![]() ![]() James is expertly aware of the conventions of her genre and both uses and challenges them to excellent effect, with exquisitely clever plot twists encased into such short works. I shall go no further as I wouldn’t want to spoil such a dark and delightful tale for its future readers… ![]() Records are played, the snow falls from ‘a gun metal sky’, claret is decanted and a murder occurs in the library, not far from a bough of fallen mistletoe. The whole scenario is deliciously noir and perfect to curl up with in front of the fire. Fellow guests include a mysterious cousin who she has not seen since she was a child and, more unexpectedly, an distant relative who adds an air of unease and poor taste to the otherwise pleasant company. As a young war widow anticipating a lonely Christmas day, she accepts an invitation to the ‘warm house with plenty of wood fires, home cooking and good wine, peace and quiet’ offered to her by her estranged grandmother. ![]() Our narrator is a best selling crime writer (an accolade we can easily bestow upon James herself) as she looks back on a Christmas from her deep past, in 1940. The eponymous The Mistletoe Murder is a richly dark tale and enough to curb anyone’s festive malaise. The Mistletoe Murder is a wonderfully self aware collection of four short crime stories with a festive theme threaded through each. On the 7th day of Advent, we give those needing an escape from all this merriment a tale from one of our most prestigious crime writers, P. ![]()
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