"Colorful Christmas lights dapple the family homes in the idyllic lakeside town of Sweet Haven when Jennifer Dean, a young librarian at the local elementary school, is brutally murdered. There are witnesses and her boyfriend Travis Blake confesses to the crime... but something doesn't quite add up. Blake is a third generation Army Ranger, awarded the Silver Star for his heroism in Afghanistan--how could a beloved son of this tight-knit burgh commit...

"It's December 19, 1931. Hercule Poirot and Inspector Edward Catchpool are looking forward to a much-needed, restful Christmas holiday, when they are called upon to investigate the murder of a man in a Norfolk hospital ward. Cynthia Catchpool, Edward's mother, insists that Poirot stay with her in a crumbling mansion by the coast, so that they can all be together for the festive period while he solves the case. As Poirot digs into the mystery, he discovers...

China Bayles is fit to spit when her husband's troubled ex-wife, Sally, shows up at her herb shop, claiming to be broke with nowhere else to turn. China isn't sure if it's the goodness of her heart or the scent of Christmas wreaths, but she invites Sally to stay. Then China starts receiving menacing calls from an "ex" of Sally's, who seems to have a connection to the murder of her parents nearly a decade ago. With her P.I. husband out of town, it's...

"It's a few days before Christmas, and Meg's grandfather is hosting a scientific conference on owls at the Caerphilly Inn. Most of the family are there, helping out in one capacity or another, including Meg's grandmother, Cordelia--invited by Grandfather in rare gesture of peace-making, to share her expertise on rehabilitating large birds, including owls. An unexpectedly severe snow storm traps the conference-goers in the hotel, and one of the visiting...

Meg Langslow's husband has decided to escalate his one-man show of Dickens' A Christmas Carol into a full-scale production with a large cast including their sons Jamie and Josh as Tiny Tim and young Scrooge and Meg helping as stage manager. The show must go on, even if the famous - though slightly over-the-hill - actor who's come to town to play the starring role of Scrooge has brought a sleigh-load of baggage and enemies with him. And why is Caerphilly...

"Dashing Through the Snowbirds is the next merry installment of Donna Andrews's New York Times bestselling Meg Langslow mystery series. Christmas in Caerphilly is wonderful! Unless you're a Canadian whose inconsiderate boss is forcing you to spend the holiday there, far from family and friends, with only a slim chance of a white Christmas. Meg already has her hands full, trying to make the season festive for the dozen programmers who are staying with...

A mystery without a murder featuring the series hero, Scottish constable Hamish MacBeth. The Christmas season brings him two cases, in one a woman reports her cat stolen, in another someone has stolen the village Christmas tree.

At a Christmastime family reunion in England's Lake District, mathematician and inventor Henry Rathbone investigates an accidental death that, upon second glance, does not seem so accidental.

"After leaving her position with Charlotte and Thomas Pitt to get married, Gracie thought her days as a maid were behind her. When Millie, a good friend's daughter, becomes frantic because things are going missing from the kitchen in the household she serves, Gracie knows she has to find out what is happening. Claiming Millie is sick, Gracie takes on the job herself. All seems normal in the household, even if the couple's elderly granny keeps entirely...

When Jake Marlowe, a co-owner of Downeast Mortgage in Tinker's Cove, Maine, is murdered, and his partner, Ben Scriber, begins receiving death threats after claiming to be visited by Marlowe's ghost, Lucy Stone is on the case.