Christmas Crimes at the Mysterious Bookshop

September 2, 2024
Penzler, the owner of New York City’s Mysterious Bookshop, compiles 13 of the holiday stories commissioned annually by his store into an appealing, if minor, collection. Each tale is set near Christmas, involves some sort of criminal suspicion, and takes place partly in the bookstore itself. Highlights include Jeffrey Deaver’s “The Christmas Party,” about a man in a retirement home who conspires with his caretaker to foil a plot by his conniving relatives, and Ragnar Jónasson’s ingenious “A Christmas Puzzle,” which follows a woman who lays a trap to reclaim her husband’s books from a thieving clerk at the Mysterious Bookshop. Other entries offer wintry twists on well-worn genre tropes, including “Hester’s Gift,” a Strangers on a Train riff from Tom Mead that follows two writers who meet at a mystery convention and plan a double murder, and “Here We Come A-Wassailing,” a cheeky “Gift of the Magi” update from Thomas Perry. Each tale’s brevity makes it easy to dip into and out of the collection, and the mix of big names (Laura Lippman and Loren D. Estelman also contribute) with lesser-knowns offers a spirited survey of contemporary crime fiction. For mystery fans, this is a satisfying-enough holiday treat.