Grinches beware! Just like so many other readers out there we’ve been bitten by the festive bug and we can’t stop carolling about Christmas crime fiction. So this week’s news report begins with Murder at the Christmas Panto and presents four further mysteries. Don’t worry, not all of them are draped in tinsel.
Murder at the Christmas Panto by Izzie Harper
Author Vicky Newham is giving her cosy alter ego Izzie Harper a sprinkling of glitter with a festive new release, out 20 December for Kindle. Murder at the Christmas Panto does exactly what it says on the cover, focusing as it does on the little village of Bramhurst, which is in mourning over the cancellation of the Christmas pantomime. Ellie Blix and her friend Belle are about to dismantle the set in the village hall when new director Neville Snipe meets a sticky end in a tangle with a loft ladder. Something’s afoot, and as Ellie and her co-sleuths work together to find the killer, their investigation throws up more questions than answers. Can they save the day? Oh yes they can/Oh no they can’t! Delete as applicable.
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Hard Sun by JB Turner
The shadowy Jon Reznick is sent deep under cover in search of a hitman in Hard Sun, the 15th in JB Turner‘s series of thrillers, out on 16 December. The killer has just taken out a high-value target in Mallorca – and signs are that there is more to come. The head count grows as Reznick hunts for the assassin and a cache of explosive Cold War-era surveillance tapes but as the sniper’s real mission is revealed, the black-ops specialist realises that the stakes are far higher than anyone imagined… and the clock is ticking.
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Murder at Martingale Manor by Jodi Taylor
There’s a Christmas Day arrival on the Kindle for Jodi Taylor’s Murder at Martingale Manor, which finds Leon and a recuperating Max on holiday at the aforementioned Devon hotel. As Christmas 1924 approaches, Martingale Manor is full of very interesting guests, including a mysterious older woman, a forgetful clergyman, a doctor, a soldier and a charming couple. Soon, one of them is dead. When the police arrive at the scene they turn their attention to the only guest who doesn’t have an alibi… Leon. He and Max are going to need all their skills of deduction if they’re to catch the real culprit red handed.
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Their Deadly Truth by Carla Kovach
Lindy Pickering hasn’t spoken to her brother, Kain, for weeks – so she’s shocked to the core when two police officers arrive on her doorstep. He’s been found dead in her late mother’s car, and suspicions are aroused when she won’t explain why the pair were estranged. It soon becomes clear that Kain had plenty of enemies and Lindy struggles to find anyone she can trust. Then another body is found, killed in the same way as Kain. Meanwhile in the shadows someone is watching… someone who will stop at nothing to conceal their secrets. All will be revealed when Their Deadly Truth by Carla Kovach is published on 17 December.
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His Dead Man’s Hand by Jack Gatland
DQ James was an American poker legend who disappeared at the height of his fame – now his body has been found in the hidden basement of a former gentlemen’s club casino in the City of London. Who killed James a decade ago? As DCI Declan Walsh and the Temple Inn team dig into the card sharp’s final days, it’s a fair bet that a man who thrived on risk had a lot of enemies – all of them with motives. Then an old Hendon friend of Sergeant Morten De’Geer turns up, dragging a personal problem into the very heart of the case and upping the ante. His Dead Man’s Hand by Jack Gatland arrives on Kindle on 14 December.
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