Christmas Crimes at The Mysterious Bookshop

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

Christmas Crimes at the Mysterious Bookshop is a nice holiday themed collection of short fiction, edited and curated by Otto Penzler. Released 22nd Oct 2024 by Penzler Publications on their Mysterious Press imprint, it's 288 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. 

Every year, the Mysterious Bookshop (a real brick & mortar store in TriBeCa) commissions and prints a short story in a nice limited print edition for their regular holiday patrons. Many of them have become collectors' items. So much so, that in 2010, a special anthology of these stories was collected to commemorate them and bring some of them to a wider audience. This is a companion volume and adds 12 of the holiday stories originally published in 2011 to 2022 to the total. 

In addition to the top shelf stories (from famous authors writing at the top of their games), the book includes an introduction and some background by Mr. Penzler himself, always erudite, thoughtful, and knowledgeable. The stories are a mixed bag, but all generally high quality (4-5 stars).

Four stars. Well written and darkly delightful. It would be an excellent choice for public library acquisition, home use, and holiday gift giving.

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