Cartoon of the Day: Dog's New Year's resolutions

This is definitely Reign!!! A Toast and Woof to the New Year!

Mysteries set at the New Year: New Year's Eve and New Year's Day!

Wishing you the best for 2026! May Mystery and Mayhem only happen in crime fiction! 

Today's holiday list features Mysteries, Crime Fiction, Thrillers, and Movies that take place at the New Year. This is an updated list. Let me know if I've forgotten any of your favorites! 

Crime Fiction Set at the New Year

Allyson K. Abbott: A Toast to Murder

Anthony Abbott: About the Murder of the Night Club Lady
Jennifer Alderson: Death on the Danube

Marian Babson: Line up for Murder
Bain, Donald and Jessica Fletcher. Murder She Wrote: Death of a Blue Blood
T. L. Barnett: Murder for the New Year
George Baxt: The Marlene Dietrich Murder Case
George Bellairs: The Case of the Headless Jesuit

Virginia K. Bennett: The Toast of New Year's Eve. 
Nero Blanc: A Crossworder's Gift
Eileen Brady: Last But Not Leashed
Paul Brazil: Guns of Brixton; Cold London Blues
Jon L. Breen: Touch of the Past

Rita Mae Brown: Full Cry
Anna Celeste Burke: Gnarly New Year!
Lynn Cahoon: Have A Deadly New Year.

Alison Cairns: New Year Resolution
Lillian Stewart Carl: The Blue Hackle
C.S. Challinor: Murder at Midnight
Lee Child (ed): Killer Year: Stories to Die for
Colette Clark: A Sparkling Case of Murder

Anne Cleeves: Raven Black
Maning Coles: They Tell No Tales.
Anna Ashwood Collins: Deadly Resolutions

Michael Connelly: The Dark Hours
Patricia Cornwell: Cause of Death
Mark Costello: Bag Men

Elisabeth Crabtree: Death Takes a Holiday.

Alisa Craig: Murder Goes Mumming

P. Creeden: Murder on New Year's Eve.

M. Culler: A New Year's Cat-aclysm
Maddie Day: Murder in a Cape Cottage

Isis Crawford: A Catered New Year's Eve

M. Culler: A New Year's Cat-aclysm
Jeffrey Deaver: The Devil's Teardrop
Colin Dexter: The Secret of Annexe 3
Carter Dickson: Death and the Gilded Man
Rose Donovan: The Mystery of Ruby's Roulette

Carole Nelson Douglas: Cat on a Hyacinth Hunt
D.B. Elrogg: Murder Again! Happy New Year

Loren D. Estleman: Stress
James Ellroy: This Storm
Ifeanyi Esimai: Her Last New Year's Eve

Janet Evanovich: Plum New Year
J. Jefferson Fargeon: Death in Fancy Dress (aka The Fancy Dress Ball)
Quinn Fawcett: Siren Song
Jerrilyn Farmer: Dim Sum Dead
D.M. Flexer: New Year's: The Night of All Nights.

Lynn Florkiewicz: The New Year's Eve Mystery

Lucy Foley: The Hunting Party

Frederick Forsyth: The Fourth Protocol
Claire Gardner: New Year's Eavesdropping
Tess Gerritsen: The Silent Girl.

Janet Gleeson: The Grenadillo Box
Kerry Greenwood: Murder in the Dark
J.M. Gregson: The Lancashire Leopard

Jane Haddam: Fountain of Death
Hannah, Sophie: The Last Death of the Year: A Hercule Poirot Mystery (coming in 2025)

Karen Harper: The Queene's Christmas
Lee Harris: The New Year's Eve Murder
Ellen Hart: Hallowed Murder, Merchant of Venus
Roy Hart: Seascape with Dead Figures
Lauren Henderson: Pretty Boy
Reginald Hill: Killing The Lawyers
Tom Hindle: The Murder Game.

Jorn Lier Horst & Thomas Enger: Smoke Screen

Liz Ireland: Mrs. Claus and the Nightmare Before New Year's

Graham Ison: Hardcastle's Traitors

J.A. Jance: Name Withheld

Tonya Kappas: New Year Nuisance
Rufus King: Holiday Homicide

Harper Lin: New Year's Slay
J.K. Litton: Caught Dead 

Frances and Richard Lockridge: The Dishonest Murderer; Let Dead Enough Alone
Heather Dune Macadam: The Weeping Buddha
Clair Mackintosh: The Last Party

Ed McBain: Lullaby
Johnston McCulley: New Year's Pardon; New Year's Duty
Ellie McDougan: Homicide and a Happy New Year

Philip McLauren: Scream Black Murder
Elisabeth McNeill: Hot News
Leslie Meier: New Year's Eve Murder
James Melville: The Body Wore Brocade

David William Meredith: The Christmas Card Murders
Miriam Ann Moore: Stayin' Alive
Jack Murray: The New Year's Eve Murders
Tamar Myers: A Penny Urned

Nick Oldham: Bad Tidings
Leonardo Padura: Havana Blue (starts with a New Year's Eve hangover)
Elizabeth Peters: The Golden One
Edward O. Phillips: Sunday's Child
Denis Pitts: This City is Ours

Ellery Queen: Calamity Town
Raquel Reyes: Barbacoa, Bomba, and Betrayal

Craig Rice: The Right Murder
Gillian Roberts: The Mummer’s Curse
Cindy Sample: Dying for a Date
Dorothy L. Sayers: The Nine Tailors (begins on New Year's Eve)

Madelyn Scott: Poison and Party Hats: New Year's Eve

Catherine Shaw: Fatal Inheritance
Jeffrey Shields: New Year, New Prosciutto

Sofia Slater: Auld Acquaintance

Paige Sleuth: Cherry Hills Case Files
Joan Smith: Don't Leave Me This Way, Why Aren't They Screaming
Kat Stone: New Years Dog-Tastrophe
Kathleen Suzette: New Year, New Murder

Meg Taggart: Murder at the Savoy
David C. Taylor: Night Life

Kathleen Taylor: Cold Front
Charles Todd: A Long Shadow
Carolyne Topdjian: The Hitman's Daughter
Auralee Wallace: Ring in the Year with Murder
Sarah Ward: The Sixth Lie

Patricia Wentworth: The Clock Strikes Twelve

Whiting, J.A. & Nell McCarthy: The Horse Knows the Way; A Fatal New Year
Valerie Wolzein: 'Tis the Season to be Murdered (aka And a Lethal New Year)
Rachel Woods: Happy New Year Murder
James Ziskin: Stone Cold Dead
Mark Richard Zubro: The Truth Can Get You Killed

Short Story:
Q. Patrick: "Murder on New Year's Eve"

Children's:
Ron Roy: New Year's Eve Thieves

You might also want to check out my Christmas list (Christmas Mysteries, Authors A-Z). Some of the action spills over into New Year's.

Mystery Movies that take place at the New Year.

Happy Viewing!

After the Thin Man (1936)
Better Luck Tomorrow (2002)
Entrapment (1999)
The Godfather Part II (1974)
Little Caesar (1931)
Money Train (1995)
New Year's Evil (1980)
Night Train to Paris (1964) 
Ocean's 11 (1960)
Strange Days (1995)
Survivor (2015)

Cartoon of the Day: Writer's Life

From Tom Gauld:

 

Cartoon of the Day: Fruitcake

Today is National Fruitcake Day! Celebrate!

 

BOXING DAY MYSTERIES

Today is Boxing Day (the Day after Christmas). I've put together several lists that cover 1000+ mysteries that take place at Christmas, and although I'm sure several of the mysteries on the list continue mystery and mayhem through to Boxing Day, the day after Christmas, I've only found a few mysteries that focus or start specifically on Boxing Day.

One Boxing Day mystery is Nicholas Blake's Thou Shell of Death (1936). Nicholas Blake is the pseudonym of Cecil Day Lewis, the late British poet laureate.

Thou Shell of Death features Fergus O'Brien, WWI flying ace. Fergus receives four letters predicting that he will be murdered on Boxing Day. Despite this, or maybe because of this, he plans a party and invites all the suspects (there are several people who might want to do him in) plus private detective Nigel Strangeways. O'Brien does die, and it's up to Nigel Strangeways with the help of Inspector Blount of Scotland Yard to solve the crime. This is Blount's first appearance in the series. Thou Shell of Death is an oldie but goodie, especially if you like houseparty mysteries.

There are three other novels that focus on Boxing Day. A frozen body is found on Boxing Day in Viveca Sten's In Harm's Way. Another mystery is Gilbert Adair's The Act of Roger Murgatroyd that takes place entirely on Boxing Day. This is part of his series of novels about Evadne Mount, and is clearly a play on Agatha Christie novels. In another Boxing Day mystery, Death at Sandringham House by C.C. Benison, Her Majesty the Queen, along with her housemaid Jane Bee, investigates. 

Thanks to Aubrey Nye Hamilton for the Boxing Day addition of Murder After Christmas by Rupert Latimer. It's a British Crime Library Classic, and I enjoyed reading it.

Keith Raffel points out that the murder in A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny takes place the day after Christmas.. Boxing Day, for sure.

And, if you're unfamiliar with Boxing Day, it's the day after Christmas, when "servants and tradesmen traditionally would receive gifts from their superiors." Today it's a National Holiday in most of the British Commonwealth and former British colonies.

As far as why it's called Boxing Day, there are several different theories:

A ‘Christmas Box' in Britain is a name for a Christmas present. 

Boxing Day was a day off for servants and when they received a ‘Christmas Box’ from the master. The servants would also go home to give ‘Christmas Boxes’ to their families.

A box to collect money for the poor was placed in Churches on Christmas day then opened the next day.

Great sailing ships when setting sail would have a sealed box containing money on board for good luck. If the voyage were a success the box was given to a priest, opened at Christmas and the contents given to the poor.

Are there any other Boxing Day Mysteries I've forgotten?

CHRISTMAS MYSTERY ROUND-UP!

If you read this blog, you know I post lists of crime fiction with all the holiday settings from New Year's Day through New Year's Eve (Halloween, Mother's Day, Memorial Day, Presidents Day, and all the rest). Christmas, of course, features the most mysteries, so I divide this list into 5 posts. Here's the list to links for this year's Christmas Crime Fiction, celebrating authors A-Z. 

Let me know if any Authors/Titles are missing, so I can update. Happy Holidays!

Christmas Mysteries: Authors A-E

Christmas Mysteries: Authors F-L

Christmas Mysteries: Authors M-Z

Christmas Mysteries: Short Story Anthologies and Novellas

Boxing Day Mysteries