Book picks similar to
A Christmas Killing by Richard Montanari


crime
short-stories
richard-montanari
christmas

Christmas Calamity at the Vicarage


Emily Organ - 2019
    With sherry, mince pies and Christmas carols, the festivities are going well. But events take a turn when the choirmaster is found dead in the parlour. Which of the guests could possibly commit murder at Christmas time? With everyone detained at the vicarage, elderly sleuths Churchill and Pemberley find themselves in all the wrong places at all the wrong times. Inspector Mappin is certain they’re his suspects and the vicar is convinced too. How can the two old ladies prove their innocence? With the net closing in, the detective duo must find the culprit to avoid spending Christmas in Compton Poppleford's police cells. Christmas Calamity at the Vicarage is a novella for fans of light-hearted mysteries and sharp-witted elderly sleuths. Books in the main Churchill & Pemberley cozy mystery series: Book 1: Tragedy at Piddleton Hotel Book 2: Murder in Cold Mud Book 3: Puzzle in Poppleford Wood

The Princess Game


Soman Chainani - 2020
    To find the killer, rookie detective Callum Pederson has gone undercover where the Princes hold court. He’s found enough secrets among the bros to bring them in for questioning—but he could very well get lost in the games the Princes play.

A Bloody Storm


Richard Castle - 2012
    These former agents have all faked their own deaths and now work for the CIA on a strictly secret basis, taking on dangerous and illegal jobs the agency may not officially carry out. They're headed to the Molguzar mountains to look for sixty-billion dollars worth of gold hidden by the KGB before the collapse of the Soviet Union, and taking a perilous detour to rescue FBI agent April Showers from a sociopath torturer. But Storm's loyalties are put to the test as the mission begins to unravel into a bloody mountaintop showdown, and he and Showers must find out the hard way that their assignment may not be what they thought it was.

The Billionaire's Mistletoe Baby (a short Christmas story...) (Holiday Babies)


Tabitha Robbins - 2013
     Laurel Ashwood needs a miracle. All her six-week old daughter wants for Christmas is a daddy...just for the holidays while Nana visits from Montana. Laurel and her former boss, construction tycoon Nick St. John, used to share a chemistry. But will Nick want to cooperate? Six months ago, she’d left him without a word. Nick can’t believe Laurel is back. Now he can finish what they’d begun months before. But he won’t accept a “couple of days.” If Laurel wants him to play along with a fake engagement, he’s got his own naughty and nice list. A kiss under the mistletoe is just the beginning.

Summer and Smoke and Murder


Nevada Barr - 2011
    At six cents a page, Summer and Smoke and Murder is a steal.

Three Ways to Die


Lee Goldberg - 2009
    But Monk knows that danger -- like dirt -- lurks everywhere. Look at Helen Gruber, the rich tourist who took a fatal blow from a coconut. The police say it fell from a tree, but Monk suspects otherwise. His assistant, Natalie, isn't exactly thrilled about Monk's latest investigation. It was bad enough that Monk followed her on vacation, and now it looks as though the vacation is over....Smooth-talking TV psychic Dylan Swift is on the island and claims to have a message from beyond -- from Helen Gruber. Monk has his doubts about Swift's credibility. But finding the killer and proving Swift a fraud -- all while coping with geckos and the horror of unsynchronized ceiling fans -- may prove a tough coconut to crack....

Chasing Tinsel


Ellie Ashe - 2021
    But instead of returning to her highly paid position as an investment banker, she’s selling discount make-up at Prospect Point Mall to make a little extra holiday cash. It’s not a great job, but Miranda wants to make this Christmas special for the people who stood by her during her trial and in the aftermath of her acquittal. Plus, keeping herself busy with work keeps her from thinking about her looming birthday. Or thinking about Jake Barnes, the federal agent who saved her life and then disappeared without a trace. But strange things are afoot at Prospect Point, from the shady elves with the neck tattoos to the shadowy figures she sees in the parking garage. Is trouble following Miranda—again? And is that really Jake she keeps seeing in the holiday crowd, or is it just her mind, and heart, playing tricks on her? ** Previously published in the Cozy Christmas Capers holiday anthology, published by Gemma Halliday Publishing in December 2014. **

Don't Tell Meg


Paul J. Teague - 2017
    One night. So many deaths. When radio journalist Pete Bailey betrays his wife Meg on his fortieth birthday, he has no idea of the terrible consequences that will follow his infidelity. His passionate relationship with Meg is on the rocks and they're having no luck starting a family. It's only when he meets TV reporter Ellie Turner on a working weekend away from home that Pete succumbs to her charms in a moment of weakness. His treacherous actions set off a chain of events fueled by jealousy, revenge, violence and hatred. Five people will lose their lives as a result of Pete's deception and he will be compelled to confront the ugly truth about his wife and his best friend, Jem. He thought that nobody would ever discover what he'd done with Ellie ... but he didn't know who was listening in the room next door. Don't Tell Meg is the first part of trilogy of thrillers. Book 2, The Murder Place and Book 3, The Forgotten Children are also available. Paul J. Teague has also written the standalone thriller Dead of Night (Released May 2017) Please note that this book contains mild violence, bad language and sexual references.

The Pain of Others


Blake Crouch - 2011
    But when she’s surprised by returning guests on her last room of the day, she’s forced to hide in the closet to avoid getting caught, and inadvertently overhears a hitman being contracted to murder the wife of a wealthy lawyer.Letty is hardly a heroine, but this puts even her threadbare morality to the test.Only in hindsight will she see her choice to intervene for what it is…a dramatic fork in the trajectory of her life, propelling her toward a terrifying shocker of an ending that neither she (or you) ever saw coming.From the author of Desert Places, Abandon, and Serial Uncut comes this 10,000-word thriller novella, which also contains an interview with Blake, excerpts from all four of his novels, and two bonus excerpts.

Summer People


Aaron Stander - 2000
    The summer residents are settling in for the season and the tourists are beginning to flood the highways and beaches. But the idyllic vision of a summer at the shore is suddenly shattered by a gangland-style shooting. This murder is quickly followed by the deaths of three more summer residents, each taking place under suspicious circumstances. At times hindered by local politics and the proverbial tension between the summer people and the natives, Sheriff Ray Elkins searches for the possible links between the four victims. As he probes into their tangled lives and dark histories, he finds both the motive and the possible murderer.

Good Deeds and Bad Intentions


Caimh McDonnell - 2018
    New York is the city that never sleeps and it certainly doesn’t take days off. Just because it's the holidays it doesn't mean that bad people aren't up to no good. Helena Martinez is trying to start a new life for her and her son but her ex-husband has other ideas. When she is approached by a mysterious woman with an offer of help she has to choose between running again or trusting a ragtag bunch of strangers and their unconventional methods. Good Deeds and Bad Intentions is a festive Bunny McGarry short story. Caimh McDonnell is the author of the critically-acclaimed Dublin Trilogy featuring Bunny McGarry, which melds high-octane action with a distinctly Irish acerbic wit. 

Nothing Lost


John Gregory Dunne - 2004
    An illicit love affair with the potential to wreck lives. In his grandly inventive last novel, John Gregory Dunne orchestrated these elements into a symphony of American violence, chicanery, and sadness.In the aftermath of Edgar Parlance’s killing, the small prairie town of Regent becomes a destination for everyone from a sociopathic teenaged supermodel to an enigmatic attorney with secret familial links to the worlds of Hollywood and organized crime. Out of their manifold convergences, their jockeying for power, publicity or love, Nothing Lost creates a drama of magnificent scope and acidity.

What Have You Done


Matthew Farrell - 2018
    Instead, the victim turns out to be a woman he'd had an affair with before breaking it off to save his marriage. But there's a bigger problem: Liam has no memory of where he was or what he did on the night of the murder.Panicked, Liam turns to his brother, Sean, a homicide detective. Sean has his back, but incriminating evidence keeps piling up. From fingerprints to DNA, everything points to Liam, who must race against time and his department to uncover the truth - even if that truth is his own guilt. Yet as he digs deeper, dark secrets come to light, and Liam begins to suspect the killer might actually be Sean ...When the smoke clears in this harrowing family drama, who will be left standing?

Like a Charm


Karin SlaughterPeter Robinson - 2004
    In Like A Charm, the cream of British and American crime writers combine for a must-have collection. From nineteenth-century Georgia, where the bracelet is forged in fire, to wartime Leeds, a steam train across Europe, the violent backstreets of 1980s Scotland, present-day London, a Manhattan taxi, the Mojave desert and back to Georgia, each writer weaves a gripping story of murder, betrayal and intrigue.

Montana Noir


James GradyEric Heidle - 2017
    Each book comprises all new stories, each one set in a distinct location within the geographic area of the book. Grady and Graff, both Montana natives, masterfully curate this collection of hard-edged Western tales.From the introduction by James Grady and Keir Graff: This anthology is a road trip through the dreams and disasters of the true Montana, stories written by authors with Montana in their blood, tales that circle you around the state through its cities and small towns. These are twenty-first century authors writing timeless sagas of choice, crime, and consequences...You'll meet students and strippers, cops and cons, druggies and dreamers, cold-eyed killers and caught-in-their-gunsights screwed-up souls. But mostly, through all our fiction here, you'll meet quiet heroes and see the noir side of life that makes our Montana as real as it is mythic. No doubt the state's beauty will still make the very idea of Montana Noir seem incongruous to some. Noir is black-and-white. Streets and alleys. Flashing neon lighting a rain-streaked window. But while noir was definitely an urban invention, it knows no boundaries. Noir is struggle. It's doing the wrong thing for the right reasons. It's being trapped. It's hubris. It's being defeated yet going on. Sometimes it's being defeated and not going on.That's life everywhere. This is our Montana.