3 🌟

Super fun and on theme for this time of year. I love the history that goes along with it, makes it even more atmospheric. The stories were all well selected and it's such a fun idea!

DNF after two stories

Okay, so there were a ton of red flags in the first story. (Honestly, even just during the introduction to the project I already didn't like the narrator's voice at all, so that didn't help.)

I found the characters and voice in these to be really unpleasant and very unrelatable. It's very heteronormative and gender stereotypes in that 'fellas, we all have to ogle women who aren't our wives, am I right? I'm just a red-blooded male and can't help but be attracted to every woman I see!' sort of way. Where they'd totally have a "man cave" and fill it with all the Hobby Lobby trite sayings as "decor" if they could. But it seemed like they were trying to be the everyman, and not just an absurd asshole caricature you're supposed to find obnoxious as heck.

My poor husband rolled his eyes and had some snarky replies while listening to the audiobook with me.

Maybe the other stories get better, but I kinda believe in putting your best foot forward to hook your readers. And if this is what the other stories have to offer? No, thank you.

This was a fun collection of short dark stories surrounding Christmas! Otto Penzler did a great job selecting them, some of my favorite authors were included. I can't wait to see what the 2025 collection includes!

#ChristmasCrimesatTheMysteriousBookshop
#NetGalley.

Christmas Crimes at the Mysterious Bookshop is an anthology made up of thirteen short stories by 13 different authors. The Mysterious Bookshop, has for most of its forty-five-year history commissioned an original short story as a holiday gift for its customers as a thank you. The prompts for the story requires that it be set at Christmastime, that it involve a crime of some kind, or the suspicion of one, and that it be set at least partially in the bookstore. Using only this the authors come up with the yearly stories. This is the second volume where thirteen of these stories have been compiled into a book. I'm not going to try and give you a synopsis of each, you will have to read it yourself. The forward is written by Otto Penzler where he talks about these stories and how they came about. A couple of my favourites included Black Christmas by Jason Starr about "soulmates", The Gift of the Wiseguy by Rob Hart about an author whose father was a mob boss who has been in hiding, but comes out to hear his son read from his book, A Christmas Puzzle by Ragnar Johasson where a clerk at the Mysterious Bookshop agrees to help an 80 year old widow solve a puzzle after the shop closes on Christmas Eve, and Sergeant Santa by David Gordon where a pickpocket must find a way to return an item. I enjoyed all of these stories. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Jennifer Pickens and Graham Rowat. They do a wonderful job with the various stories and I enjoyed listening to this one.

I liked the premise of this book as a collection of short mysteries presented to this bookshops visitors over the years. However, I was not a big fan of the narrator. It made the stories feel very flat and I lost interest very quickly. As a non-audio book I think this collection of short stories would be wonderful.

I loved this concept! The stories were quick, and the narrator was perfect for how quirky this was. Short story collections are hit or miss for me, and this wasn't a new favourite, but I still enjoyed it for what it was. I think anyone who loves a short story collection would really enjoy this one

I just could not get into this collection of short stories. I sampled several, but I wasn't interested. And the style of the stories was not was I was expecting - grittier more than cozy.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #HighBridgeAudio for a free copy of #ChristmasCrimesAtTheMysteriousBookshop by Otto Penzler. All opinions are my own.

Title: Christmas Crimes at the Mysterious Bookshop
Editor: Otto Penzler
Narrated by: Jennifer Pickens, Graham Rowat
Publisher: HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
Length: Approximately 7 hours and 21 minutes
Source: Review Copy from NetGalley. Thank you!

Do you have a favorite bookstore that focuses on a specific genre? I was interested to learn about the Mysterious Bookshop in New York City that specializes in selling mysteries. I have never been to a genre specific bookstore. Each year, the store commissions an original short story for its customers. It must be set at Christmas, include a crime or suspicion of a crime and must have at least have a partial setting at the Mysterious Bookshop. This is a collection of twelve of the stories.

My thoughts on this audiobook:
• I enjoyed this collection. The main narrator, Graham Rowat, has a newsman type voice that was interesting to listen to. It gave it an old-time mystery feel.

• One of my favorite authors, Laura Lippman, had a story in the collection.

• The 1st story had a lot of cheating in it, which I didn’t like, but the ending was something else and thought provoking.

• One story seemed to be if a Tony Soprano type character had come back to New York City out of witness protection to see his son give a talk at the Mysterious Bookshop. Things do not go as planned. Never threaten a dangerous man’s family.

• I loved the story where an expensive bottle of vintage cognac travels through New York City with everyone adding to it and resealing it.

• An interesting story included a puzzle to solve that included classic Christmas stories by classic mystery authors. I had read a few and it was fun to solve.

• I liked how the last story had a mysterious component involving the completion of the novel Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens.

• I loved how each story was unique and seemed to be even more enjoyable than the last story.

Overall, Christmas Crimes at the Mysterious Bookshop was a wonderful, unique collection of Christmas mystery short stories that were a perfect read for the Holiday season. I highly recommend it.

Charmed by the idea that there would be such a person as Otto Penzler truly running such a bookshop as the Mysterious Bookshop (and there is - in NYC - and he is) who is cleverly commissioning holiday stories for his people to enjoy. . .could there be a better marketing tool? What writer wouldn't feel all the warm fuzzies for that particular honor? And then aforesaid OP to gather some of them into a book for others to read. . .BRILLIANTLY FESTIVE!

There are 12 notable stories in this collection, and as mysteries go. . one really cannot outline the tale for those mystery readers who begin unpuzzling at the title! So, will leave it with my favorite this year as Snowflake Time (reserving the right to change favorites in subsequent reads).

*A sincere thank you to Otto Penzler, HighBridge Audio, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review independently.* #ChristmasCrimesatTheMysteriousBookshop #NetGalley

A bookstore mystery in Christmas? What could be better! I enjoyed each mini story, with great plots and twists. Perfect to break up the Hallmark style romances!

Sometimes with a multi-author story collection, the overall reader experience is more valuable than the quality of each individual entry, and such is the case here with the Mysterious Bookshop’s Christmas collection.

I love this shop dearly and I love that they give out one of these stories with purchase every year at the holidays, and it’s neat that they decided to pull them all together into a bound collection.

Individually, most of the stories aren’t wonderfully crafted mysteries, but as a complete set it’s fun to read them, and I love that the bookshop itself featured in each story.

The one exception in terms of the individual entries is David Gordon’s contribution, which was a delightful Joe the Bouncer story and would be worth a read on its own.

"Christmas Crimes at the Mysterious Bookshop" edited by Otto Penzler, is an anthology of the 12 best short stories collected annually over the last 10 years or so by the Mysterious Bookshop in NYC.

The stories must be set at Christmas with at least part of it in the Mysterious Bookshop, and there must be a crime in the story. The winning stories were annually published and printed in limited quantities for the customers of the store.

These stories are great, and I enjoyed most of them very much!

My favorite four stories are as follows:

"Wolfe Trap", a Claudius Lyon Mystery by Loren D. Estlemen, a locked drawer mystery. This one is great for the writing style!

"Here We Come A-Wassailing" by Thomas Perry about regifting in the extreme.

"A Christmas Puzzle" by Ragnar Jónasson about revenge.

"Sergeant Santa" by David Gordon about a criminal pretending to be a police sergeant and taking care of the bullies in town.

Narrators Jennifer Pickens and Graham Rowat did a great job with these stories!

I gave star ratings (out of 5) to each story, and the total was 48. Divided by 12 gives an average of 4 stars. I didn't have any rated lower than 3 stars

It is an easy collection to read one or a few at a time. I highly recommend this for mystery lovers to enjoy around Christmastime!

Thank you to Netgalley, High Bridge Audio, and Otto Penzler for providing this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

Christmas Crimes at The Mysterious Bookshop contains a collection of short stories by various authors, all connected in someway to The Mysterious Bookshop. I enjoyed a couple of the stories, but I found most of the stories to be uninteresting. I was given an ARC of this book by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

#netgalley
#Christmas Crimes at the Mysterious Bookshop

This is the perfect holiday gift for mystery lovers. I love books about books and I love a good mystery. the Mysterious Bookshop in New York City is the oldest specialty shop in the world dedicated to mystery books. For many years, they have arranged for an original Christmas mystery story that they give away to their customers. This book is the second collection of some of these stories. This is not your typical Christmas cozy mystery. Some are thrillers, others are dark and depressing, only a few are cute and cozy. They all have three things in common. There is a crime, it is Christmas time, and at least part of the story, but not necessarily the crime, takes place at the store. Fictitious versions of the store owner, and editor of this book, Otto Penzler even appear in some of the stories. I alternated between the eBook and the audiobook and I loved narration. Both Graham Rowat and Jennifer Pickens do a fantastic job. I received advance copies of both formats from the publisher, but this review is voluntary and the opinions stated are my own. I loved most of the stories in this anthology and found a few new mystery authors to add to my must read list. If you love mysteries, you will want to give yourself the gift of reading this collection.

This was a lovely change from the usual Christmas themed rom-coms that takeover bookstore shelves this time of year (although I like those too). I enjoy crime and thriller stories and love Christmas, so reading this (well listening to the audiobook) was an easy sell for me! Bonus points because all of the stories were set in NJ or NY and included the Mysterious Bookshop in the story-a real NY bookstore that gives away a collection of Christmas themed crime stories each year! I wonder if there's a way to read the previous years easily or a list to get on so I can receive the stories in future years as this year I was gifted this collection via NetGalley.

I give this collection of stories a 4/5 because the narrators were engaging and I enjoyed most of the short stories (although some were a bit dark). My favorite by far was The Christmas Puzzle ! I am not going to share any additional details as the stories were short and I want this review to be spoiler free.

A complimentary audiobook copy was provided by via Netgalley and HighBridge in exchange for an honest review.

I'm not usually a short story fan, but this was an enjoyable read. The setting of a mysterious bookstore and Christmas time, added to the enjoyment. I liked the concept of this collection and the different authors writing the stories.

Tired of the Christmas rom-coms, the hallmarkie feel good movies, and the Christmas miracle stories that take over the tv and line the shelves? Then run and buy this book or grab the audio. NOW.

First. The narrators are terrific. I really enjoyed listening to the male narrator change up for the characters and for the different stories. Yes. The stories. Exactly what is needed when all the radio stations are belting out Mariah Carey and everyone one is struggling to get the perfect staged selfie at the Christmas tree farm while drinking hot cocoa that went cold 20 minutes earlier because the lighting wasn't right for the perfect shot of santa in the background. Christmas crimes delivers the humbug when everyone else has their faces frozen with a smile trying to recreate childhood memories to share on bookface. You get what feels like real life stories that aren't staged. But real emotions. And some deadly ones too. Not all stories end with a happy ending, but there are a few that help balance it out. The stories are short enough to listen on my daily commute and intriguing enough to hold my attention. Let your inner scrooge out while reading.

Christmas Crimes at the Mysterious Bookshop' audiobook offered a fascinating collection of short stories that subverted my expectations – both positively and negatively. Knowing they'd be dark and crime-themed, I anticipated a chilling holiday read; what I got was a mixed bag of intriguing tales.
Some stories masterfully wove Christmas settings with criminal intent, leaving me entertained and invested. Others, unfortunately, fell flat – failing to resonate or deliver satisfying conclusions.
Despite this inconsistency, the collection remains intriguing. If you enjoy darker, crime-themed short stories set against a Christmas backdrop, there's likely something here for you – perhaps a new favorite author or unexpected twist.
Overall, a thought-provoking audiobook for fans of noir holiday tales – just be prepared for varying degrees of darkness and storytelling success.

I really liked the premise of this book! A collection of stories, all somewhat similar but so different. My favorite story in this collection was A Midnight Clear. The writing style was easy for me to follow and I liked the way the author built out the story. I think that my enjoyment of the book was a bit overshadowed by some of the stories that fell flat, hence the average rating.

12 different authors were given a prompt to write a crime book with the mysterious bookshop as a part. It’s interesting to see how 12 different authors choose to portray the stories. All were enjoyable. Such a cool idea for a book.
Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and editor for an arc in exchange for my honest review.