This suspense-filled collection gathers together some of today's best mystery writers--including John D. MacDonald, Rex Stout, Margery Allingham, Patricia Moyers, and Malcolm McClintock, and many others--to provide ho-ho-ho homicide, and merry murder to all mystery-lovers of good cheer. A unique holiday classic.

Christmas is a season of overindulgence. For most of us, that means an extra mince pie, a second helping of turkey, or perhaps a third glass of mulled wine. But for some, the festive season is a time to settle old scores, dispatch new enemies and indulge ... in murder. Here, ten masters of the genre serve up mystery and mayhem aplenty. From a dowager's missing jewels to a festive dinner gone horribly wrong, these classic crime stories will delight, puzzle and satisfy long after the last strands of tinsel have been cleared away.

As the acknowledged "Queen of Crime," P. D. James was frequently commissioned by newspapers and magazines to write a special short story for Christmas--and here, together, are four of the best. P. D. James's understanding of human nature illuminates each of these stories, making them ideal reading for the darkest days of the year. Each treats the reader to her masterfully atmospheric storytelling, a mystery to be solved, and enjoyable puzzles to keep the reader guessing. With wry humour, she pays tribute to her English crime-writing forebears, delighting in the secrets that lurk beneath the surface at enforced family gatherings and in old country houses--from the title story about a strained family reunion on Christmas Eve, to another about an illicit affair that ends in murder, and two cases that introduce James's poet-detective Adam Dalgliesh as a young detective sergeant.

Christmas is murder-- when you're stranded in East Sussex with a killer. When guests at a secluded Victorian hotel start dying, all hopes for a jolly holiday are dashed.

A holiday anthology for mystery fans highlights the works of such well-known favorites as Agatha Christie, Georges Simenon, Stanely Ellin, and Ellery Queen. Reissue.

This unique anthology of 12 compelling mysteries of Christmas and murder spotlights well-known, bestselling mystery writers such as John Mortimer, James Powell, Alice Scanlan Reach, Julian Symons, Georges Simenon, and others. Perfect for mystery fans who love solving mistletoe mayhem.

Mystery crime fiction written in the Golden Age of Murder "This volume in Poisoned Pen's British Library Crime Classics series is ideal summer vacation reading." —Publishers Weekly Holidays offer us the luxury of getting away from it all. So, in a different way, do detective stories. This collection of vintage mysteries combines both those pleasures. From a golf course at the English seaside to a pension in Paris, and from a Swiss mountain resort to the cliffs of Normandy, this new selection shows the enjoyable and unexpected ways in which crime writers have used summer holidays as a theme. These fourteen stories range widely across the golden age of British crime fiction. Stellar names from the past are well represented—Arthur Conan Doyle and G. K. Chesterton, for instance—with classic stories that have won acclaim over the decades. The collection also uncovers a wide range of hidden gems: Anthony Berkeley—whose brilliance with plot had even Agatha Christie in raptures—is represented by a story so (undeservedly) obscure that even the British Library does not own a copy. The stories by Phyllis Bentley and Helen Simpson are almost equally rare, despite the success which both writers achieved, while those by H. C. Bailey, Leo Bruce and the little-known Gerald Findler have seldom been reprinted. Each story is introduced by the editor, Martin Edwards, who sheds light on the authors' lives and the background to their writing.