Christmas Crimes at The Mysterious Bookshop

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Pub Date Oct 22 2024 | Archive Date Sep 30 2024
Penzler Publishers | Mysterious Press

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Description

Twelve festive crime stories set in New York City’s beloved mystery bookstore.

The oldest mystery specialty bookstore in the world, The Mysterious Bookshop, has for most of its forty-five-year history commissioned an original short story as a holiday gift for its customers. Written exclusively for the store and never published elsewhere, the stories were given as a holiday gift to its customers as a thank you for their business, handed out or mailed between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day.

The prompt for the story requires three elements: 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. And from these loose structural guidelines, diverse tales took flight. The dozen tales included in this volume are among the finest to be produced in this annual tradition, sure to charm any reader looking for a holiday-themed escape.

Included herein are the ingenious “Snowflake Time” by Laura Lippman; Lyndsay Faye’s tale of vengeance “A Midnight Clear”; the challenging brainteaser, “A Christmas Puzzle,” by Ragnar Jónasson; “Hester’s Gift,” an impossible crime story by Tom Mead; the suspenseful “The Christmas Party” by Jeffery Deaver; Thomas Perry’s hilarious comedy of errors, “Here We Come A-Wassailing;” and other tales appropriate for the season, collected and introduced by Otto Penzler. The result is, objectively speaking, the finest “stocking stuffer” that a mystery fan could hope to find.

Twelve festive crime stories set in New York City’s beloved mystery bookstore.

The oldest mystery specialty bookstore in the world, The Mysterious Bookshop, has for most of its forty-five-year...


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EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781613165720
PRICE $19.95 (USD)
PAGES 288

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Average rating from 37 members


Featured Reviews

This book was gripping and hard to put down. It didn't feel like everything else you see out there, it felt very fresh. I really enjoyed this book!

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This is the PERFECT seasonal read. Every story is the perfect blend of humor, suspense, creepiness, and holiday gore. The Mysterious Bookshop is the oldest specialty bookstore in the world. Owner Otto Penzler wanted to give something back to his patrons so he commissioned an original short story as a holiday gift for his customers. The stories required three elements: set at Christmastime, involves a crime of some kind and that it be set at least partially in the bookstore. This may be my favorite anthology book to date. I truly liked every single story and some I loved. They are all original stories. A few of my absolute favorites were The Christmas Party by Jeffery Deaver; Here We Come Wassailing by Thomas Perry; A Christmas Puzzle by Ragnar Jonasson; and End Game by Martin Edwards. I would have loved to have been able to read this in December right before Christmas. This would make the perfect stocking stuffer.

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This is an absolutely entertaining collection. What a treat to be given access to this book of stories previously only available to customers of the store.
Some of the leading mystery writers are a part of this. Top notch whodunits with intriguing and well written plots.
I voluntarily reviewed an advance reader copy of this book.

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