidays, Holmes for the Holidays, Santa Clues, More Holmes for the Holidays. Twelve Crimes of Christmas
Greenwood, Kerry. Murder in the Dark, Forbidden Fruit
Griffey, Jackie. The Nelson Scandal
Gregory, Susanna. A Conspiracy of Violence
Grimes, Martha. Jerusalem Inn, Old Fox Deceived, The Man with a Load of Mischief
Guest, Judith. Killing Time in St. Cloud
Gunning, Sally. Ice Water
Haddam, Jane. Not a Creature Was Stirring, A Stillness in Bethlehem
Hager, Jean. The Last Noel
Haines, Carolyn. Buried Bones
Hall, Parnell. A Puzzle in a Pear Tree
Hall, Robert Lee. Benjamin Franklin and a Case of Christmas Murder
Halliday, Gemma. Christmas in High Heels
Hammett, Dashiell. The Thin Man
Handler, David. The Snow White Christmas Cookie
Hardwick, Richard. The Season to be Deadly
Hare, Cyril. An English Murder
Harmon, Ken. The Fat Man: A Tale of North Pole Noir
Harper, Karen. The Queene’s Christmas
Harris, Charlaine. Shakespeare’s Christmas & (ed) Wolfsbane and Mistletoe
Harris, Joanne. Chocolat
Harris, Lee. The Christmas Night Murder
Harrison, Janis. Murder Sets Seed
Hart, Carolyn Sugarplum Dead & Merry, Merry Ghost
Hart, Ellen. Vital Lies, Murder in the Air
Hart, Roy. Seascape with Dead Figures
Harvey, John. Cold Light
Hay, Doriel. The Santa Klaus Murder
Heald, Tim. (ed) A Classic Christmas Crime
Heath, Sandra. Mistletoe Mischief
Hechtman, Betty. You Better Knot Die
Hellmann, Libby. Set the Night on Fire
Hemlin, Tim. A Catered Christmas
Hess, Joan. A Holly, Jolly Murder, O Little Town of Maggody
Heyer, Georgette. Envious Casca
Hiassen, Carl. Tourist Season
Hill, Reginald. Death's Jest Book, A Clubbable Woman
Hilton, John Buxton. Death in Midwinter
Hinkemeyer, Michael. A Time to Reap
Hochgatterer, Paulus. The Sweetness of Life
Hodgkin, Marion Rous. Dead Indeed
Holland, Isabelle. A Fatal Advent
Holmes, Dee. Silent Night (anthology)
Holms, Joyce. Thin Ice
Howell, Dorothy. Slay Bells and Satchels
Howie, Edith. Murder for Christmas
Howlett, John. The Christmas Spy
Hughes, Cledwyn. The Inn Closes for Christmas, The Different Drummer
Hughes, Mary Ellen. Wreath of Deception
Hume, Fergus. The Coin of Edward VII
Hunter, Alan. Landed Gently
Hunter, Ellen Elizabeth. Murder on the Candlelight Tour, Christmas Wedding.
Hunter, Evan. Come Winter
Hunter, Fred. Ransom for a Holiday, 'Tis the Season for Murder, Homicide for the Holidays

Coming soon: the rest of the alphabet :-) For Authors A-D, go HERE

Cartoon of the Day: Cat

Bizarro by Dan Piraro:


Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Christmas Mysteries: Authors A-D

Crime for the Holidays. Next to Thanksgiving, this is a major time for murder! Here's the first part of this very extensive Christmas Mystery list that I'll post over the next week. This list has been updated since 2011, but I'm sure I've still managed  to miss a few titles and authors. Let me know, and I'd be glad to add them.


Christmas Crime Fiction: Authors A-D

Abbot, Anthony. About the Murder on a Startled Lady, About the Murder of Geraldine Foster
Abresch, Peter. The Faltese Malcom
Adams, Deborah. All the Crazy Winters
Adamson, Lydia. A Cat in the Manger, A Cat in the Wings, A Cat on Jingle Bell Rock, A Cat Under the Mistletoe
Albert, Susan Wittig. Mistletoe Man, Rueful Death, Holly Blues
Alexander, David, Shoot a Sitting Duck
Allen, Michael. Spence and the Holiday Murders
Amo, Gary. Silent Night
Andre, Joel. A Death at the North Pole
Andrews, Donna. Six Geese A-Slaying
Andrews, Mary Kay & Kathy Hogan Trocheck. Fatal Fruitcake, Blue Christmas
Appignanesi, Lisa.The Dead of Winter
Armstrong, Vivien. Fly in Amber
Arsenault, Emily. The Broken Teaglass
Arts, David Jay. Quiet Desperation
Ash, Maureen. Murder for Christ’s Mass
Atherton, Nancy. Aunt Dimity's Christmas
Arts, David Jay. Quiet Desperation
Ash, Maureen. Murder for Christ's Mass
Asimov, Isaac (ed) Twelve Crimes of Christmas
Atkins, Ace. Leavin' Trunk Blues
Atherton, Nancy. Aunt Dimity's Christmas
Aubert, Rosemary. The Feast of Stephen
Avocato, Lori. (ed) Sugarplums and Scandal
Baantjer, Albert, Murder in Amsterdam
Babson, Marian. Twelve Deaths of Christmas, Line Up for Murder, Murder on a Mystery Tour
Bain, Donald. A Little Yuletide MurderManhattans and Murder
Baker, Deb. Murder Trims the Tree
Baker, North. Dead to the World
Baldacci, David. The Christmas Train
Banks, Carolyn. Horse to Die For
Barre, Richard. Bethany 
Barron, Stephanie. Jane and the Wandering Eye
Battison, Brian. The Christmas Bow Murder
Baldacci, David. The Christmas Train
Ball, Donna. Silent Night
Ballard, Mignon F. Deadly Promise, Hark! The Herald Angel Screamed
Barnard, Robert. Death in a Cold Climate, The Habit of Widowhood
Barnett, T.L. Murder for the New Year
Barrett, Kathleen. Homicide for the Holidays
Barron, Stephanie. Jane and the Wandering Eye
Battison, Brian. The Christmas Bow Murder
Bayard, Louis, Mr. Timothy
Beaton, M.C. Death of A Snob, A Highland Christmas, Agatha Raisin and Kissing Christmas Goodbye, Death of a Prankster, Christmas Crumble, Busy Body
Beaumont, Cyril. The Mysterious Toyshop
Beechy, Alan. Murdering Ministers
Benison, C.C. Death at Sandringham House, Twelve Drummers Drumming, Eleven Pipers Piping
Benrey Ron & Janet. Season of Glory
Berenson, Laurien. Jingle Bell Bark, Once Bitten
Bernhardt, William. The Midnight Before Christmas
Berry, Carole. This Year Will Be Different, The Year of the Monkey
Berry, Linda. (ed) The Last Noel
Bishop, Claudia. A Carol for a Corpse
Black, Gavin. Dragon for Christmas
Black, Sarah & John Lanyon. I’ll be Dead for Christmas
Blackburn, Cindy, Three Odd Balls
Blackstock, Charity. Foggy, Foggy Dew
Blake, Nicholas. The Corpse in the Snowman, The Smiler With the Knife, Thou Shell of Death
Blanc, Nero. A Crossworder's Delight, A Crossworder's Gift, A Crossworder's Holiday, Wrapped Up in Crosswords
Block, Barbara (and others). Murder Most Merry
Borger, Gale. Totally Decked
Borthwick, J. S. Dude on Arrival, The Student Body
Boucher, Anthony. The Night Before Christmas
Boylan, Eleanor. Pushing Murder
Boyle, Thomas. Post-Mortem Effects
Bowen, Rhys. The Twelve Clues at Christmas
Boyland, Eleanor. Pushing Murder
Bradley, Alan. The Nasty Light of Day, I am Half Sick of Shadows
Brady, James. Hampton's Christmas
Bramble, Forbes. Dead of Winter
Braun, Lilian Jackson. The Cat Who Turned On and Off, The Cat Who Went into the Closet
Bredes, Don. Cold Comfort
Breen, Jon. Probable Claus
Brett, Simon. The Christmas Crimes at Puzzle Manor, The Shooting in the Shop
Brewer, Steve (and others) The Last Noel
Brightwell, Emily. Mrs. Jeffries and the Feast of St. Stephen, Mrs. Jeffries & the Yuletide Weddings, Mrs. Jeffries & the Mistletoe Mix Up, Mrs, Jeffries and the Silent Knight
Brockman, Suzanne. All Through the Night.
Brown, Carter. A Corpse for Christmas
Brown, Frederic. Murder Can be Fun
Brown, Rita Mae. Rest in Pieces, Santa Clawed
Browning, Abigail (ed) Murder Most Merry (stories)
Bruce, Leo. Such is Death
Buchanan, Edna. The Ice Maiden
Burton, Tony (ed). By the Chimney with Care, Carols and Crimes/Gifts and Grifters, Dying in a Winter Wonderland
Burke, James. A Present for Santa
Burley, W. J. Death in Willow Pattern, Wycliffe and the Quiet Virgin
Byerrun, Ellen. Grave Apparel
Caine, Leslie. Holly and Homicide
Cairns, Alison. New Year Resolution
Cameron, Dana (and others) Sugarplums and Scandal
Carl, Joanna. The Chocolate Bear Burglary, The Chocolate Snowman Murders
Carr, Carol K. India Black and the Widow of Windsor
Carrier, Warren. Justice at Christmas
Carrington, Tori. Queen's Ransom 
Carter, John Franklin. The Corpse on the White House Lawn
Carter, Nick. The Christmas Kill
Casey, Elizabeth Lynn. Let It Sew
Caunitz, William J. Exceptional Clearance
Challinor, C. S. Christmas is Murder
Chan, Cassandra. Spider on the Stairs
Chaput, W. J. The Man on the Train
Chase, Erika. Read and Buried
Chastain, Thomas. 911
Chaze, Elliott. Goodbye Goliath
Chesbro, George C. Second Horseman Out of Eden, Colde Smell of Sacred Stone
Childs, Laura. The Teaberry Strangler
Christie, Agatha. Hercule Poirot’s Christmas (Also published as Murder for Christmas and Holiday for Murder), The Sittaford Mystery
Christmas, Joyce. Dying Well, Fete Worse than Death
Churchill, Jill. Farewell to Yarns, The Merchant of Menace, From Here to Paternity
Clad, Noel. Savage
Clark, Carol Higgins. Iced
Clark, Mary Higgins. All Though the Night, Silent Night, Deck the Halls. With Carol Higgins Clark, He Sees You when Your Sleeping With Carol Higgins Clark, The Christmas Thief. With Carol Higgins Clark, Santa Cruise. My Gal Sunday, Stillwatch
Dashing through the snow. With Carol Higgins Clark.
Coggin, Joan. Who Killed the Curate?, Dancing with Death
Cohen, Charles. Silver Linings
Collier, Christine. Christmas at Cliffhanger Inn, A Holiday Sampler
Collings, Rex. Clerical Crimes for Christmas
Collins, Max Allen. Blue Christmas and Other Holiday Homicides, No Cure for Death, Spree
Colt, Jennifer. The Con Artist of Catalina Island
Conant, Susan. Gone to the Dogs
Constantine, K.C. Upon Some Midnights Clear
Cooper, Natasha. Evil is Done 
Cornish, Constance. Dead of Winter
Cornwell, Patricia. Scarpetta’s Winter Table 
Cortez, Donn. Miami: Harm for the HolidaysCousins, Caroline. Fiddle Dee Death
Coyle, Cleo. Holiday Grind, Holiday Buzz, Latte Trouble
Coward, Mat (and others) The Last Noel
Craig, Alisa. Murder Goes Mumming
Craft, Michael. Body LanguageCraig, Alisa. Murder Goes Mumming
Craig, Philip R. A Deadly Vineyard Holiday: A Martha’s Vineyard Mystery, Off Season
Crane, Hamilton. Starring Miss Seeton
Crawford, Isis. A Catered Christmas
Creasey, John. Death of a Postman
Crespi, Trella. Trouble with Thin Ice
Crider, Bill. Cursed to Death
Crombie, Deborah. Water Like a Stone, And Justice There is None
Cross, Amanda. No Word from Winifred
Crowleigh, Ann. Murder Under the Tree (stories)
Daheim, Mary. The Alpine Christmas, Nutty as a Fruitcake, The Alpine Winter
Dalby, Richard. Crime for Christmas
D'Amato, Barbara. Hard Christmas
Dams, Jeanne M. The Body in the Transept, Indigo Christmas, Winter of Discontent
Dane, Joel. The Christmas Tree Murders
Danielewski, Cynthia. Night Fire 
Darrell, Elizabeth. Czech Mate
Davenport, Chari. The Christmas Party
Davidson, Diane Mott. Sweet Revenge
Davidson, Mary Janice. Undead and Unreturnable
Davis, Frederick. Drag the Dark
Davis, Krista. The Diva Runs Out of Thyme, The Diva Cooks a Goose
Davis, Mildred B. Tell Them What's Her Name Called, Three Minutes to Midnight
Dawson, Janet. Nobody's Child
Day, Marlis. Curriculum Murders
Dean, Spencer. Credit for a Murder
DeAndrea, William L. Killed on the Ice
De Castrique, Mark. Grave Undertaking 
Dee, Ed. Little Boy Blue
Deeb, Mary Jane. Christmas Mystery in Provence
Delany, Kathleen. Murder Half-Baked
Delany, Vicki. Winter of Secrets
Dengler, Sandy. Murder on the Mount
Dentinger, Jane. The Queen is Dead
Deverell, Diana.  Twelve Drummers Drumming
Dexter, Colin. The Secret of Annexe 3, Morse's Greatest Mystery and Other Stories
Dickson, Carter. The White Priority Murders
Dobson, Joanne. Quieter Than Sleep
Donnelly, Deborah. Died to Match, May the Best Man Die
Dorsey, Tim. When the Elves Attack
Douglas, Carole Nelson. Cat in a Golden Garland
Douglas, Charlotte. Holidays are Murder
Downing, Todd. The Last Trumpet
Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle
Driscoll, Patricia. Shedding Light on Murder
Drummond, John Keith. 'Tis the Season to be Dying
Douglas, Carole Nelson. Cat in a Golden Garland: A Midnight Louie Mystery
Duffy, James. The Christmas Gang
Dunbar, Sophie. Shiveree
Duncan, Elizabeth. A Killer's Christmas in Wales
Dunn, Carola. Mistletoe and Murder, Death at Wentwater Court
Dunnett, Kaitlyn. A Wee Christmas Homicide, Scotched
Durham, Mary. Keeps Death His Court