Holiday Mysteries

The winter holidays are a popular setting for mysteries as when families and friends gather, the tension often rises.

Discussed and mentioned

 Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret (2024) Ben Stevenson

Christmas Catastrophe Mysteries (series from 2023) Trixie Silvertale

“The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding” (1960) Agatha Christie

 The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding and a Selection of Entrées (1960) Agatha Christie

Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night (2023) Sophie Hannah

Sam Shovel Mysteries (series from 2023) Patricia Meredith

Mr. Campion’s Christmas (2024) Mike Ripley

The Christmas Appeal  (2023) Janice Hallett

Christmas Crimes at the Mysterious Bookshop (2023) ed. Otto Penzler

Black Doves (2024) Netflix

For more information

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Transcript

This transcript is generated by a computer and there may be some mis-spellings and strange punctuation. We try to catch these before posting, but some things slip through.

Sarah	Welcome to Clued in Mystery. I’m Sarah.
Brook	And I’m Brook, and we both love mystery.
Sarah	Hi, Brook.
Brook	Season’s greetings, Sarah. Can you believe that we are in the holiday season?
Sarah	It goes by so quickly, and I know everybody says that every year, how quickly the holiday season comes around. And yeah, it’s true this year as well.
Brook	Absolutely. Well, today we’re going to talk about holiday mysteries. And, you know, it’s hard to imagine a better setup for a mystery than the holiday season.
Brook	After all, the ingredients are perfect. Warm, cozy settings are that contrasts delightfully with sinister undertones, festive tables overflowing with foods and drinks just waiting to be poisoned, and carols playing merrily in the background to disguise the occasional scream.
Brook	Add in a house full of guests and enough family tension to cut with a dagger, and you’ve got a recipe for the kind of mystery fans can’t resist. Holiday mysteries remind us that even in the most festive moments, there’s intrigue hiding under the tree along with those packages.
Brook	But in the end, they offer comfort too, because no matter how dark things get, by the final page, order is restored and the twinkle lights are shining brightly again. Whether we read them all year long or save them for the season itself, holiday mysteries are some of the best in the genre. So, Sarah, let’s talk about why they’re so enjoyable and highlight a few that top our lists.
Sarah	Thanks, Brook. One of the things that I like about holiday mysteries is that they tend to be shorter. I like reading short stories and the holiday mysteries tend to be novella length if it’s, you know, part of it a longer series. So, you can read a few more of them in the holiday season than you might be able to get through ah something that um is part of the rest of the series.
Sarah	And they can be a little lighter, although they can also be pretty dark, which I’m sure we’re going to get into. Because murder and Christmas don’t always feel like they belong together.
Brook	I love that point you made about the shorter length because I hadn’t thought of that, but many times they’re like a special, right? And so a novella, a short story. So, as you said, you can ah kind of sample all your favorite series, but get their ah holiday stories.
Brook	I think that since the holidays are something that we always have this anticipation for, especially as kids. And then I think that that brings up all those memories of what it was like to be waiting for Christmas. The stories um that involve this season kind of bring that back for us.
Brook	And I think that’s one of the reasons that people like to read holiday mysteries all through the year. Or, you know, you’ll hear about Christmas in July because you just need a little bit of that flavor ah throughout the year to bring back those those great feels.
Sarah	Yeah, that’s that’s a great point, Brook. If you’re reading a Christmas story set in a world that you’re familiar with, there’s that comfort, like you say, about, um you know, visiting with these characters again in situations that you don’t typically find them.
Brook	Mm hmm. Mm hmm.
Sarah	That said, there are whole series that are set that are just around Christmas, right? Or just around the holidays. And so you kind of wonder maybe they’re their holiday special should be a summertime mystery for for those characters.
Brook	yeah That’s right. Just and and every day ah and everyday Friday, right? Well, it the classic authors really got us into this idea, didn’t they? “Christie for Christmas” was a real commercial boon, um whether or not the the story had to do with the holidays or not. But we kind of put this idea of the genre and the holiday season together.
Brook	But even their stories that weren’t necessarily holiday, they were often about family gatherings and um and putting different people together, which is what we do during the holidays.
Sarah	Exactly. And as we’ve said before, kind of never know what’s going to happen when you’ve got all of those different people in a room.
Brook	Exactly. And that’s the setup, isn’t it?
Sarah	hmm.
Sarah	So you mentioned, you know, the Golden Age being the kind of the origins of ah this connection between Christmas, sorry, between the holidays and and between mysteries.
Sarah	That brings to mind the book Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret by Ben Stevenson.
Sarah	So this is the third book that he has released. It is ah shorter than the first two. And he really plays with ah the idea of the um Detection Club, the rules that the Detection Club set. His main character is an author. So this is an author is sleuth as well. And he talks about the rules of, of mystery. And so he does break the fourth wall, which I think can, not everybody loves.
Sarah	This book, he’s written 24 chapters, and he says at the beginning, he said, you could read one of these a day and get yourself to Christmas. So this is like a little advent calendar, um which, you know, I think you’d have to be quite a disciplined person to only read a chapter a day, but that would be a pretty fun way to, um, to read the book. Uh, it’s set in Australia. I loved the mystery. I loved the solution. it was, uh, I think my favorite of the but three books that he’s written so far.
Brook	Oh, wow. ah This is new to me, Sarah. And I love the idea of that advent calendar. I may have to take up that challenge. But as you said, it could be sort of like it’s hard not to open the next door and get the next piece of chocolate on a physical advent calendar. It might be hard not to read ahead. So, ah if I try this out, I’ll report back and see how I did.
Brook	Another classic type mystery that came to mind when I was thinking of holiday mysteries was “The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding”. This is a 1960 Agatha Christie and maybe one of my favorite Christie’s.
Brook	It’s from The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding And A Selection of Entrees, which I thought was a very clever name. It has the big family gathering, stolen jewels, dubious engagements, and poison you know of typical Christmas, right?
Sarah	Yeah, I love that story as well. I think I read it almost every holiday season because it is it’s just a great one. ah And I thought about one of Sophie Hannah’s Poirot books, Silent Night. It features Poirot and ah his sidekick, Catchpool, at a Christmas celebration. And I i enjoyed it. I think…
Sarah	Not everybody who is a Christie fan um likes the Sophie Hannah books. I do. And I think they’re worth a read. And this one, if you’re looking for something to read during the holiday season, is is a great one to get you in the mood.
Brook	That’s great.
Brook	You know, ah the holiday mysteries can be quite cozy. And I think that the cozy subgenre is probably where this trope shines the brightest. And we see, just as you said, maybe a whole series of holiday mysteries. One that came to mind for me was our past guest and recent player in our Author-Author game, Trixie Silvertale, and she has the Christmas Catastrophe Mysteries.
Brook	And this is a cozy series following Santa’s daughter who has decided to ditch the family business and open a small-town bakery, and of course, sleuthing ensues.
Brook	It’s extremely cute and cozy with lots of Christmas references. And I’ve so far only read the first book in the series, but I think it’s a lot of fun. And I believe she has three out now.
Sarah	Yeah, that’s a great example, Brook. I’ve read the first book and it is definitely very rich with Christmas references and so very cozy and and very cute. Like it’s a very comforting kind of read. And former guest Patricia Meredith also has a series um featuring Sam Shovel. That character’s name is just one of many ways that she plays with the mystery genre in this series. And she has so many different kinds of Christmas references. It’s a very clever series. and the And the mystery is great as well.
Brook	I have read the first book in that series as well. Last year, my winter TBR was all holiday, which was very rare for me. And ah the first book in that series was one that I read. And i was so impressed with, as you said, great mystery, so many um wonderful Christmas references that are just really clever. And ah you kind have to be in the know about the mystery genre in order to get some of the in-jokes. But Sarah are you listening to the audiobook?
Sarah	I am. And her narrator, who is also her husband, is terrific.
Brook	He is amazing there are many many characters in this book ah and he is able to change the inflection of his voice and the accents that he does so well and it just adds so much to the story.
Sarah	Yeah, I i agree. i would I would recommend someone listen to this.
Sarah	So I haven’t read this, but I noticed this when I was um doing a little bit of research. But another former guest, Mike Ripley, who, if listeners will recall, has been continuing ah the stories of Margery Allingham with Albert Campion. He’s got a book called Mr. Campion’s Christmas, which i am sure would be a delightful read because I’ve enjoyed both Margery Allingham’s books as well as his continuation novels.
Brook	If you’re looking for an unusual format holiday mystery, I would recommend The Christmas Appeal by Janice Hallett. And this is told in a series of emails, text messages, documents back and forth between the different characters. And, um, It’s a festive follow-up to her novel, The Appeal, and we have this amateur theater group rehearsing for a Christmas production.
Brook	And of course, murder ensues, and it’s just a lot of great fun. And I believe you’ve read that one too, right, Sarah?
Sarah	I’ve read The Appeal. I haven’t read The Christmas Appeal. And I think I am probably going to put that on my list of things to read over this holiday season.
Brook	I think that’s a great idea. And you’re right. um This is also a bit shorter, I believe, than the appeal. We have this more condensed version of Hallett’s style and with all the holiday flair.
Sarah	I think I mentioned earlier that I like short stories and the holiday season is ah is a great time to read short stories. Otto Penzler’s bookshop, The Mysterious Bookshop commissions short stories to give to their customers ah during the holiday season. They have a compilation of um some of the Christmas themed or holiday themed ones. There are three parts to the prompt for these stories. First, it needs to be set at Christmas. Second, there needs to be a crime of some sort. And third, um it needs to be set at least partially in the bookstore.
Sarah	This compilation is called Christmas Crimes at the Mysterious Bookshop and was published in 2024. And it is such a delight. And our former guest, Tom Mead, has a short story in this collection, as well as several other authors that people will recognize. And I highly recommend this.
Brook	That sounds delightful. Over and over, the Mysterious Bookshop comes up as just this beacon in the genre, doesn’t it, Sarah? And the work that Otto Penzler does to keep people interested and and introduce new readers is just it’s just lovely.
Sarah	I wholeheartedly agree, Brook.
Brook	Well, we shouldn’t forget about on-screen options. A lot of TV mystery series have special holiday episodes. And if you’re a fan of made-for-TV movies, the Hallmark Channel specializes in extra cozy holiday whodunits. And, you know, I always try to make sure and catch at least one every season. But I was interested when I started poking around at the fact that there aren’t a lot of… ah shall we say, more serious murder mysteries set at the holiday time. Can you think of any, Sarah?
Sarah	I mean, there’s always that classic debate about whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie. It’s not a murder mystery, but it’s certainly a ah thriller or action thriller.
Sarah	um And I’ll let people come to their own conclusion about whether or not it belongs in that in a holiday mystery um category.
Sarah	But there was this series that Netflix released last year, starring Keira Knightley called Black Doves. And that is set at Christmas time. Again, I will let listeners decide whether it really belongs in the in the holiday genre, but it it’s definitely set at Christmas.
Brook	Oh, yes, that’s that’s a great suggestion. Maybe I’ll need to put that on my holiday watch list.
Sarah	Okay. Well, Brook, this has been really fun to kick off the holiday season by talking about some holiday mysteries that people can enjoy. And ah I think there’s one or two that we’ve talked about that that, that I might have to pick up and read over the next couple of weeks.
Brook	It has been wonderful, Sarah. And I too have added to my TBR. And thank you listeners for joining us today on Clued in Mystery. Until next time, I’m Brook.
Sarah	And I’m Sarah, and we both love mystery.