The holidays are hard enough for widowed NYC detective Frank Schultt without the gifts of a Christmas serial killer and a handsome FBI criminalist. On the first day of Christmas, a serial killer gave to me, twelve holiday murders... A killer is on the loose in New York City during the Christmas holidays and it's up to NYC Detective Frank Schultt and his partner to figure out who the killer is and put a stop to it. Five years before, during the Christmas season, the widowed detective had found his husband shot dead in a liquor store robbery. He's finally on the mend and trying to get his life and career back on track, but this case might prove too much for his recovery. A mysterious FBI criminalist named Aaron Massey is assigned to help him solve the crimes, but the witty and attractive profiler raises feelings in Frank that he doesn't know how to handle. Can Aaron help Frank break through his emotional walls fast enough to stop the killings, solve the case and fall in love before Christmas?

Eight friends created the exclusive Masquerade Murder Society while in college. The murders they solved were fictional—until their final masquerade, when one of the group disappeared. Twelve years later, the remaining members are invited to a reunion in the Scottish Highlands . . . Twelve years ago, eight friends ran an exclusive group at university: The Masquerade Murder Society. The mysteries they solved may have been grisly, and brilliantly staged, but they were always fictional—until their final Christmas Masquerade, when one of the group disappeared, never to be seen again. Now our young, privileged cast of old university friends are summoned to the depths of Scotland for a Christmas-themed masquerade party. But all are hiding something deep below the surface that could make or break their careers. Charley is a struggling actress who has always been on the periphery of this high-flying group, but has decided to reunite with her frenemies on the promise of career help if she joins the old cast for one last weekend. When they arrive each is assigned a new identity themed around the "Twelve Days of Christmas"—they become Lady Partridge or Mr. Gold; Lord Leapworth or Doctor Swan. The game begins, and it feels just like old times. Until the next morning, when Lady Partridge is found hanging—dead—from a pear tree. It quickly becomes clear that in this game the murder will be all too real, and the story is bringing long-hidden secrets to the surface. Will Charley’s discerning eye and outsider status allow her to uncover the truth, or will she, too, fall prey to the murderer among them? If the group hopes to win the game and survive until Christmas morning, they will need to face the truth about their history together and who they have become—and what really happened on that fateful night twelve years before.

Murder mystery at the Big B

Jane Austen turns sleuth in this delightful murder mystery set over the twelve days of a Regency-Era Christmas party. Christmas Eve, 1814: Jane Austen has been invited to spend the holiday with family and friends at The Vyne, the gorgeous ancestral home of the wealthy and politically prominent Chute family. As the year fades and friends begin to gather beneath the mistletoe for the twelve days of Christmas festivities, Jane and her circle are in a celebratory mood: Mansfield Park is selling nicely; Napoleon has been banished to Elba; British forces have seized Washington, DC; and on Christmas Eve, John Quincy Adams signs the Treaty of Ghent, which will end a war nobody in England really wanted. Jane, however, discovers holiday cheer is fleeting. One of the Yuletide revelers dies in a tragic accident, which Jane immediately views with suspicion. If the accident was in fact murder, the killer is one of Jane’s fellow snow-bound guests. With clues scattered amidst cleverly crafted charades, dark secrets coming to light during parlor games, and old friendships returning to haunt the Christmas parties, whom can Jane trust to help her discover the truth and stop the killer from striking again?

LOVEREADING'S BOOK OF THE MONTH! The perfect murder mystery to gift this Christmas. Find the truth. Solve the murder. Never reveal your secret. Twelve years ago, eight friends ran an exclusive group at university: The Murder Masquerade Society. The mysteries they solved may have been grisly, but they were always fictional - until their final Christmas puzzle, when one of the group disappeared, never to be seen again. Now, the remaining members receive an invitation to a reunion masquerade, to be held in a beautiful and remote country house in Scotland. The game begins, and it feels just like old times. Until the next morning, when Lady Partridge is found hanging from a pear tree. It quickly becomes clear that in this game, the murder will be all too real, and the story is bringing long-hidden secrets to the surface. If they hope to survive the festive season then they will need to face the truth about what happened on that fateful night twelve years ago. PRAISE FOR THE TWELVE DAYS OF MURDER: '(An) entertaining thriller' Good Housekeeping 'A devious holiday whodunnit' Publishers Weekly

Pathologist Toni Day and her husband, Hal, are mystified when she starts receiving grisly Christmas cards depicting murders, each accompanied by a twisted verse from The Twelve Days of Christmas, and she and her partners are suddenly inundated with autopsies on the corresponding bodies. The victims are members of a jury that convicted Toni's old boyfriend Robbie of kidnapping and sent him to prison. Robbie is now out on parole and is presumably systematically killing off the jury that put him there, but the true identity of the Jury Killer becomes unclear when another parolee, a pretty female police detective, and a newspaper reporter with an icepick get involved. To complicate matters further, Toni's parents are visiting for Christmas. Toni teams up with her stepfather Nigel, a retired Scotland Yard chief inspector, to interpret clues and assist the police in a race against time to catch the killer or killers before they wipe out the entire jury and then come after Toni and Hal.