A great Christmas gift for mystery lovers, this book brings together a lethal collection of 13 original mysteries by P.D. James, Simon Brett, Susan Moody and others. "A cozy collection of yule-tidings gone wrong.

These 13 original mysteries (first published in Great Britain in 1995) cluster around the theme of Christmas, but they differ widely in venue, atmosphere, motive, and type of murder. Most of the contributors to A Classic English Crime (1990) are also represented here. Welcome reading for Christmas or any time.

With virtually the same team as in Heald's Classic English Crime (1991)--only P.D. James, Mike Seabrook, and Nicole Swengley are new to this volume--Heald manages to field a much stronger lineup of homages to Christmas … la Christie. It's true that most of the 13 stories are more atmospheric than dexterously plotted (even the James, like the otherwise fine stories by Margaret Yorke and Peter Lovesey, lacks much surprise). But the range of atmospheres is impressive, from David Williams's straight-faced clerical whodunit to Robert Barnard's waspish theatrical anecdote to Susan Moody's chilling hunt among a doomed family's skeletons; and Simon Brett's archly inventive tale of publishing fraud, which, like all the best parodies, builds on the tradition it skewers, towers above anything in the earlier volume. Stocking-stuffers by H.R.F. Keating, Liza Cody, Catherine Aird, and editor Heald round out this dose of Christmas in July.

Rejoice in this delightfully lethal collection of original Christmas tales written by today's best mystery writers. Whether set in the Yorkshire Dales or sun-baked Florida, these short stories are gift wrapped with mistletoe and murder - all to celebrate the season of Christmas in the spirit of crime.

length: (cm)17.2　 　　　 　　　　　 　 width:(cm)10.2