It’s the last Sunday in November so it’s time for me to choose the books that I’ll read In December to get myself into the Christmas spirit,. I’ve pulled five books from my TBR pile that honour five traditional Christmas themes: Murder, Hauntings, Humour, Horror and … Steampunk. (OK, maybe that last one isn’t so traditional, at least, not yet).
I hope some of them will appeal to you as books that can help you feel festive as the nights grow darker.
‘Haunting and Humbug: A Steampunk Christmas Carol’ (2019) by Melanie Karnak
I read one Melanie Karsk’s early books, The Harvesting (2012) back in 2015. I liked her ideas but thought the characters were a little shallow, so I didn’t follow up on the series. I decided to try again with her 2019 book, Hauntings And Humbug. I liked the title and the cover and I couldn’t resist the idea of a gender-switching Steampunk version of A Christmas Carol. I’m looking forward to seeing what she does with the various spirits of Christmas and finding out what a Steampunk Christmas looks like.
Melanie Karsak is an American writer, based out of Florida. She is the author of The Celtic Blood Series, Steampunk Fairy Tales, the Road to Valhalla series, and other works of fantasy and science fiction.
‘Cheddar Off Dead’ (2016) by Julia Buckley
Julia Buckley is a new author for me but I loved the cheeseyness of the title (see what I did there?) and there’s a dog on the cover and there’s a whole series of these cosy mysteries about this crime-solving caterer so I’m going to give it a go.
Julia Buckley is a Chicago author and teacher. Her published series include the Writer’s Apprentice Mysteries, the Undercover Dish Mysteries, the Madeline Mann Mysteries and the Hungarian Tea House Mysteries , She is a member of the Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime and the Chicago Writer’s Association.
‘Let It Crow! Let It Crow! Let It Crow!’ – Meg Langslow #34 (2023) by Donna Andrews
Listening to a Meg Langslow Christmas mystery is becoming a tradition in my house. I met Meg in the conventional way, by reading the first two books in the series: Murder With Peacocks and Murder With Puffins then we parted ways for a while and connected two years ago with the Christmas themed Six Geese A-Slaying which we followed last year with Dashing Through The Snowbirds.
I love the eccentric ensemble cast, the bizarre but gentle humour and the chaos that Christmas always adds to the story. Solving the murder is mostly an added bonus.
This year, I’m getting to see Meg do her weaponsmithing thing. What’s not to like about a woman who can hammer steel into a weapon and solve crimes?
Donna Andrews is an American mystery fiction writer of two award-winning amateur sleuth series, the Meg Langslow Mysteries about a birdwatching blacksmith from Yorktown, Virginia and and the Turing Hopper series about an AI who became sentient.
Donna Andrews was born in Yorktown, Virginia, studied English and drama at the University of Virginia and now lives and works in Reston, Virginia.
‘The Christmas Guest’ (2023) by Peter Swanson
Peter Swanson is a new author for me. I’ve had his debut novel The Kind Worth Killing (2015) in my TBR pile since May but I haven’t gotten to it yet, so I’m using this Christmas novella to sample his work. I love the cover and I’m a sucker for snow-covered manor houses as a setting for Christmas mysteries,
Peter Swanson is the author of eight novels, including The Kind Worth Killing, winner of the New England Society Book Award, and finalist for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, Her Every Fear, an NPR book of the year; and his most recent, The Kind Worth Saving. His books have been translated into over 30 languages, and his stories, poetry, and features have appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, The Atlantic Monthly, Measure, The Guardian, The Strand Magazine, and Yankee Magazine.
A graduate of Trinity College, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and Emerson College, he lives on the North Shore of Massachusetts with his wife and cat.
‘Christmas And Other Horrors’ (2023) edited by Ellen Datlow
No Christmas would be complete without some horror stories. Having a collection of them is like having a gift box of chocolates: I look forward to tasting each one as I sip on my glass of Port. I know that some of them will be favourite flavours, some will be new discoveries, and one or two may make me grimace and swallow quickly.
I knew I wanted this collection from the moment it was announced back in March. I’ve been following Ellen Datlow as an editor since I bought her Alien Sex collection back in 1990 so I’m sure that she’ll have brought the best talent together in this collection. Stephen Graham Jones, Richard Kadrey, Josh Malerman and Garth Nix are all authors that i know. I’ve been looking to read Tannarive Due since I saw her books mentioned in You’re Not Supposed To Die Tonight. I hoping that at least some of the rest will be future favourites of mine.
Ellen Datlow has been editing science fiction, fantasy, and horror short fiction for over thirty-five years as fiction editor of OMNI Magazine and editor of Event Horizon and SCIFICTION. She currently acquires short fiction for Tor.com. She has edited more than a hundred science fiction, fantasy, and horror anthologies, including the annual The Best Horror of the Year,
She’s won Locus Awards, Hugo Awards, Stoker Awards, International Horror Guild Awards, Shirley Jackson Awards, and ten World Fantasy Awards. She was given the Life Achievement Award by the Horror Writers Association, in acknowledgment of superior achievement over an entire career, and the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award at the 2014 World Fantasy Convention.
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