Christmas Can Be Murder

Need more holiday homicide? Martha Pennigar of the Mystery Bookshop in Bethesda, Md., has assembled a list of some of the best Christmas mysteries now on your bookstore shelves. We've tried to indicate books that are part of an ongoing series.

Lydia Adamson, Cat Under the Mistletoe Alice Nestleton, an out-of-work actress who makes her living as a cat-sitter, is drawn into investigating another murder when she finds the dead body of the pet psychologist to whom she is taking her latest feline charge in this 13th entry in Adamson's cat series.

Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot's Christmas Okay, he's not quite Scrooge, but Hercule Poirot prefers hemlock to mistletoe and is definitely happier hunting down clues than participating in the arcane rituals of an English Christmas. A classic.

Jill Churchill, Merchant of Menace Jane Jeffries has enough to cope with at Christmas -- shopping for three kids, hosting two huge parties and two mothers-in-law (the ex- and the possible future) and solving one very messy murder with too many suspects. This is the 10th in Churchill's witty series featuring a widowed suburban housewife sleuth and her growing romance with the local homicide investigator.

Mary Higgins Clark, All Through The Night A missing jeweled chalice and a baby abandoned on the steps of a church on Christmas Eve are the key ingredients of this short Christmas novel by the Queen of Suspense.

Higgins's earlier Christmas volume, Silent Night, follows the adventures of a seven-year-old boy as he trails a thief through the streets and subways of New York, seeking to recover the St. Christopher's medal that he believes will save the life of his desperately ill mother.

Carole Nelson Douglass, Cat In A Golden Garland Temple Barr and Midnight Louie fly to New York for a Christmas vacation, but there's no holiday from murder when Louie's around. Someone has it in for the man in the red flannel suit. The eighth volume of Douglas's cat series lives up to its predecessors in both suspense and hilarity.

Jessica Fletcher and Donald Bain, Murder She Wrote: A Little Yuletide Murder Is anyone surprised when someone murders Santa during Cabot Cove's annual Christmas celebration? Of course not -- Jessica Fletcher is back in town. And while everyone thinks they know the killer, it's up to Jessica to find out who's really behind the cancellation of Claus. Fans will enjoy this tenth book in the popular series based on the canceled TV show.

Margaret Frazer, The Novice's Tale It's Christmastide in the abbey of St. Frideswide, but not everyone is merry. Thomasine, a novice, plans to take her final vows until her aunt appears, threatens to take the girl away, and then turns up dead. The keen-witted Sister Frevisse is Thomasine's only defense against a charge of murder. The Novice's Tale is the first in Frazer's series set in a 15th century English convent.

Martin Greenberg, ed., Holmes for the Holidays Editor Greenberg has collected 14 Sherlock Holmes stories with a holiday theme by writers including Carole Nelson Douglas, Anne Perry, Bill Crider, Loren D. Estleman, Carolyn Wheat, William DeAndrea, Jon L. Breen, Edward D. Hoch, John Stoessel, Gillian Linscott, and Reginald Hill.

Lee Harris, The Christmas Night Murder Ex-nun Christine Bennet helps her former mother superior solve the mysterious disappearance of a priest and the long-ago suicide of a novice in this fifth in Harris's series.

Tim Hemlin, A Catered Christmas Neil Marshall, gourmet chef and poet, has the holiday blues even before his grandfather arrives, wearing a Santa suit and with the cloud of a murder charge hanging over his head. This is the fourth in Hemlin's series, and his twelve years as chef for a gourmet catering company in Houston, Texas, have helped make the Marshall books favorites with fans of culinary mysteries.

Joan Hess, A Holly Jolly Murder Claire Malloy decides to vary her usual holiday routine by accepting an invitation from a druid priestess to a winter solstice ceremony in this, the 12th in Hess's series about the widowed bookshop owner.

Hess's other series, featuring policewoman Arly Hanks, includes O Little Town of Maggody, in which a country music star returns to his home town for a holiday concert and triggers homicide instead.

Leslie Meier, Mistletoe Murder The small Maine town of Tinker's Cove is the setting for the latest in Meier's series about working mother and amateur sleuth Lucy Stone.

Kathy Hogan Trocheck, Midnight Clear Callahan Gerrity, part-time private eye and co-owner of the House Mouse cleaning service, is preparing for a merry Christmas when her younger brother turns up after a ten-year absence, carrying the two-year-old daughter he kidnapped from his estranged wife's custody. The case soon escalates from kidnapping to suspected murder, and Callahan has her hands full trying to find the truth. This is Trocheck's seventh in the Atlanta-based Callahan series.

Charlaine Harris, Shakespeare's Christmas Cleaning lady Lily Bard is the improbable but capable sleuth in this series set in Shakespeare, Ark. In Lily's third adventure, her enjoyment of the holiday is overshadowed by her sister's Christmas Eve wedding -- and the possibility that the bridegroom may be exposed as the culprit in a long-unsolved crime.

Barry Unsworth, Morality Play Christmas in 14th century England is the background for this first mystery by Unsworth, (also the author of Pascali's Island and the Booker prize-winning Sacred Hunger). Nicholas Barber, a young monk who has broken his vow of chastity, flees the convent and joins a troupe of traveling players. The company's attempt to make a morality play more vivid by incorporating references to a real-life murder that occurred in the town where they are playing exposes a cover-up and puts them in very real danger.

Valerie Wolzien, Deck The Halls With Murder Building contractor Josie Pigeon is struggling to finish her current project before the holidays when one of her all female crew is murdered in this, the fourth in Wolzien's series.

Wolzien's other series, featuring suburban sleuth Susan Henshaw, also includes two Christmas entries, We Wish You A Merry Murder and Tis The Season To Be Murdered.

Donna Andrews

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