I hopped on the Amazon Kindle site and punched in Christmas Mysteries and several pages of free and $0.99 books popped up. I was going to grab a few and put them up here, but hey, you may like something different than me, so jump over to the Kindle Christmas Mysteries page and download a few for yourself. 😉
It appears from scanning the website that many mystery authors like to set mysteries around Christmas and even other holidays. It makes sense. Families are gathered. People who may only visit at this time of the year are back in town. This makes for past differences surfacing and the potential for a murder more likely.
And who wants to spoil Santa’s visit with a dead body in the chimney or in a snowdrift? A mystery writer that’s who. 😉 In my mind I can make the most macabre scenario out of a mundane holiday happening. A sprinkle of arsenic on a cookie made just for rich Uncle Marvin. Or a bit of cyanide happens to spill into Grandma Velma’s hot toddy. Maybe the candy cane handed to cousin Zeb has been dipped in the sap of water hemlock. Yes, I could come up with all kinds of ways to take out someone during the holidays.
Maybe a paper cut that happens to become infected and moves rapidly into gangrene and worse. Or a ski or sledding mishap? Oh yes, what evil lurks under this granny’s, gray hair the world may never know, but my readers will discover it as the Shandra Higheagle mystery series continues!
This will be my last post this year. Merry Christmas to all my fellow Ladies of Mystery and all our followers! Beware the token treat from an estranged family member! 😉
Paty Jager is an award-winning author of 25+ novels and over a dozen novellas and short stories of murder mystery, western romance, and action adventure. She has a RomCon Reader’s Choice Award for her Action Adventure and received the EPPIE Award for Best Contemporary Western Romance. All her work has Western or Native American elements in them along with hints of humor and engaging characters. Paty and her husband raise alfalfa hay in rural eastern Oregon. Riding horses and battling rattlesnakes, she not only writes the western lifestyle, she lives it.
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Sally, I like the way you think! Probably a good thing we don’t end up at any Christmas parties together! 😉
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How about someone opens a wrapped package and it explodes? Or the Christmas tree just “happens” to fall on someone? Or the victim is strangled with a string of holiday lights? The mind boggles! You’re giving me too many ideas, Paty.
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Hi, Paty! I need to buy your Christmas mystery, the cover is so intriguing! Happy Holidays!
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HI Diana! It was a fun cover. I love how my daughter can bring in all the elements I ask for on the mystery books. I hope you enjoy the book!
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Loved this post. I’ve never written a Christmas mystery–and doubt I ever will–but who knows?
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Thanks, Marilyn! It was actually fun putting a mystery around Christmas. I may pick Halloween next year. 😉
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