  Mystery
This week: Edited by: MaryLou  
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Mystery stories are so popular because they fulfill one of humans' deepest instincts - the need to explore, to question, to find out. Humans are incessantly searching for answers to life's greatest mysteries. Since those mysteries are so difficult to unravel, we can find comfort in reading and writing mystery novels and short stories. Thus, our need to discover is satisfied...until the hunger strikes again.
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Ah, the Holiday season is upon us again. The time for parties, family gatherings, exchanging of gifts, community service, laughter, merriment, joy, and goodwill to all!
Why, then, would mystery writers use this joyous occasion as the setting for murder?
I found the following article at mysterynet.com which can explain this question much better than I could.
About Christmas Mysteries by Vicki Cameron
Christmas Stories: Mystery and Murder
THERE IS NO ESCAPING the Christmas holiday season. It surrounds us with advertising tinsel, fills us with fancy cooking, smothers us in sentimental thoughts. World leaders talk about peace while comic strip characters wrestle with Christmas trees.
In the Western world, Christmas is a time for giving gifts. Deck the malls with throngs of shoppers. Hark the herald hucksters sing, let us toys to the children bring.
Mystery author P.G. Wodehouse recommends the giving of something shiny. He says the shinier a gift is, the more it is thought to have cost, and thus the better the giver looks in the eyes of the receiver. Wodehouse suggests books are excellent gifts, as their covers are always shiny.
Maybe you will be lucky enough to receive a brand new mystery novel, or an anthology of mystery short stories this year. Maybe some thoughtful person will wrap for you a shiny Christmas mystery, a murder in tinsel, crime with sleighbells. Christmas mystery stories, with their twists and hidden clues, are as much fun to unwrap as Christmas gifts.
Why do writers chose to set murder and crime stories in this happy holiday season?
First, there is the cast of stock characters, well known to all -- Santa, the ghosts of other Christmases, the three Wise Men, the shepherds, and the main players in the Nativity scene. These characters need no introduction. They come equipped with a backstory. They can be tinkered with, shaped into the unexpected, given an evil underbelly. Well, maybe not the Holy Family, but all the rest are fair game.
Especially Santa. Now here's a character begging to be given center stage in a murder story. He's disguised, face and figure. He carries a sack, perfect for concealing stolen goods. He's expected to show up in strange places late at night. He is never turned away.
Second, Christmas gatherings of friends and kin are often riddled with tensions. When a mid-sized group of people collects under one roof because they must, ill feelings can step over to the dark side quicker than you can say "koshed with a roasted chestnut."
Some authors pay only lip service to Christmas, mentioning it in passing while they get on with the story. Others sew Christmas in to the story so tightly the story could not possibly take place if it weren't Christmas.
For your enjoyment, here are gifts of Christmas short stories written by three wise authors of today. Bill Pronzini's Nameless Detective runs into the department store Santa's worst nightmare in "Here Comes Santa Claus." Marcia Muller's Sharon McCone searches for a runaway teen in "Silent Night." Ed Hoch takes you back to the first Christmas in "The Three Travellers."
All of the classic mystery authors tried a Christmas mystery or two. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle trotted out his famous sleuth, Sherlock Holmes, through the cold London streets at Christmas in "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle." Well into her eighties, Agatha Christie produced what her publishers called 'a Christie for Christmas' every year, including "Murder For Christmas," featuring Hercule Poirot. Humorous short story writer Damon Runyon shows Christmas at the speakeasy in "Dancing Dan's Christmas." Four classic Christmas mysteries are brought to you at this website.
A few choice classics have been displayed here under the Mystery tree, to save us all from trudging through the out-of-print book racks. Tuck into a wingback chair with a hot cup of tea and a box of Christmas shortbread, and enjoy.
http://www.mysterynet.com/Christmas/about/
I did some searching and found quite a few mystery novels with Holiday themes. I've listed some of them below just in case, like me, you like having a little mystery and mayhem on your Christmas wish list. If you've ever considered writing a mystery set during the holiday season, it never hurts to study the masters of the genre. 
A Christmas Guest -- Anne Perry
Holiday in Death -- J. D. Robb
Visions of Sugar Plums -- Janet Evanovich
Twas the Bite Before Christmas -- Lee Charles Kelley
Jingle Bell Bark -- Lauren Berensen
Cat's Eyewitness -- Rita Mae Brown
Silent Night & All Through the Night -- Mary Higgins Clark
New Year Eve's Murder -- Leslie Meier
Shakespeare's Christmas(A Lily Bard Mystery) -- Charlaine Harris
Hercule Poirot's Christmas -- Agatha Christie
Mistletoe and Murder -- Carola Dunn
A Murder She Wrote: A Little Yuletide Murder -- Jessica Fletcher & Donald Bain
Wrapped Up in Crosswords -- Nero Blanc
Wreck the Halls -- Sarah Graves
The Queene's Christmas -- Karen Harper
Mrs. Jeffries and the Silent Knight -- Emily Brightwell
A Highland Christmas (Hamish Macbeth Mysteries Series -- M. C. Beaton
The Merchant of Menace(A Jane Jeffrey Mystery) -- Jill Churchill
Murder is a Girl's Best Friend (Paige Turner Mystery) -- Amanda Matetsky
And for Children:
Mystery in Arizona (Trixie Belden Series #6) -- Julie Campbell
Case of the Christmas Snowman -- James Preller
The Secret Santa Mystery (Scooby Doo! Reader Series) -- Gail Herman
The Case of the Nutcracker Ballet (The New Adventures of Mary-Kate and Ashley Series #38) -- Megan Stine, Ashley Olsen
The Bobbsey Twins and the Mystery at Snow Lodge (The Bobbsey Twins Series #5) -- Laura Lee Hope
The Secret Santa (Nancy Drew Notebooks Series #3) -- Carolyn Keene
Wishing you all a very happy holiday season,
MaryLou
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Feedback
InkyShadows : Great description of a cozy mystery! It sparked my interest in getting back to work on the cozy I had started a while ago. Who knows...this may be the year that I actually get back to work on it and complete it! Wouldn't that be a noteworthy accomplishment?
Yes, it would, Inky! My cozy has been on hold for a while now. 
Iva Lilly Durham  : MaryBoo, you did a really good job explaining the difference in a 'cozy' mystery from a 'hard boiled' one. I wonder what it says about me that I prefer the latter. :) Great newsletter.
Well, I would say that you prefer more realistic mystery novels, that's all.
Mini Mystery
This month's mini-mystery will be a little different than previous ones. I am taking this one from the board game, "Crack the Case" by Milton Bradley. I'll outline the case and then, if you wish, may ask questions concerning the mystery. Please send all questions to my regular email, and not through the newsletter submission form.
There will also be two clues to the mystery that you may ask for if you're stumped. However, they'll cost you! If you can solve the mystery without any clues, you'll receive 5,000 GPs. With one clue, you'll receive 3,000 GPs. If you use both clues, the prize will be the regular 1,000 GPs. You may ask as many questions as you'd like. Have fun!
The Case
It was a blue Christmas Eve for Donna Albans. Without any provocation, her husband Richard had walked out on her last week after just three months of marriage. That's why the present that had arrived by mail that morning was such a pleasant surprise. It was unsigned, but the card read, "Just so you won't forget me!" Donna was sure it was from Richard -- it was his taste.
That night, Donna went to a party and got another surprise -- Richard was there. She smiled at him, but he took one look at her and walked out.
Later at home that night, Donna got one more surprise. Richard came knocking at the door. When she let him in, he shot her dead. Then he proceeded to make it look like a botched robbery.
The Mystery
Why did Richard kill his wife?
Answers to the last mini-mystery:
Margaret : Regarding the mini-mystery: when the items were listed of what was beside the pool, no towel was mentioned... if the days were getting chilly, then certainly she would have brought a towel to wrap in when leaving the pool... otherwise, if she had intended to run back inside, she wouldn't have also brought out a book to read! Therefore, she was moved and the scene orchestrated. (I think....)
Great newsletter!
MichaelMollroney : Even if Mrs. Duncomb would have liked to sit in the cold or at least fresh air - wearing nothing but a swimsuit, sandals and sunglasses - reading a book (brrrr) she would have taken a towel with her. Where is it? Did he forget it :D?
Great fun!
karabu: I couldn't figure out last week, but I think I have it this week. There is no towel. She didn't intend to get wet. The husband is lying about her going swimming. ...Right?
nimue : Re Mini-Mystery: What is wrong with this picture? When we are first introduced to Mr. Duncomb he looks 'disheveled', in my opinion from dragging the three lounge chairs and the small table from its storage space to the pool. You see, the pool was already closed for the season, and in his attempt to stage the accidental drowning Mr. Duncomb overlooked a few things. Like a towel or a robe or even some clothes to cover up, after she got out of the pool! It's October, it's getting chilly; the poor woman would have caught her death after this swim if she hadn't already been dead to start with.
ncblondie : If she was going for her daily swim, where was her towel? Since it was mentioned that the temperature was getting chilly, I can't see her sitting around dripping wet in the air without a towel to dry off.
M Hague Bailey : I believe Stanwick suspects the husband because there was no towel at the scene and you usually take a towel with you to the pool. Plus, to me the husband just doesn't seem to be upset enough about his wife's drowning. |
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Mystery: November 23, 2005 Issue [#736]
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