Death Comes at Christmas, edited by Marie O’Regan and Paul Kane, is an enchanting yet chilling anthology that blends festive cheer with classic crime. This 18-story collection gathers work by celebrated crime authors, including Tom Mead, Vaseem Khan and Belinda Bauer, all delivering holiday-themed mysteries that run the gamut from locked-room puzzles to domestic dramas. Set in snow-covered landscapes and cosy country houses, these tales of murder, secrets and betrayal reveal that the Christmas season isn’t all joy and goodwill. With each author demonstrating a distinct style, readers are treated to a variety of whodunits, some highlighting psychological tension and others evoking classic crime tropes.

What sets this collection apart is its mix of tones and subgenres, making it an ideal read for both seasoned crime fans and those seeking a festive twist on suspense. The juxtaposition of Christmas spirit with dark motives intensifies the atmosphere, creating a unique and engaging experience that’s perfect for cosy winter nights. Whether it’s the charm of a winter wonderland or the unexpected twists in each story, Death Comes at Christmas keeps readers on edge, promising added intrigue with every new story.

I appreciate NetGalley and Titan Books giving me the ARC of Death Comes at Christmas You. In return, I will give an honest review.

 I enjoyed this collection of stories. Every single one was different. While some stories stood out to me.

“Marley’s Ghost” by Sarah Hilary had an excellent ending.  “Christmas Lights” was a heart-wrenching tale of grief and loss. “The Red Angel” warns of becoming lost in the unknown. “Secret Santa” is about a man with a crush on his coworker. That story had a plot twist that I was not expecting. I found “The Wrong Party” to be one of the funnier stories I’ve read in the collection. One cold night in “Frostbite”, Ellen encounters a man from her past. “The Naughty List” was a satisfying end for a man receiving strange messages about his past wrongdoings. Of all the stories, “Christmas Yet to Come” was my favorite. It showcases characters from the classic Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Marley may be deceased, but his legacy of ruthlessness lives on in his descendants. But he has met his match. Overall, it was a wonderful collection of stories perfect for those who love Christmas and mysteries.

 
I would like to thank Marie O’Regan; Paul Kane; C.L. Taylor; J. T. Ellison; David Bell; Sarah Hilary; Claire McGowan; Fiona Cummins; Angela Clarke; Alexandra Benedict; Susi Holliday; Tina Baker; Sam Carrington; Liz Mistry; Tom Mead, Marie O’Regan; Paul Kane; C.L., NetGalley and Titan Books, for giving me an advanced copy.

Marie O’Regan and Paul Kane have gTathered together eighteen short stories, each with a Christmas theme, from a wide array of authors, some familiar, some not so familiar. With Christmas approaching, this is the perfect book to while away the hours on these dark autumnal nights.

As you would expect, some stories grab your attention more than others, but this is due to personal taste – I am sure the stories I liked the most will not be everyone’s favourites and vice versa. I am a big fan of the books of C. L. Taylor and Angela Clarke and so I was pleased to see that stories by these authors were included.

Despite the stories all being Christmas themed, the plots are varied, some being scarier than others! I did feel that some of them could have been longer as I was enjoying them so much.

If you are looking for a book in the lead up to Christmas, one that you can dip in and out of, Death Comes at Christmas is just the book.

If you like short stories, reading crime and Christmas - this is the book for you.
I thoroughly enjoyed dipping in and out of this collection of short festive stories from a myriad of great crime authors. It's a perfect gift for friends and family who like to read books of a darker nature and its perfect over the holiday season when it can be challenging to sit down with a novel because of everything else going on. With this book, if time is limited, you can treat yourself to one story. If you do find some uninterrupted reading space, you can keep going to find out what festive theme will be explored in the next story.

Like most short story collections where more than one author contributes, there are some I loved and others which were fine but didn't necessarily quite hit the mark for me. But that's books in general. We can't all like the same things and what a boring world it would be if we did. One of the other advantages is that this collection will help you find new authors and you can check out their back catalogue.

Some of my favourites were:

How to commit murder in a book shop by C L Taylor
Christmas yet to come by Helen Fields
Last Christmas by Fiona Cummins
Postmarked Murder by Susie Holliday
A deadly gift by Angela Clarke
Marley's Ghost by Sarah Hilary

My absolute favourite was Icarus by Belinda Bauer. As a writer as well as a reader, this felt like a masterclass in achieving something very moving, Christmas and crime themed in very few words. It was marvellous story.

Death comes at Christmas is out now, so you can purchase it in time for the holidays as a gift for others or for yourself.

Oh I thoroughly enjoyed these stories. I wished I’d read the throughout December but I could t wait as there are many of my favourite authors in this book. It’s honestly brilliant! Loved it!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. This book I couldn't set down and binge read in a few hours. A mixture of Christmas crime stories from different authors that are surely enough to intrigue and sadden you all at once. I would read another one like this in a heartbeat!

There is alot of fun packed into this collection of Holiday themed short stories. I love that you can read them quickly and also be entertained with each story and the characters in them. It was a nice change of pace to read something that got right into the heart of the story so quickly. I definitely enjoyed this collection and recommend other readers add this to your reading list.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the electronic copy.

This was a lot of fun!! I enjoyed reading the short stories from various authors. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this ARC!

Death Comes at Christmas is a lovely collection of Christmas themed crime fiction, edited by Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane. Released 22nd Oct 2024 by Titan Books, it's 368 pages and is available in hardcover and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links throughout.

Something about the peace/love/joy holiday vibe has inspired crime fiction writers to serve up murder and mayhem for over a hundred years, and this collection of largely previously unpublished short form fiction showcases 18 top shelf writers doing it up in style.

It's a strong collection with stories running the gamut from 3-5 stars, weighted toward the upper end. As always, it's a lot of fun to read the editors' introductory notes. The stories themselves are included without author's/editors' notes, but the publisher has included short author bios in the back of the book. Many of the included authors will be familiar to readers (Tom Mead, Claire McGowan, Samantha Hayes, Angela Clarke, Liz Mistry, Fiona Cummins, and several others), whilst some will likely provide a nice introduction for new authors to follow. They're all adept and quite readable. There's not a clunker in the lot (which is a bit surprising).

Four stars. Highly recommended and worthwhile. It would make a good choice for public library acquisition, home reading, and gift giving.

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

I'm not sure why Christmas and crime fiction are such an inevitable pairing, but there is something about the crime short story format in particular that works well. The majority of collections available, such as the British Library Crime Collections, are made up mostly or entirely of Golden Age-era authors, so it was refreshing to read Death Comes At Christmas, which features a range of contemporary crime and thriller authors. Complete with a beautiful cover design, this would make the perfect stocking filler for the bookworm in your life.

This was a fun group of stories that to me bridged Halloween and Christmas! Most of the stories are shorter and not full on mysteries, but leaning more towards mysterious. I enjoyed seeing how each author incorporated the theme of death into their stories. As with any group of short stories, some were better than others, but overall I enjoyed them!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this arc!

WOW!!! What a great book!! This one had me hooked from page 1! This was a first for me from this author and I will not be my last! This one was a win for me! I lived all of the short stories!

Wow, with a lineup of authors like this, who wouldn’t want a little Christmas magic from them? Seriously, this book is exactly what you need! Each author brings their own unique twist, and their brilliant minds make this such an entertaining read. Some stories are short, but they’re packed with the perfect mix of everything you’re craving. Once you start, it’s hard to stop—you'll just keep flipping from one story to the next. Totally addictive! Big thanks to NetGalley and Titan Books for letting me dive into this early copy!

A great selection of Holiday themed mysteries. These are perfect for the madness and rush of the holidays when you just want to sit down and have a little read and feel like you’ve accomplished something. Each one is perfect on its own and I can’t wait to read more from these authors in the future.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC, These were al very fun stories that I couldn't put down. Perfect for the holidays if you want something other than rom com.

Thank you to Netgalley and Titan books for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. I was excited to read some murderish Christmas short stories and this book delivered on that! The short stories varied in length, some as short as 10 plus pages and others as long as 30-ish pages. Each was unique and not repeated which keeps the reader interested. I believe readers will enjoy this book for the holiday season! Happy release day!

Thank you to Titan Books and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the idea of having so many Christmas-centric stories with a touch of death. This is the perfect thing to read when you want those spooky vibes in October but also craving some Christmas as well.

The varying lengths of each story was another feature I loved. Some were a few pages long, whereas others sprawled and felt more like a novella.

From the first story, which I thoroughly enjoyed, I knew this would be an entertaining and sometimes creepy collection of stories.

While there were too many stories in this collection to properly give my thoughts on each one, I will say I loved almost every one of them. There were only a couple that didn't quite grab me but I still enjoyed them to a certain point. I will take a moment to highlight a couple of my favorites.

The first story, How to Commit Murder in a Bookshop, had an intriguing beginning, and while quite short in length, this story stuck with me well after finishing the book. This is the perfect read for all booklovers and anyone who works in the publishing industry. Eleanor was a fantastic character who was extremely observant of the other characters in the bookstore. 

The murder was well planned out and took me and Eleanor by surprise, which was fantastic.

The Red Angel was a perfect mix of Christmas and true crime. While it didn't grab my attention immediately, after a couple of pages I was fully invested in the story and with the steady pacing and constant upping of the ante I was absolutely gobbling this one up.

In The Wrong Party, I wasn't too sure what to expect. It took me some time to get into this one but every time I thought I should put the book down for a bit, I was immediately decide against that and keep reading. There's no good way for me to say what I enjoyed about this one without spoiling it.

I truly wish I could take the time to talk about each story, but I feel it's best for people to read this short story collection to find out for themselves.

One of my favorite things about this book is the mix of stories found within. As expected, they all hold a similar theme, however, beyond that each story has its own unique voice and genre. Some were more classic, while others were touched on true crime, general fiction, and so much more. There is something for everyone in this book and I feel that most readers will enjoy the vast majority, if not all of them.

I will have to add these authors to my TBR to check out their other books because I enjoyed so many of their stories in this one.

A collection of Christmas stories that are not what we expect -but that’s what makes them wonderful.

This was a fun mix of holiday themed murder mysteries. I was not familiar with most of the authors so it was also a great opportunity to sample their work. Some leaned a bit more toward the cozy mystery side while several had dark twists. The stories also provided quite a few laughs along the way. I do not like horror or anything that leans too much into thriller/suspense or really dark, and these stories walked right up to that line but didn't cross it for me. (I even used this as bedtime reading)! I enjoyed this collection and finished it in a few days.

I read the name of the artists feature in this anthology of Christmas mystery novel and knew that I had to read it as Tom Mead and Vaseem Khan, plus others, are amongst my favourite writers.
I could have a series of minor and standard stories but it wasn't: it starts with a bang and the level is always very high and entertaining.
Some are surprising, some are entertaining, all of the are well written and well plotted.
And I was happy to catch with Joseph Specter and Persis from Malabar House.
Be prepared for a tread and read it
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine