Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Chanukah Crime Fiction

Chanukah (Hanukah) begins tonight, December 20 and is celebrated for eight days--through December 28. Yes, Eight Days of Chanukah! Jewish Holidays are aligned with the lunar calendar, so they vary every year. That will give you enough time to read all of these titles! Let me know if I've missed any.

Novels:
Holiday Grind by Cleo Coyle (mostly about Christmas but Hanukah is mentioned)
Festival of Deaths by Jane Haddam
Out of the Frying Pan into the Choir by Sharon Kahn
Saturday the Rabbi Went Hungry by Harry Kemelman
Murder at the Minyan by Shlumat E. Kustanowitz
The Body in the Sleigh by Katherine Hall Page (mostly about Christmas but Hanukah is mentioned)
Chanukah Guilt by Ilene Schneider

Children's Hanukah Mysteries:
Rabbi Rocketpower and the Mystery of the Missing Menorahs - A
Hanukkah Humdinger! by Rabbi Susan Abramson and Aaron Dvorkin and Ariel DiOrio

Mystery Short Stories:
"Mom Lights a Candle" by James Yaffe, appeared in Mystery: The Best of 2002, ed. by Jon L. Breen.
"Hanukah" by Morris Hershman in Cat Crimes for the Holidays, ed. by Martin Greenberg, Edward Gorman and Larry Segriff
"The Worse Noel" by Barb Goffman in The Gift of Murder.
For more info on Jewish short story mysteries, check out Steven Steinbock who blogs on Criminal Brief, the Mystery Short Story Web Log Project.
"Navidad" by Elizabeth Zelvin, EQMM, January 2011.

Mystery Games:
Children's software mystery game: Who Stole Hanukkah? offered in five languages: English, Hebrew, Russian, French and Spanish
Other Games for Children: The Case of the Stolen Menorah: An Enlightening Hanukkah Mystery

4 comments:

Nancy J. Cohen said...

Great list, thanks for sharing. I'm going to print it out.

Priscilla said...

Thank you so much for your lists, Janet. I did not know about "Murder at the Minyan"

Linda Brue said...

I found links to all your lists on DL. I can't tell you how much I appreciate all your hard work! So many new titles to try!

Janet Rudolph said...

thanks, linda, for stopping by... It's so fun to put the lists together!