Wednesday, December 23, 2020

Cruel Yule

Mystery Fanfare’s Janet Rudolph recently posted her three-part selection of Christmas-related crime and mystery novels. (See titles A-E, F-L, and M-Z.) Not to be shown up, author Peter Swanson (Eight Perfect Murders) is out today with a piece, in The Guardian, that highlights what he calls the “Top 10 Christmas Crime Stories.”

“In the golden age of detective fiction,” he writes, “most of the big-name authors took a crack at a Christmas-themed whodunnit. And quite a few are worth a read. But it’s not just the practitioners of locked-room mysteries who have inserted a yuletide spirit into a murderous tale. There are a few decent hard-boiled novels that tackle the subject as well. Christmas can be a lonely time, especially in the big city, and that can lead to unfortunate consequences.”

Among Swanson’s favorites: The Thin Man, by Dashiell Hammett (1934); The Corpse in the Snowman, by Nicholas Blake (1941); The Long Shadow, by Celia Fremlin (1975); and A Fatal Grace, by Louise Penny (2011). Click here to read all about them, and more.

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