Review: "Christmas Crimes at the Mysterious Bookshop" ed. by Otto Penzler
Christmas Crimes at the Mysterious Bookshop edited by Otto Penzler Mysterious Press, 2024 For more than thirty years, New York City’s Mysterious Bookshop has commissioned a Christmas story from the genre’s most talented writers. These stories are printed as pamphlets and given out to the Bookshop’s customers during the holiday season. The marvelous Christmas Crimes at the Mysterious Bookshop collects twelve of the most recent tales—an eclectic cohort ranging from puzzler to hardboiled and whimsical to murderous and always with a good-natured attitude—into a single attractive volume. Lyndsay Faye’s “A Midnight Clear,” is a brilliant and surprising take on loss and vengeance with an ending that stings the reader just right. “Secret Santa,” by Ace Atkins—about a thriller writer long past his prime, visiting New York City for a book signing on Christmas Eve in 1985—is a pleasant stroll, with a little excitement and a touch of irony
