NOT YOUR USUAL SUSPECTS

A group blog featuring an international array of killer mystery, suspense, and romantic suspense writers. With premises and story lines different from your run-of-the-mill whodunits, we tend to write outside the box. We blog several times a week on all topics relating to romantic suspense and mystery, our writing, and our readers. We welcome all comments and often have guest bloggers. All our authors can be contacted separately, too, using their own social media links.

We find our genre delightfully, dangerously, and deliciously exciting - join us here, if you do too!

NOTE: the blog is currently dormant but please enjoy the posts we're keeping online.


Julie Moffet . Cathy Perkins . Jean Harrington . Daryl Anderson . Nico Rosso . Maureen A Miller . Sandy Parks . Lisa Q Mathews . Sharon Calvin . Lynne Connolly . Janis Patterson . Vanessa Keir . Tonya Kappes . Julie Rowe . Joni M Fisher . Leslie Langtry

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

A CRIME STORY IN YOUR CHRISTMAS STOCKING



courtesy of Max Blain  Dreamstime Stock Photos

     It’s holiday season and the windows of bookshops are filled with the latest bestsellers and perennial favorites. They’re nestled amongst scarlet poinsettias, silver and gold Christmas bells and pine wreaths the color of jade. Customers browse the shelves, trying to find the perfect read for family and friends.
     The section playing host to mysteries is crowded as buyers read the front page, the blurbs at the back, study the cover, and try to make a decision—which whodunit is best for an elderly aunt—not the cozy type, what about the nephew who seems stuck on horror? The daughter, who has just turned fourteen and who suffers from her first major crush? The last is easy—a romantic mystery is right for her.
courtesy of Frankiphotographer Dreamstime Stock Photos



     Has the aunt read Hercule Poirot’s Christmas or the Adventure of the Christmas Pudding by Agatha Christie or The Adventures of the Blue Carbuncle by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle? The latter would be found in a short story collection titled A Treasury of Sherlock Holmes. Does she remember O’Henry? His A Chaparral Christmas Gift is available as an audio-book at audible.com. A Classic Christmas Crime includes short stories by P.D. James, Peter Lovesey, Robert Barnard and Simon Brett among other authors. The Big book of Christmas Mysteries edited by Edgar Award Winner Otto Penzler offers the gift of Ed McBain, Colin Dexter, John D. MacDonald, Ellis Peters and a banquet of tales mysterious.
     Then there’s the classic Silent Night by Mary Higgins Clark and O Little Town of Maggody and A Holly Jolly Murder by Joan Hess, and Jerusalem Inn written by Martha Grimes. Anne Perry’s A Christmas Hope and Shakespeare’s Christmas by Charlaine Harris.
     

     The closest I’ve come to writing about the Holidays was a play I titled Ten Minutes to the Nativity. Have you written a mystery or romance that takes place during this special time of the year?

5 comments:

Marcelle Dubé said...

Thanks for the recommendations, Elise! I've written a Christmas short story every year for the past three years, only one of which is a mystery, set in my Mendenhall Mystery series: "McKell's Christmas." The other two short stories are of a more romantic bent, something completely unusual for me. This year, I ran out of time, so instead I compiled all three into a mini-collection called "Christmas Magic: Three Romantic Holiday Tales."

Now, I'm going to go look up some of your recommendations.

jean harrington said...

Elise, Sometime ago, I did write a Christmas story set in a greenhouse filled with poinsettias. Thanks for the reminder--will have to take another peek at that. Also in my current murders by Design Series, the second book, The Monet Murders takes place at Christmas time. Spoiled, trophy wife Ilona Alexander's cook has been shot in the head, and Ilona is all upset. Not about the cook, about how she's going to provide a feast for her invited guests. After all, Ilona has her social position to think about. 'Tis the season! Or maybe 'tisn't. Thanks for your post. I enjoyed it.

Anne Marie Becker said...

Love the list, Elise! Thanks!!

Rita said...

O. More books on my TBR list. I have two Christmas stories. Both first drafts. Sigh. One is a everything goes wrong holiday and the other is a Christmas ghost kinda thing.

Elise Warner said...

Marcelle: Sounds as if Christmas inspires short stories for you to write. Lovely.

I have a feeling Ilona is great fun for you to write, Jean.

Deck the shelves and eReaders with lots of books everyone.

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