ICFA's Top Christmas Crime Fiction

And so it is Christmas… we would like to wish a very Merry Christmas to our wonderful delegates! Let’s hope 2022 brings more promise than 2021 (and, of course, the unspeakable 2020).

We thought we would put together a list of quality crime fiction recommendations to indulge over the festive season for those Christmas lovers (and Grinches!) What’s your favourite Christmas Crime binge?  

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The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding by Agatha Christie

Hercule Poirot is persuaded to leave his cosy London flat for a traditional 'English Christmas' at a country manor house in order to solve a daring jewel theft. Perhaps the most striking element of the story is the description of a gargantuan Christmas lunch which makes our own Yuletide over-indulgence seem positively abstemious.

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Kerstin Munderlein

The Frey & McGray​ Series​ by Oscar de Muriel

Edinburgh, 1880s: “frenemies” and unwilling colleagues Ian Frey, English dandy in Scottish exile, and “Nine-Nails” McGray, grumpy Scotsman with an intense dislike for all things English, investigate seemingly (or real?) supernatural crimes. Each book is as thrilling as the last, so grab a blanket to protect yourself from the witches and the cold! 

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Eric Sandberg

The Burglar in the Library by Lawrence Block

Lawrence Block is best known as the author of the hardboiled Matthew Scudder novels, but he is also a master - the master - of the comic mystery caper, as represented by his wonderful series of novels featuring the burglar-cum-detective Bernie Rhodenbarr. In The Burglar in the Library (1997), Bernie and his friend Carol have gone for a winter vacation at Cuttleford House when the snow falls, the road is cut off, and murder ensues.​

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Ruth Heholt

The Shardlake Series by C. J. Sansom

​If you haven't yet started C. J. Sansom's Mathew Shardlake series, Christmas is the perfect time to begin. The books are wonderful, extremely long, and there are lots of them! Curl up and lose yourself in a different world, but one where people are very recognisable! 

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Ffion Davies

The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories by P. D. James

In this collection of four previously uncollected short stories, you will get everything from cosy clue puzzles to two early Adam Dalgliesh short stories making the collection my perfect companion for those cold Christmas nights (with, of course, a glass of warm mulled wine).

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Emily Farmer

Walt Disney’s The Great Mouse Detective

​Who knew we needed a Sherlock Holmes who is a mouse? Disney did! With a darkly imaginative plot, The Great Mouse Detective is a film you should definitely add to your watchlist this Christmas as it’s a time where you can unabashedly indulge in reading/watching narratives from your childhood. The Great Mouse Detective may not be your typical Disney story, but the sincerity of its heroes will bring tears to your eyes.

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Eric Sandberg

​An English Murder by Cyril Hare

County Judge and novelist Cyril Hare is best remembered for Tragedy at Law (1942), a puzzle mystery set against a legal backdrop described by P.D. James as “the best detective story set in that fascinating world”. He also wrote An English Murder (1951), an idea Christmas murder mystery set in a country house cut off from the outside world by a snowstorm on Christmas Eve.

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Ffion Davies

Sophia Takal's Black Christmas

Christmas cheer, not your thing? Don’t sweat it–we’ve got you covered. Take a stab at Blumhouse’s 2019 remake of the homonymous 1974 slasher and its feminist twist on the yuletide sorority slaying. A must-watch on those nights where you’ve been forced to listen to Wham just one too many times. ​​

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​Kerstin Munderlein

Flavia de Luce Series by Alan Bradley

​Set in 1950s rural England, Bradley’s series follows 11-year-old Flavia de Luce, an extraordinary heroine with a penchant for chemistry and especially poisons, as she investigates all sorts of murders. Flavia is both delightfully odd and typically childish at times, and this mixture makes her a brilliant read over the Christmas holidays.