Fifteen years on the blog in four days time – I’ll be honest, I’m struggling for ideas for celebratory posts, but Christmas is on the way, so I figured why not look over the reviews that I’ve done of Christmas mysteries. Never sure when to post these things – if I do it on Christmas Day, it’s too late as nobody is going to want to read a Christmas mystery after Christmas, and if it’s too early, then the post looks out of date. What a dilemma!

So there’s enough time for you to go out to your local bookshop or an online purveryor if that is your choice, to get that last minute Christmas present for either your mystery-loving friend or your Christmas-loving friend… So here are my top twelve Christmas mysteries…

Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie

I think there’s a reasonable argument that this one is often overlooked in Christie’s canon because of the Christmas element. It’s one of her cleverest mysteries, one of her best-hidden killers – partly because she doesn’t play any of her standard tricks in this, one of her few locked room mysteries. One of my favourite Poirot novels and therefore one of my favourite Christmas mysteries. Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night

An English Murder by Cyril Hare

Before the deluge of new Christmas mysteries, there was a spate of re-issues of classic crime books set at Christmas, this being one of them. I didn’t hold up much hope as I’m not a big fan of Hare, but this is the exception. Like Nicholas Blake’s Thou Shell Of Death, Christmas isn’t much more than the excuse for the family get-together, but it’s a fun read.

The Boy-Bishop’s Glovemaker by Michael Jecks

Here’s one that you won’t see on many other Christmas lists. Exeter 1321 and full of long-forgotten Christmas traditions, such as the election of the boy-bishop. Oh, and a tasty murder mystery as well, beautifully written.

The Murders Near Mapleton by Brian Flynn

An early entry from my buddy Brian, with a murderer hiding messages in Christmas Bon-bons and a surprise almost as shocking as the one in The Mystery Of The Peacock’s Eye. There’s a second Christmas tale too, the more recently re-issued Exit Sir John, which is also a top tier outing for Anthony Bathurst.

Murder At Mistletoe Manor by F L Everett

The missing final verse of Chris Rea’s Driving Home For Christmas, where taking refuge in the oddly named Mistletoe Manor Hotel (I guess they only open one month a year) leads to multiple Christmassy murders. It’s not perfect – personally, I found the killer pretty guessable – but it’s a fun read. See also The Christmas Eve Murders by Noelle Albright (where even the author has a Christmassy pseudonym).

Everyone This Christmas Has A Secret by Benjamin Stevenson

One alternative to the Christmas novel is the Christmas novella. And mostly, they haven’t worked for me, with both The Christmas Appeal and Murder Under The Mistletoe are very Christmassy but the murder plots are inconsequential. This one, however, was so involving and had so much going on that I had to remind myself that it wasn’t a novella.

A Murder At The Castle/Murder At Balmoral by Chris McGeorge

A case of unfortunate timing given its publication around the time of the death of Queen Elizabeth II. It’s a snowed-in-at-Christmas tale, only the people snowed in are an alt-history Royal Family. Very Christmassy, very clever, very overlooked. Definitely well worth your time.

Murder At The Old Vicarage aka Redemption by Jill McGown

Another “it’s Christmassy, let’s re-release it with a friendlier title” book and I’m glad I did this list because I really enjoyed this book and haven’t been back to Jill McGown’s work since (i.e. in the last ten years). It’s not that Christmassy, bar being very snowy, but it’s a clever mystery wrapped in a police procedural.

Miss Winter In The Library With A Knife by Martin Edwards

I’ve already sung the praises of this recently released Christmas title. Martin may have had his arm twisted a tad to get into the Christmas market, but, blimey, he did a cracking job of it. A multi-layered mystery with loads of character and a clue-finder to boot!

The Twelve Days Of Murder/Murder At The Christmas Emporium/A Scrooge Mystery by Andreina Cordani

There was absolutely no way I could write this list without including the Queen of Christmas chaos herself. From a serial killer patterned on the twelve days of Christmas, a death-trap-filled Christmas toyshop to the sequel to A Christmas Carol that you never knew you needed, not only do Andreina’s books really let the Christmas in, they’re also really fun mysteries that you need to read.

So there you have it, the Twelve Mysteries Of Christmas that, if your true love gave to you brought you all of them, you’ll have a very Merry Christmas indeed…

Do you have any other suggestions? The Christmassier the better…