This blog post originally ran in 2020. Prices have changed, check before you buy!
How about we celebrate Christmas in July with some holiday-themed books? Beat the heat with a few chilly thrillers!
I have just released Santa Shortbread, so of course that is the book on the top of the list today.
Santa Shortbread
A full-length Christmas mystery.
Somebody is stealing Christmas gifts from the Bald Eagle Falls children. At the rate that presents are disappearing, there soon won’t be a gift left in Whoville. Err, Bald Eagle Falls.
Gluten-free baker Erin Price and her friends are on the case to try to unmask the Grinch and bring him to justice, and toys to the children. But time is not on their side. Soon it will be Christmas Eve—will the winner be the Grinch or Santa?
Yule’s Sinister Spell
Reg learns about Yule in this full-length paranormal cozy.
What kind of a monster poisons a psychic’s cat?
When Starlight first fell ill, Reg thought that she was the cause of it. She should have been watching him more carefully. She should have found out about household plants and chemicals that could hurt her familiar. She was clearly a negligent owner.
But it soon becomes clear that there is some darker force at work, and Reg is going to need all of her resources to find the culprit before it is too late if she is to have any chance of saving her furry companion’s life.
She Wore Mourning
The first book in the Zachary Goldman series is on sale now for $0.99. A great time to get into a new series.
While She Wore Mourning is not Christmas-themed, it is set at Christmastime, which is a very difficult time of year for PI Zachary Goldman.
A dead child.
A mother deep in mourning.
Private Investigator Zachary Goldman’s life isn’t all roses, but he tries to put his own shattered life behind him to investigate the death of five-year-old Declan Bond.
Declan’s death has been ruled an accident, but his grandmother thinks there is more to it. She fears Declan’s mother will not be able to find peace until Zachary can give them an answer once and for all. But as Zachary digs into the circumstances surrounding Declan’s death, he finds that all is not as it seems, and somebody doesn’t want him to find the truth.
Dog-Free Dinner
Vic is looking forward to Christmas with her new Bald Eagles Falls family. Erin—not so much. But she wants to make it a special day for Vic.
An unexpected turn in events changes all of their carefully-laid plans.
This Christmas short, part of the Auntie Clem’s Bakery series, is only available through my website. The series—and your holiday—won’t be complete without it.
He was Walking Alone
Another Zachary Goldman mystery set around Christmas, a year after She Wore Mourning. While this is a difficult case for Zachary, there is a Christmas surprise for him when it is all over.
He met with tragedy
Richard Harding was walking alone when he was struck by a vehicle and died.
A tragic accident that was no one’s fault.
But if that was so, then why was his girlfriend so sure that it was intentional homicide?
Zachary Goldman is on the case. With Christmas approaching, he is as determined to distract himself from his own troubles as he is to ferret out the truth of Harding’s death.
The pieces of the puzzle start to fall into place and Zachary finds that there are more parallels between Harding’s life and his own than he would have guessed.
If he doesn’t identify the sinister force behind Harding’s death in time, he could suffer the same fate.
And more holiday reads
The 19th Christmas
As the holidays approach, Detective Lindsay Boxer and her friends in the Women’s Murder Club have much to celebrate. Crime is down. The medical examiner’s office is quiet. Even the courts are showing some Christmas spirit. And the news cycle is so slow that journalist
Cindy Thomas is on assignment to tell a story about the true meaning of the season for San Francisco.
Then a fearsome criminal known only as “Loman” seizes control of the headlines. Solving crimes never happens on schedule, but as this criminal mastermind unleashes credible threats by the hour, the month of December is upended for the Women’s Murder Club. Avoiding tragedy is the only holiday miracle they seek.
One Kiss for Christmas
Love and romance aren’t only for the under forty crowd.
Donna St. James gets the surprise of her life when her new next-door neighbor turns out to be her former high-school sweetheart. Left heartbroken all those years ago, Donna is not keen to reconnect. But they’re soon thrown together when they’re assigned to the same committee for the town’s annual Snow Ball festival. But Donna is determined not to revisit the past. If only she could resist Jim’s blazing blue eyes and feelings toward him that might have always been there.
Jim O’Hara returns to Orchard Falls after a thirty-year career in the military. He never forgot the girl he left behind. He’s determined to catch up with her even if she isn’t. But when a shocking revelation comes to light, they are forced to confront the mistaken assumptions of their past and each other.
Christmas Cupcake Murder
As December turns Lake Eden into the North Pole, the heat is on in Hannah Swensen’s kitchen to honor two Christmas promises: baking irresistible holiday cupcakes and preventing a person who attempted murder from succeeding the second time around!
While Hannah speeds through a lengthy holiday checklist, drama in town grows like Santa’s waistline on Christmas Eve. Her sister Andrea wants to stave off the blues by helping out at The Cookie Jar, Michele’s love life is becoming complicated, Lisa needs Hannah’s advice, and Delores has a Christmas secret she’s not willing to share. But nothing dampens the holiday mood more than the chilling mystery surrounding the man found near death in an abandoned storefront two doors down from Hannah’s bakery . . .
The befuddled John Doe can’t recall a thing about himself—except for his unusual knowledge of restoring antique furniture. With a smattering of clues and barely enough time to frost Christmas cookies, Hannah must solve a deadly puzzle that could leave her dashing through the snow for her life!
A Frozen Fate
Can the present unlock the past?
It’s the week before Christmas and Travis Reidan is trying hard to find his holiday spirit. He has recently moved with his wife to his Aunt Lily’s house which he inherited months earlier. This is the couple’s first Christmas together there, but he is haunted by dreams of his older brother who disappeared twenty years before.
What happened to his brother Brent? Did he just leave, was he murdered, or will he return one day?
Travis needs to be brave and face the past if he has any hope of finding what happened to his brother so he can move on with his new life. If he fails, the mystery never gets solved, and he won’t be able to honor his promise to his dying aunt to find the truth.
If you like cozy Christmas stories and small town mysteries, you will love this short story.
The Nightingale Before Christmas
As the holidays draw near in Caerphilly, Mother volunteers to take part in in a big Christmas-themed decorator show house—each room of a temporarily untenanted house is decorated to the hilt by a different decorator for the public to tour.
Of course, Mother insists that Meg pitch in with the organization, and she finds herself surrounded by flamboyant personalities with massive egos clashing and feeling their professional reputations are at stake. Then the rooms start to be sabotaged, and an unfortunate designer turns up dead—making Mother a prime suspect.
The Christmas Train
Disillusioned journalist Tom Langdon must get from Washington to Los Angeles in time for Christmas. Forced to travel by train, he begins a journey of rude awakenings, thrilling adventures, and holiday magic. He has no idea that the locomotives pulling him across America will actually take him into the rugged terrain of his own heart, as he rediscovers people’s essential goodness and someone very special he believed he had lost.
David Baldacci’s THE CHRISTMAS TRAIN is filled with memorable characters who have packed their bags with as much wisdom as mischief…and shows how we do get second chances to fulfill our deepest hopes and dreams, especially during this season of miracles.
Hercule Poirot’s Christmas
In Hercule Poirot’s Christmas, the holidays are anything but merry when a family reunion is marred by murder—and the notoriously fastidious investigator is quickly on the case.
Christmas Eve, and the Lee family’s reunion is shattered by a deafening crash of furniture and a high-pitched wailing scream. Upstairs, the tyrannical Simeon Lee lies dead in a pool of blood, his throat slashed.
When Hercule Poirot offers to assist, he finds an atmosphere not of mourning but of mutual suspicion. It seems everyone had their own reason to hate the old man. . . .
