Death Comes at Christmas

by Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

Death Comes at Christmas is a lovely collection of Christmas themed crime fiction, edited by Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane. Released 22nd Oct 2024 by Titan Books, it's 368 pages and is available in hardcover and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links throughout. 

Something about the peace/love/joy holiday vibe has inspired crime fiction writers to serve up murder and mayhem for over a hundred years, and this collection of largely previously unpublished short form fiction showcases 18 top shelf writers doing it up in style. 

It's a strong collection with stories running the gamut from 3-5 stars, weighted toward the upper end. As always, it's a lot of fun to read the editors' introductory notes. The stories themselves are included without author's/editors' notes, but the publisher has included short author bios in the back of the book. Many of the included authors will be familiar to readers (Tom Mead, Claire McGowan, Samantha Hayes, Angela Clarke, Liz Mistry, Fiona Cummins, and several others), whilst some will likely provide a nice introduction for new authors to follow. They're all adept and quite readable. There's not a clunker in the lot (which is a bit surprising). 

Four stars. Highly recommended and worthwhile. It would make a good choice for public library acquisition, home reading, and gift giving. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.