CHRISTMAS CRIME FICTION: Authors A-E

Crime for the Holidays. Christmas time is a major time for murder! Every year I post a mystery list that's set during the Christmas holidays. It's such an extensive list, that I divide it into multiple parts. Here's the first installment, Authors A-E, of what will be a huge Christmas Crime Fiction list. I'll be posting the rest of the list over the next week or so. 

Although the list is updated every year, I'm sure I've still managed to miss a few authors and titles. Let me know, and I'd be glad to add them. 

And this year, I'll be adding a separate section on Short Story Anthologies and Novellas. More to come! Be sure and check back.

Christmas Crime Fiction: 
Authors A-E

Abbot, Anthony: About the Murder of a Startled Lady; About the Murder of Geraldine Foster.
Abbott, Allyson: Shots in the Dark
Abresch, Peter: The Faltese Malcom.
Adams, Deborah: All the Crazy Winters.
Adamson, Lydia: A Cat in the Manger; A Cat in the Wings; A Cat on Jingle Bell Rock; A Cat Under the Mistletoe.
Alan, Isabella: Murder, Served Simply.
Albert, Susan Wittig: Mistletoe Man; Rueful Death; Holly Blues: The Darling Dahlias and the Poinsetta Puzzle.
Alexander, David: Shoot a Sitting Duck.
Alexander, Hannah & Jill Elizabeth Nelson: Season of Danger; Silent Night; Deadly Night/Mistletoe Mayhem.
Alexander, Maria: Snowed.
Alexander, Victoria: What Happens at Christmas.
Allan, Barbara: Antiques Flee Market.
Allen, E.A.: The Fifth Christmas; The Dandridge Charter.
Allen, Michael: Spence and the Holiday Murders.
Ambrose, Terry: The Killer Christmas Sweater Club.
Amo, Gary: Silent Night.
Amsden, Pat: A Christmas to Die For.
Andre, Joel: A Death at the North Pole.
Andrews, Donna: How the Finch Stole Christmas; Six Geese A-Slaying; Duck the Halls; The Nightingale Before Christmas; Lark! The Herald Angels Sing.
Andrews, Mary Kay (Kathy Hogan Trocheck): Fatal Fruitcake; Blue Christmas; Christmas Bliss; Midnight Clear.
Angela, Mary. A Very Merry Murder.
Appignanesi, Lisa: The Dead of Winter.
Armstrong, Vivien: Fly in Amber.
Arnold, Carolyn. Christmas is Murder.
Arsenault, Emily: The Broken Teaglass.
Arts, David Jay: Quiet Desperation.
Ash, Maureen: Murder for Christ's Mass.
Atherton, Nancy: Aunt Dimity's Christmas.
Atkins, Ace: Leavin' Trunk Blues.
Aubert, Rosemary: The Feast of Stephen.

Baantjer, Albert: Murder in Amsterdam.
Babson, Marian: Twelve Deaths of Christmas; Line Up for Murder; Murder on a Mystery Tour.
Bain, Donald (as Jessica Fletcher): A Little Yuletide Murder; Manhattans and Murder.
Baker, Deb: Murder Trims the Tree.
Baker, North: Dead to the World.
Baldacci, David: The Christmas Train.
Ball, Donna: Silent Night.
Ballard, Mignon F.: Deadly Promise; Hark! The Herald Angel Screamed.
Banks, Carolyn: Horse to Die For.
Barnard, Robert: Death in a Cold Climate; The Habit of Widowhood.
Barnett, T.L.: Murder for the New Year.
Barre, Richard: Bethany.
Barrett, Kathleen: Homicide for the Holidays.
Barritt, Christy. High-Stakes Holiday Reunion; It Came Upon a Midnight Crime.
Barron, Stephanie: Jane and the Wandering Eye; Jane and the Twelve Days of Christmas.
Bartlett, Lorraine & Gayle Leeson: Yule Be Dead.
Battison, Brian: The Christmas Bow Murder.
Baxt, George: Scheme and Variations; A Christmas Story.
Bayard, Louis: Mr Timothy.
Beaton, M.C.: Death of A Snob; A Highland Christmas; Agatha Raisin and Kissing Christmas Goodbye; Death of a Prankster; Christmas Crumble; Busy Body.
Beaumont, Cyril: The Mysterious Toyshop.
Beechy, Alan: Murdering Ministers.
Bell, Cindy: Mistletoe, Makeup and Murder; Christmas Chocolates and Crime.
Belle, Josie: Buried in Bargains.
Bennett, Jenna: A Done Deal.
Benrey , Ron & Janet: Season of Glory.
Bentley, Jennie: Home for The Homicide.
Berenson, Laurien: Jingle Bell Bark; Once Bitten; Wagging through the Snow.
Bernhardt, Susan: Murder Under the Tree.
Bernhardt, William: The Midnight Before Christmas.
Berry, Carole: This Year Will Be Different; The Year of the Monkey.
Bingham, John: Crime at Lark Cottage.
Bishop, Claudia: A Carol for a Corpse.
Black, Gavin: Dragon for Christmas.
Black, Sarah & John Lanyon: I'll be Dead for Christmas.
Blackburn, Cindy: Three Odd Balls.
Blackstock, Charity: The Foggy, Foggy Dew.
Blake, Bethany. Paw Prints and Predicaments; A Midwinter's Tale.
Blake, Nicholas: The Corpse in the Snowman; The Smiler With the Knife; Thou Shell of Death.
Blanc, Nero: A Crossworder's Delight; A Crossworder's Gift; A Crossworder's Holiday; Wrapped Up in Crosswords.
Boatwright, Alice K.: What Child is This?.
Bodelson, Anders: Think of a Number.
Bohart, Lynn: Inn Keeping with Murder.
Bolen, Cheryl. The Theft before Christmas.
Borger, Gale: Totally Decked.
Borthwick, J. S.: Dude on Arrival; The Student Body.
Boucher, Anthony: The Night Before Christmas.
Bowen, Rhys: The Twelve Clues at Christmas; Away in a Manger; The Ghost of Christmas Past.
Boylan, Eleanor: Pushing Murder.
Boyle, Thomas: Post-Mortem Effects.
Bradley, Alan: The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches; I Am Half Sick of Shadows; As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust.
Brady, James: Hampton's Christmas.
Bramble, Forbes: Dead of Winter.
Bran, Helen. Silent Night.
Braun, Lilian Jackson: The Cat Who Turned On and Off; The Cat Who Went into the Closet.
Bredes, Don: Cold Comfort.
Breen, Jon: Probable Claus.
Brett, Simon: The Christmas Crimes at Puzzle Manor; The Shooting in the Shop; The Cinderella Killer.
Brightwell, Emily: Mrs. Jeffries and the Feast of St. Stephen; Mrs. Jeffries & the Yuletide Weddings; Mrs. Jeffries & the Mistletoe Mix Up; Mrs. Jeffries and the Silent Knight; Mrs. Jeffries and the Three Wise Women.
Brockman, Suzanne: All Through the Night.
Brook, Allison. Read and Gone.
Brown, Carter: A Corpse for Christmas.
Brown, Frederic: Murder Can be Fun.
Brown, Rita Mae: Rest in Pieces; Santa Clawed; Homeward Hound.
Bruce, Leo: Such is Death.
Brunette, Lisa: Framed and Burning.
Bryan, Mollie Cox: A Crafty Christmas.
Buchanan, Edna: The Ice Maiden.
Buckley, Julia: Cheddar Off Dead.
Budewitz, Leslie: As the Christmas Cookie Crumbles. 
Burdette, Lucy: Death with all the Trimmings.
Burke, Anna Celeste: A Merry Christmas Wedding Mystery.
Burke, Declan: Eightball Boogie.
Burke, James: A Present for Santa.
Burley, W. J.: Death in Willow Pattern; Wycliffe and the Quiet Virgin.
Byerrum, Ellen: Grave Apparel.
Byron, Ellen: A Cajun Christmas Killing.

Authors C-E

Cahoon, Lynn: If the Shoe Fits.
Caine, Leslie: Holly and Homicide.
Cairns, Alison: New Year Resolution.
Callaghan, Hope. Reindeer & Robberies; Merry Masquerade in Savannah.
Carl, Joanna: The Chocolate Bear Burglary; The Chocolate Snowman Murders.
Carlisle, Kate. Deck the Hallways.
Carmack, Amanda. Murder at Whitehall. 
Carr, Carol K.: India Black and the Widow of Windsor.
Carrier, Warren: Justice at Christmas.
Carrington, Tori: Queen's Ransom.
Carter, John Franklin: The Corpse on the White House Lawn.
Carter, Nick: The Christmas Kill.
Casey, Elizabeth Lynn: Let It Sew.
Caunitz, William J.: Exceptional Clearance.
Challinor, C. S.: Christmas is Murder.
Chan, Cassandra: Spider on the Stairs.
Chapman, Brenda: Cold Mourning.
Chaput, W. J.: The Man on the Train.
Chase, Erika: Read and Buried.
Chastain, Thomas: 911 (aka The Christmas Bomber).
Chaze, Elliott: Goodbye Goliath.
Cheever, Sam: Christmas Grift.
Chesbro, George C.: Second Horseman Out of Eden; Colde Smell of Sacred Stone.
Childs, Laura: The Teaberry Strangler; Eggs on Ice.
Christie, Agatha: Hercule Poirot's Christmas (aka Murder for Christmas, aka Holiday for Murder); The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding (novella); The Sittaford Mystery.
Christmas, Joyce: Dying Well; Fete Worse than Death.
Churchill, Jill: Farewell to Yarns; The Merchant of Menace; From Here to Paternity.
Clad, Noel: Savage.
Claire, Edie: Never Mess with Mistletoe.
Clark, Carol Higgins: Iced.
Clark, Mary Higgins: All Through the Night; Silent Night; My Gal Sunday; Silent Night.
Clark, Mary Higgins and Carol Higgins Clark: Deck the Halls; The Christmas Thief; He Sees You When You're Sleeping; Dashing Through the Snow; Santa Cruise.
Cleland, Jane: Ornaments of Death.
Coco, Nancy: All I Want for Christmas is Fudge.
Coggin, Joan: Who Killed the Curate; Dancing with Death.
Cohen, Charles: Silver Linings.
Cohen, Tammy: Dying for Christmas.
Collier, Christine: Christmas at Cliffhanger Inn; A Holiday Sampler.
Collings, Rex: Clerical Crimes for Christmas.
Collins, Kate: Missing Under the Mistletoe.
Collins, Max Allen: Blue Christmas and Other Holiday Homicides (collection); No Cure for Death; Spree.
Colt, Jennifer: The Con Artist of Catalina Island.
Conant, Susan: Gone to the Dogs.
Connolly, Sheila. Gone to the Dogs.
Constantine, K.C.: Upon Some Midnights Clear.
Cooper, Natasha: Evil is Done.
Cornish, Constance: Dead of Winter.
Cornwell, Patricia: Scarpetta's Winter Table.
Cortez, Donn: Miami--Harm for the Holidays.
Cousins, Caroline: Fiddle Dee Death.
Coyle, Cleo: Holiday Grind; Holiday Buzz; Latte Trouble.
Craft, Michael: Body Language.
Craig, Alisa: Murder Goes Mumming.
Craig, Philip R.: A Deadly Vineyard Holiday; Off Season.
Crane, Hamilton: Starring Miss Seeton.
Crawford, Isis: A Catered Christmas; A Catered Christmas Cookie Exchange.
Creasey, John: Death of a Postman.
Crespi, Trella: Trouble with Thin Ice.
Crider, Bill: Cursed to Death.
Crighton, Michael: Coma.
Crockett, Jessie: Live Free or Die.
Crombie, Deborah: Water Like a Stone; And Justice There is None.
Cross, Amanda: No Word from Winifred.
D'Amato, Barbara: Hard Christmas.
Daheim, Mary: The Alpine Christmas; Nutty as a Fruitcake; The Alpine Winter.
Daley, Kathi: Christmas Cozy; The Cat of Christmas Past; Alaskan Alliance.
Dams, Jeanne M.: The Body in the Transept; Indigo Christmas; Winter of Discontent.
Dane, Joel: The Christmas Tree Murders.
Danielewski, Cynthia: Night Fire.
Darrell, Elizabeth: Czech Mate.
Davenport, Chari: The Christmas Party.
Davidson, Diane Mott: Sweet Revenge.
Davidson, Mary Janice: Undead and Unreturnable.
Davis, Frederick: Drag the Dark.
Davis, Krista: The Diva Runs Out of Thyme; The Diva Cooks a Goose; Not a Creature was Purring; The Diva Wraps It Up.
Davis, Mildred B.: Tell Them What's Her Name Called; Three Minutes to Midnight.
Dawson, Janet: Nobody's Child.
Day, Marlis: Curriculum Murders.
De Castrique, Mark: Grave Undertaking.
Dean, Spencer: Credit for a Murder.
DeAndrea, William L.: Killed on the Ice.
Dee, Ed: Little Boy Blue.
Deeb, Mary Jane: Christmas Mystery in Provence.
Delany, Kathleen: Murder Half-Baked; Purebred Dead.
Delany, Vicki: Winter of Secrets; Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen; We Wish You a Murderous Christmas.
Demaree, Steve. A Body under the Christmas Tree.
Dengler, Sandy: Murder on the Mount.
Dentinger, Jane: The Queen is Dead.
Deverell, Diana: Twelve Drummers Drumming.
Dexter, Colin: The Secret of Annexe 3; Morse's Greatest Mystery and Other Stories (collection).
Dickson, Carter: The White Priority Murders.
Dobson, Joanne: Quieter Than Sleep.
Donnelly, Deborah: Died to Match; May the Best Man Die.
Dorsey, Tim: When the Elves Attack.
Douglas, Carole Nelson: Cat in a Golden Garland.
Douglas, Charlotte: Holidays are Murder.
Downing, Todd: The Last Trumpet.
Driscoll, Patricia: Shedding Light on Murder.
Drummond, John Keith: Tis the Season to be Dying.
Dubois, Brendan: The Gift of King Herod.
Duffy, James: The Christmas Gang.
Dunbar, Sophie: Shiveree.
Duncan, Elizabeth: A Killer's Christmas in Wales.
Duncan, Francis: Murder for Christmas.
Dunn, Carola: Mistletoe and Murder; Death at Wentwater Court.
Dunnett, Kaitlyn (Kathy Lynn Emerson): A Wee Christmas Homicide; Ho-Ho-Homicide.
Durham, Laura: Marry and Bright.
Durham, Mary: Keeps Death His Court.
Early, Barbara: Murder on the Toy Town Express; Death of a Russian Doll.
Eason, Lynette: Holiday Hideout.
Eberhart, Mignon G.: Postmark Murder.
Eddenden, A. E.: A Good Year for Murder.
Egan, Lesley: Crime for Christmas.
Eickhoff, Randy Lee: Then Came Christmas.
Ekwensi, Cyprian: Restless City; Christmas Gold.
Emerson, Kathy Lynn (as Kaitlyn Dunnett): A Wee Christmas Homicide; Ho-Ho-Homicide.
Emrick, K.J.: Murder, Wrapped Up; Christmas Spirit; The Naughty List.
Englehart, Steve: Christmas Countdown.
Erickson, Alex: Death by Eggnog.
Erskine, Margaret: A Graveyard Plot.
Estleman, Loren D.: The Glass Highway.
Evanovich, Janet: Visions of Sugar Plums.

2016 Scribe Awards

The International Association of Media Tie-In Writers announced the winners of the 2016 Scribe Awards. This award honors “licensed works that tie in with other media such as television, movies, gaming, or comic books.” There were also works in many different genres. Best Original Novel—General Prize -- crime-fiction related:

24: Rogue by David Mack (Forge)

Also nominated:
Elementary: The Ghost Line by Adam Christopher (Titan)
Kill Me, Darling by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins (Titan)
Don Pendleton’s Mack Bolan: Desert Falcons by Michael A. Black (Gold Eagle)

Also, the 2016 Best Short Story prize went to “Fallout,” a Mike Hammer story by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins, originally printed in The Strand Magazine (November 2014-February 2015).

HT: The Rap Sheet

2015 Best of the Best Mysteries, Crime Fiction, & Thrillers

I've been meaning to link to The Rap Sheet since J. Kingston Pierce began posting Best Books of 2015 Lists from all my favorite sources, blogs, and people.

Now The Rap Sheet has gathered many of them (35+ lists) in one post. Definitely check out these links to some really awesome list of lists!

Best Books of 2015: Mostly Crime, Mystery, and Thriller (35+ Lists)

Have your own list? Link to it in comments.

At the Intersection of Hollywood and Crime: Robert Weibezahl

Today I welcome my friend author/editor Robert Weibezahl. Robert Weibezahl is the author of two crime novels featuring screenwriter-sleuth Billy Winnetka -- The Wicked and the Dead and The Dead Don't Forget -- and a number of short stories, including the Derringer Award finalist "Identity Theft," which appears in the anthology Deadly by the Dozen. His two literary cookbooks/anthologies--A Taste of Murder and A Second Helping of Murder, co-edited with Jo Grossman, were both finalists for the Agatha and Macavity Awards. A columnist for "BookPage" since 2002, his work has also appeared in the "Los Angeles Daily News," "Los Angeles Reader," "Ventura County Star, "Mystery Readers Journal," "Bikini," "Irish America," and many other national and regional publications.

Robert Weibezahl:
At the Intersection of Hollywood and Crime 

Hollywood has a notorious love affair with crime – not only on screen, but off. Soon after the film industry settled in Los Angeles, high profile crimes and misdemeanors began to capture the public’s imagination. The list of not-quite-resolved cases involving murder and mayhem seems endless. In the 1920s, director William Desmond Taylor was found shot in the back in his bungalow, his murderer never found; actor Fatty Arbuckle was acquitted of rape and manslaughter, the final verdict a ruined career; Thomas H. Ince died aboard William Randolph Hearst’s yacht, allegedly of a heart attack, but many believe Hearst killed him in a jealous rage over actress Marian Davies. The cold cases continue through the decades: actors Thelma Todd and George Reeves—official suicides, but perhaps murders? Bob Crane was bludgeoned to death, the weapon and the killer who wielded it never found. Robert Blake and O.J. Simpson were the only viable suspects in the murders of their respective wives, but both walked away free men (and, under similar circumstances, Phil Spector nearly did as well). The official investigation into Natalie Wood’s mysterious death was recently reopened some thirty years after the fact. Even the Tinseltown murders where the culprits are known—the deaths of Phil Hartman, Sharon Tate, Rebecca Schaeffer, Dorothy Stratten, and Sal Mineo come to mind—continue to carry a peculiar taint, marred by unseemly details.

While the murders in my mystery series featuring screenwriter cum amateur sleuth Billy Winnetka are wholly inventions, I confess that I probably tap into the thirst we all seem to have for celebrity crime. The first book in the series, The Wicked and the Dead, found Billy searching for the killer behind a series of (at first) seemingly unrelated deaths. The newly published second installment, The Dead Don’t Forget, involves death threats aimed at a mostly forgotten actress from an earlier era. Who would wish to harm a seemingly harmless old woman? Well, in Hollywood, grudges run deep. Beyond the murders that drive my plots, the books aim to capture some of peculiarities of the film industry, in which I once worked. The company-town mentality that can motivate much of what happens behind the scenes in Hollywood is very specific to the town and the business. In a world where appearances are everything, and nearly every man or woman is out for him/herself, crime can take on an ugly flavor all its own.

The series is also very much of its place – Los Angeles: its car culture, with choked freeways and secret surface street short cuts, its soundtrack provided by the car radio; a diverse population where class is often divided along ethnic lines; a flawed paradise where dreamers come and sometimes find spectacular success, yet more often do not. How much is “Hollywood” an accurate reflection of the real L.A.? To a wider culture that grants celebrity primacy of place, L.A. can seem like a fictional version of a major American metropolis. But, for folks like Billy, who live and work there, it is a real place, not a painted backdrop. True, after decades of literally being used as just such a backdrop in countless films and television show, the idea of L.A. is hard to cast off. And some of those same movies and shows have, for better or worse, had an impact on crime – how we perceive it, solve it, prosecute it, and, perhaps, even how we perpetrate it. Let’s not forget that the term noir first came from the movies.