Welcome to the third and final week of my Christmas reads posts – it’s crime fiction today, and I have three fabulous and very different books for you!
(Click the covers to see the books on Amazon.)

Love is a driving passion. So is hate.

December in a small Devonshire village is the perfect time for a Yuletide festival, a Narnian wedding or a murder.
Now retired, Beatrice is working on a book, planning a wedding and pretending she doesn’t miss the cut and thrust of Scotland Yard.

When a local celebrity dies in suspicious circumstances, Matthew encourages Beatrice to do some private investigating. Her enquiries reveal more than predicted and she discovers even her nearest and dearest are capable of deceit.

A snowstorm hits the village and Beatrice chases a lead, throwing everyone’s plans into disarray and threatening lives. The ancient forest conceals a primeval web of complex loyalties and lethal bonds.

Angels protect their friends. But destroy their enemies.

Detective Beatrice Stubbs travels the world in JJ Marsh’s 12-book series. I haven’t read them all yet, but they’re lovely reads – Beatrice has been described as a modern-day Miss Marple. This one’s set in a Devonshire village during a very snowy December. Jill has a free novella as a prequel to this series, see HERE on her website.

A cracking Christmas crime thriller

It looks like a regular advent calendar.

Until DC Becky Greene starts opening doors . . . and discovers a crime scene behind almost every one.

The police hope it’s a prank. Because if it isn’t, a murderer has just surfaced – someone who’s been killing for twenty years.

But why now? And why has he sent it to this police station?

As the country relaxes into festive cheer, Greene and DS Eddie Carmine must race against time to catch the killer. Because there are four doors left, and four murders will fill them . . .

It’s shaping up to be a deadly little Christmas.

I read this one a couple of years ago and I’ve never felt quite the same about advent calendars since… A lovely dark Christmassy read.

The perfect thriller to curl up with this winter…

To mark the twelve days of Christmas, he gives me a gift every day, each more horrible than the last . . .

I am missing. Held captive by a blue-eyed stranger.

The twelfth day is getting closer.

After that, there will be no more Christmas cheer for me.

No mince pies, no carols.

No way out . . .

This one’s on my festive season tbr list – I read the first few pages and bought it straightaway last week. Can’t wait to get stuck in!

That’s the end of the Christmas reads, and I’ll take the opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, in spite of all restrictions. Whatever you do, stay safe.
Next week, we’ll catch up with the ‘S’ books in my A-Z – see you then!