LUCY BURDETTE: it’s time for another Around the Kitchen Table conversation, and this time, since the holidays are fast approaching, our topic is holiday mysteries. The first mystery I wrote set at Christmastime was PREACHING TO THE CORPSE, #2 in the advice column mystery series. Two of my Key West mysteries, THE KEY LIME CRIME and DEATH WITH ALL THE TRIMMINGS, were also set around Christmas.
I love showing the quirky holiday traditions and decorations in a small town, whether it’s in New England or Key West.
But there’s a down side too (good for a mystery writer!), and that’s the extra pressure that comes during the holiday season—visiting relatives, the stress of choosing the right gifts for people on your list, the expectation of preparing fancy holiday dishes and maybe consuming too much eggnog. Oh the possibilities for murder and mayhem mixed in with the excitement and beauty of the season are endless!
MLK writers, have you written books set during the holidays? Do you love ‘em or hate ‘em?
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LESLIE KARST: The only book I've written set during a holiday is my Sally Solari mystery #3, Death al Fresco, which includes a sub-plot about Columbus Day. But it's not what you think. When Sally's father plans a big Columbus Day feast at his Italian seafood restaurant out on the historic fisherman's wharf, some of the left-leaning residents of Santa Cruz, CA don't take kindly to it and picket outside the front of the restaurant.
one of the restaurants on the wharf that inspired Solari's
And
the fact that Sally warned her father that something like this might
happen doesn't do anything to make their already rocky relationship any
better....
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LESLIE BUDEWITZ: I LOVE holiday mysteries and am delighted to have written a Christmas mystery in each of my series, plus a Food Lovers' Village short story.
Jewel Bay, the Food Lover's Village, is based on the town where we live, where the fun starts on Bulb Turning Day in early November when Villagers, aka Elves, gather to check strings of lights, change bulbs, tie bows, and cut saplings for Decorating Day, the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and continues through Undecorating Day in mid January. So many opportunities for murder and mayhem! And cookies! So naturally, I put all that into As the Christmas Cookie Crumbles, which starts with a very public argument on Decorating Day and ends with a wedding on Christmas Eve. In between, there's a cookie exchange, a dead body, embezzlement, and an old crime revealed to have been very different than long thought. Erin solves the crime, in part by picking up on a clue she recognizes because she knows how to bake . . .
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My Spice Shop series is set in Seattle's Pike Place Market, the only place I know that rivals the Village for holiday fun! In Peppermint Barked, Pepper investigates when a young woman is brutally attacked in her friend Vinny's wine shop on the busiest shopping day of the year. The Market's theme that year is "A Dickens of a Christmas," and between the elves, the Santa costumes, and the men in top hats and frock coats, finding a killer is a deadly challenge.
And I'm thrilled with my newest holiday mystery, "The Christmas Stranger," now available as an ebook. (If you've got Carried to the Grave, my Village short story collection, you already have it.) When Erin does a favor for a mysterious stranger, he thanks her with a most unusual gift . . .
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MADDIE DAY: I have one full-length Christmas mystery, Candy Slain Murder, which is number eight in the Country Store Mysteries. I also have Christmas novellas in three collections: Christmas Cocoa Murder, Christmas Scarf Murder, and Christmas Mittens Murder. "Christmas Cocoa and a Corpse" (available as a standalone ebook) and "Scarfed Down" are both in the Country Store series. "Murderous Mittens" introduces Cece Barton in my new Cece Barton Mysteries, and Cam Flaherty from my Local Foods Mysteries plays a role, too.
I'm including Murder in a Cape Cottage, as well - it begins the day after Christmas and ends on New Year's Eve! Writing a holiday murder can add a ticking time bomb element to the story - the protagonist is eager - that is, desperate - to solve the case before the holiday so she and her community can celebrate in peace. I love writing that additional level of suspense.
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VICKI DELANY: I love seasonally set books of all types, and I myself write an entire series set during the holidays. Not only that, but it stretches the Christmas season to fill the entire year. The aptly titled Year Round Christmas Series is up to six books now, with the seventh scheduled for next fall. The premise is that the town of Rudolph, New York, wants to be known as America's Christmas Town and they keep the theme going all year round. Our protagonist Merry Wilkinson, owns a gift and décor shop called Mrs. Claus's Treasures, her father, Noel, is the town Santa Claus, and her boyfriend, Alan, serves at public events as Santa's Head Toymaker (obviously a very important job). Merry's best friend, Vicky Casey, is the owner of Victoria's Bake Shoppe (specialty: gingerbread) and she serves up holiday treats all year round. Except for her mince tarts, that's a holiday special only. In the latest book, HAVE YOURSELF A DEADLY LITTLE CHRISTMAS, the town's amateur dramatic society is putting on the musical version of A Christmas Carol. Against her better judgement, Merry's mother, Aline, a former opera diva, has agreed to take a part. It is not a happy set and when one of the cast is found dead in Merry's shop, it might be up to Merry to save Christmas in Christmas Town.
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TINA KASHIAN: I have one full-length holiday mystery, Mistletoe, Moussaka & Murder, which is number five in my Kebab Kitchen Mysteries. I had fun writing this book. Who doesn’t love Christmas and the holidays at the beach? The series is set at the Jersey shore and snow on the sand is a sight to see! My character, Lucy Berberian, is also planning her wedding to the head chef during the festivities. There are humorous scenes in the book as well and it starts out with the Polar Bear Plunge. (I actually participated in one but I only made it up to my calves before I turned around and headed back to shore for a blanket and hot chocolate.) Lucy is a bit more adventurous and makes it into the chilly ocean all the way, but then finds a fellow swimmer doing the dead man’s float—for real. I loved writing about Kebab Kitchen’s mouthwatering holiday foods and solving the mystery. Happy Holidays!
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PEG COCHRAN/MARGARET LOUDON: I love books set at the holidays. Every year I reread the classic A Christmas Carol. However, I have yet to set a book during the holidays. The closest I've come is in Berry the Hatchet, book #2 in my Cranberry Cove Series, where the story is set in January, right after the holidays are over and the town is hosting the first "Winter Walk" in an attempt to lure tourists to Cranberry Cove during a normally dead time of year. The town is decorated to the max, there's a parade and, of course, a murder! I've hesitated to write a book that takes place during a specific holiday because you almost never know when it's going to be published. Not everyone wants to read a Christmas book while lying on the beach in the middle of July!
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LIBBY KLEIN: I love Holiday Mysteries! Nothing gets you in the spirit faster than cozying up by the fire for a festive holiday read. And I've written one that I'm very excited about - but - it won't be out for another year. Until Silent Nights Are Murder launches into the world, I'm going to get busy reading all the fabulous holiday cozies mentioned here!
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MAYA CORRIGAN: A Christmas Carol by Dickens was the inspiration for my holiday mystery, GINGERDEAD MAN. The book begins during a Dickens of a Holiday festival in Bayport, Maryland. My sleuth Val is catering English tea parties, and her granddad is playing Scrooge in his Victorian garb. He’s genuinely grumpy because a newcomer has usurped his role as the town Santa. This year’s St. Nick imbibes from a flask and is more nasty than jolly.
As the festival winds down, Val hosts a tea party for the costumed volunteers, who include Scrooge, the Ghost of Christmas Past, and other Dickens characters. Santa and Mrs. Claus round out the party. Then an unexpected guest arrives “shrouded in a deep black garment” like the the final ghost in A Christmas Carol. Face hidden, the ghost distributes gift bags to each volunteer. In the Dickens story Scrooge recoils from this figure dressed like the Grim Reaper. But in GINGERDEAD MAN Santa learns too late to beware of ghosts bearing gifts.
CLEO COYLE: A lovely topic for December, Lucy. For us, Christmas in New York City is always magical, and Marc and I had a wonderful time sharing that magic with our readers in two of our Coffeehouse Mysteries: HOLIDAY BUZZ and HOLIDAY GRIND. We did our best to capture the Christmas spirit in both mysteries and share some favorite holiday and cookie recipes, too...
HOLIDAY BUZZ was great fun to write because holiday time is party time in New York City, and public places like Bryant Park are transformed into glittering winter carnivals. That's where our amateur sleuth, coffeeouse manager Clare Cosi, finds the battered body of a baker's assistant. To catch the girl’s killer, Clare must investigate "Saint Nick," crash a pro-hockey party, dodge a pair of reality TV divas, and (of course) create some delicious holiday and cookie recipes.
In HOLIDAY GRIND, we shared the cozy magic of a winter evening in Greenwich Village, where our Coffeehouse Mysteries are set. Streetlights shimmer through icy flakes. Cafés glow with welcoming warmth. Boots crunch along cobblestones, and a layer of snow dusts historic townhouses like powdered sugar on holiday confections. This was our first ever New York holiday murder mystery, and we thoroughly enjoyed writing it.
Cheers, everyone! We hope your holidays are joyful and delicious. To that end, we're happy to share one of our Coffeehouse Christmas Cookie recipes below: Iced Gingerbread Cookie Sticks (edible coffee stirrers) ~ Love, Cleo
GIVEAWAY!
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for these terrific mysteries below,
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How about you?
Do you love holiday-set books,
or do you hate them?
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Gingerdead Man by Maya Corrigan
Preaching to the Corpse by Lucy Burdette
Christmas Mittens Murder by Maddie Day,
Lynn Cahoon, and Lee Hollis
Mistletoe, Moussaka and Murder by Tina Kashian
Peppermint Barked by Leslie Budewitz
Berry the Hatchet by Peg Cochran
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