There is an annual discussion, online if not anywhere else, about whether Die Hard, Bruce Willis’ 1988 European baddie action flick, is a Christmas movie. it is set during a party, after all. But every year, people argue that it can’t be a Christmas movie, I think for no other reason than the fact that it sheds more blood than eggnog.
And yet I would say that Christmas and crime are not such strange bedfellows. On the one hand, Christmas is that time of year when families gather closely together, often in houses that are too warm with bad weather threatening outside. the liquor flows, and the evening comes early. sounds like an occasion for murder to me.
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In the golden age of the crime novel, most big-name authors dedicated themselves to a Christmas-themed crime novel. and quite a few are worth reading. But it’s not just lock-room mysteries practitioners who have inserted a holiday spirit into a murderous story. there are some decent hard-boiled novels that deal with the subject as well. Christmas can be a lonely time, especially in the big city, and that can have unfortunate consequences.
So here’s my personal list of favorite Christmas crime stories, all worth spending a night with a nice bottle of your favorite booze close at hand. And, by the way, Die Hard is indisputably a Christmas movie.
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1. Dashiell Hammett’s The Thin Man (1934) It’s amusing to think that this was the only Thin Man book Hammett wrote, even though he released a series of six films. Like the first classic movie that paired William Powell and Myrna Loy (A Clockwork Christmas Perfect), this book is set during the Christmas season in Manhattan. Enviable couple Nick and Nora Charles solve a murder while mixing drinks and exchanging quips. pure entertainment and a well plotted crime novel.
2. Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot’s Christmas (1938) Apart from short stories, this is Christie’s only book explicitly set in the Christmas season. And it’s good, with Poirot solving a very bloody murder that takes place on Christmas Eve in a country house. There are plenty of suspects, plenty of clues, and as always, Christie delivers a clever surprise in the final chapters.
3. The Corpse in the Snowman by Nicholas Blake (1941)Yes, there is actually a body hidden inside a snowman. There’s also a farmhouse, sinister guests, an amateur sleuth, and plenty of Christmas touches. Nicholas Blake was the pseudonym for Cecil Day-Lewis, better known as Poet Laureate (and Daniel’s father), but he was also a highly respected mystery writer, and this is a winter’s delight.
4. An English Murder by Cyril Hare (1951) In this entertaining country house mystery, Lord Warbeck gathers his family for one last Christmas at his ramshackle mansion. Like all good mysteries, there’s both the familiar (a sinister butler, a winter storm that brings down power lines) and the unknown that lurk in the pages of it.
5. The Long Shadow of Celia Fremlin (1975) Despite winning the Edgar Award for her excellent novel The Hours Before Dawn, Fremlin is now largely forgotten. it’s a shame because her domestic thrillers are perfect examples of the genre, books that cleverly exploit the notion of domestic bliss. Here, a recent widow is stalked by a sinister phone call accusing her of murder, as well as a host of unwelcome Christmas guests.
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6. Scott Phillips’ Ice Harvest (2000)My favorite Christmas crime novel (I also love the 2005 occult film version starring John Cusack), it’s not for readers looking for comfort. Set in 1979, the novel chronicles a night in the life of a Wichita mob lawyer, one Christmas Eve during which he plans to elope with his boss’s money. it’s sleazy, dark and a lot of fun.
7. Ed McBain’s Money, Money, Money (2001) isn’t the best of the 87th Precinct novels, but just about any McBain book is worth a read. In this one, it’s Christmas in Isola (a thinly veiled Manhattan) and a murder leads to the uncovering of a terrorist plot to bomb a performance hall. There’s also some amusing commentary on the publishing industry along the way, plus plenty of musings on the follies of human nature.
8. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (2005) Although most of the narrative is not set in Christmas, a significant sequence towards the end of the book is, which is why I call it a Christmas crime. It certainly is a winter novel, with journalist Mikael Blomkvist agreeing to investigate a cold case (figuratively and literally) on a remote island in the Swedish winter. With the help of computer hacker Lisbeth Salander, they discover the sinister and puzzling truth.
9. A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny (2011)Three Pines, the fictional Quebec City that is the setting for Penny’s mystery novels, is tailor-made for Christmas tales. this is the second in the inspector gamache series and the vacation setting is beautifully depicted. The first line sets the festive and murderous tone: “if cc de poitiers had known she was going to be killed, she could have bought her husband, richard, a christmas present.”
10. The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories by PD James (2016) James was often commissioned to write short stories for the Christmas season. this little collection contains four of them, including the title story, not only the best Christmas crime short story I’ve ever read, but one of my favorite crime short stories. an aging crime writer recalls the only time she was involved in a real murder: a vacation visit to her wartime grandmother. the story is both charming and macabre, like the season she inhabits.
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rules for perfect murders by peter swanson published in paperback by faber. to order a copy, go to guardianbookshop.com. his next novel, Every Vow You Break, will be published in March.
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