The British Library Crime Classics are a great series, reprinting many tremendous detective novels, which have been otherwise out of print for decades.  And Christmas seems to be a particular time of year to be celebrated in crime.

The British Library have issued no fewer than five Christmas crime short story anthologies edited by Martin Edwards––Crimson Snow; The Christmas Card Crime; Who Killed Father Christmas; Silent Nights; and A Surprise for Christmas––and a goodly number of stand-alone novels, all with either a ‘Christmas’ or a ‘winter’ or a ‘snow’ theme––The Santa Klaus Murder by Mavis Doriel Hay; The Christmas Egg by Mary Kelly; Murder After Christmas by Rupert Latimer; Death in Ambush by Susan Gilruth; Dramatic Murder by Elisabeth Anthony; Mystery in White by J. Jefferson Farjeon; Portrait of a Murderer by Anne Meredith; and The White Priory Murders by Carter Dickson.

I have previously written about a slight annoyance regarding two Gladys Mitchell novels being retitled to exploit this Christmas bonhomie, and some of the British Library marketing is similarly liberal––The White Priory Murders are described as ‘A Mystery for Christmas’ even when Christmas is never actually mentioned in the book, although ‘snow’ does play a crucial role in a ‘locked-room’ scenario––but I don’t want to be too Scrooge-like in my criticism.  The fact is I enjoy a good ‘winter’ mystery as much as the next man, and Christmas makes a far more positive buzzword for sales. 

I wonder when a crime novel set in November, like James Fraser’s Death in a Pheasant’s Eye, will be rebranded as The Black Friday Murders?

© Fergus Longfellow

Fergus Longfellow contemplates his Christmas reading.