It’s a rare crime fiction reader who doesn’t love curling up with a mystery during the winter months, especially if that mystery is one of the many Christmas-themed puzzles that the genre is famous for. The tradition goes back to the Golden Age of detective fiction, that period after World War II when authors like Anthony Berkeley, Dorothy L. Sayers, John Dickson Carr, and (of course) Agatha Christie were writing some of their most famous titles. Christmas became a time when new mysteries would head onto bookshelves. There was even a popular tradition of picking up “a Christie for Christmas,” and her publisher was always careful to have a new one available for December.
But it wasn’t just the timing that made Golden Age mysteries festive: many of them, like mysteries published today, were set during the holiday season. In Hercule Poirot’s Christmas, by Agatha Christie, a family gathering is disrupted by the shocking death of one of its members on Christmas Eve. Dorothy L. Sayers’s The Nine Tailors begins on New Year’s Eve. And Gladys Mitchell’s Groaning Spinney has become such a classic of the Christmas mystery genre that it was republished in 2017 as Murder in the Snow: A Cotswold Christmas Mystery.
But why is there such a long tradition of Christmas and crime going together? On the surface, the two events are a strange combination. Murder isn’t exactly a festive event, after all. But when you dig a little deeper, that contrast becomes part of the appeal.
The holiday season is a season of disruptions. Normal routines go out the window, replaced by busyness, travel, family stress, and unpredictability. Crime fiction, especially a classic whodunnit, is exactly the opposite. There is a predictable order to the story: it begins with a crime, followed by an investigation. A detective of some kind makes a discovery, and eventually, we get a satisfying conclusion in which the culprit is unmasked. Putting together the clues and unraveling the puzzle as you read can feel like a welcome distraction as the chaos of the holidays grows around you.
There’s also the readability factor. Mysteries are known for fast pacing and tight plots, the sort that keep you turning the pages until you’ve read a whole book in one sitting without realizing it. When you have a cozy afternoon to curl up and read, that’s often the type of book we reach for.
Publishers and writers, of course, have taken note of readers’ love for cozy mysteries at Christmas time. In response, the occasional Christmas crimes of the Golden Age have grown into an entire mini-genre, with styles to suit any reader. You can find cozy Christmas murder with plenty of holiday puns in the titles as easily as thrillers that play with the isolation and secrets of families gathered for the holidays.
Murder is, after all, supposed to be shocking: a crime not just against the person who was killed, but against our expectations of a predictable, safe, orderly life. And what is more shocking than a murder during a season that is supposed to be joyful and festive? A story about murder at Christmas is transgressive, highlighting the fact that friends and family might not know each other as well as they think they do—or that, for many people, the holidays are not such a joyful time after all.
But even as they shock us, Christmas mysteries are also reassuring: a murder might happen, they promise, but someone will solve it, the guilty will be punished, and all will be well again. That premise is as comforting to readers today as it was after World War I.
If you’re already a fan of Christmas crime or are looking to dip your toe into the many stories of festive murder available, here are a few to get started with.
Blackmail and Bibingka
by Mia P. Manansala
The third book in the cozy Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mysteries features a family welcoming a long-lost cousin home for the holidays. But amateur sleuth Lila Macapagal expects trouble to follow, and she’s proven right when her shady cousin ends up suspected of murder.
The Christmas Caper
by Gigi Pandian
Tempest Raj is spending Christmas in Scotland with her family, taking a well-earned break from work at their company, Secret Staircase Construction. But an impossible art heist at a nearby museum means she still ends up sleuthing in this short story.
The Girl Who Died
by Ragnar Jónasson
If you like your Christmas crimes a little bit darker, a slow-burning, suspenseful Nordic thriller might be just right for you. Winter in a remote Icelandic town of just ten residents is eerie enough for newcomer Una. It becomes even spookier when she starts to uncover the secrets that have been kept for generations.
The Christmas Jigsaw Murders
by Alexandra Benedict
Or perhaps you’d like a whole series of holiday crimes? In Alexandra Benedict’s latest Christmas mystery, a killer sends clues in the form of a festive jigsaw puzzle and challenges sleuth Edie O’Sullivan to solve the mystery before four people die on Christmas Eve.
And, if you’ll allow me one more, I can’t resist adding the newest Lily Adler mystery, my own entry into the genre of Christmas crime:
Murder at Midnight
by Katharine Schellman
When an unexpected snowstorm leaves Regency sleuth Lily Adler and her neighbors stranded, none of them expect to wake up to a dead body in the snow. The storm means that no one could have come to or left the house in the night, leaving Lily to track down the killer hiding among the guests before anyone else dies.
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Whether you’re a long-time reader of Christmas crimes or picking one up for the first time, you won’t run out of reading material anytime soon. So make a cup of hot chocolate, curl up with a cozy blanket, and get ready to solve some festive murders.
