. . It's the perfect time to curl up in front of a crackling fire with these wintry whodunits from the legendary Agatha Christie. But beware of deadly snowdrifts and dangerous gifts, poisoned meals and mysterious guests. This chilling compendium of short stories—some featuring beloved detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple—is an essential omnibus for Christie fans and the perfect holiday gift for mystery lovers.INCLUDES THE STORIES:- Three Blind Mice- The Chocolate Box- A Christmas Tragedy- The Coming of Mr Quin- The Clergyman's Daughter/Red House- The Plymouth Express- Problem at Pollensa Bay- Sanctuary- The Mystery of Hunter's Lodge- The World's End- The Manhood of Edward Robinson- Christmas Adventure

     After his longtime girlfriend marries another man, Tom Gorman, owner of a large ranch in southeastern Wyoming, thinks there will never be a happy ending for him. To avoid people’s knowing stares and nosy questions, he rarely comes to town and then only briefly. Working on his ranch and taking care of his two siblings becomes his life. As a favor to an old friend, he invites a young widow with her two little boys to stay at his ranch. Lottie Donovan grew up as an orphan raised in foster care, and she has been alone for most of her life. Now at thirty years of age, she is alone again after her husband Wyatt, a police officer, is killed during a bank robbery. She struggles to take care of her two boys from her income as a schoolteacher. When her house sells faster than she expected, she has no place to live. Tom Gorman offers her temporary shelter at his ranch and Lottie wants to pay him back by transforming his house into a home and making his family happy. The approaching Christmas celebration is a great opportunity to bring his family together. If only she could ignore the attraction she has felt for Tom ever since they were in high school when Tom was the high school quarterback. Lottie was secretly in love with him then, while Tom had eyes only for his beautiful girlfriend Faith Parker. Will the magic of Christmas bring together these two lonely people who are so much in need of true love?

    

    During the storm she learns the true meaning of Christmas with the help of her new friends, Stanley and Rosie.

     Avery Barks is excited about the search and rescue team's annual Christmas party. The holiday event is packed full of friends and fun for both the SAR dogs and their humans. Everyone is having a ball... That is, until a stranger crashes the party in the most surprising way. "Christmas Party" is a stand alone short story. It involves the characters of both the "Avery Barks Dog Mysteries" series and the "Shady Springs Dog Mysteries" series. These books can be read in any order.

     A short story by A.L. Jambor When Meg’s sister dies, she is devastated. The last of three children, Meg misses her siblings and has never felt so alone. She’s an author, but her emotional state hinders her ability to write, and she can’t sit in front of her computer without trembling. A trip to Port Revere, MA recalls memories of the summers spent there with her family when she was a girl, and Meg decides to buy the Christmas Cottage, an abandoned little house on a bluff near town. She refurbishes it, and with the help of her nephew Zack, starts to come out of her shell. But then the holidays, a time for families and celebrations, arrive, and Meg must again face her loneliness, and guilt over something she can't forgive herself for – she wasn’t there when her sister died and never had a chance to say goodbye. With the cottage almost completed, Meg has one last thing to do; she has to find out if her plumbing is up to snuff, and arranges for a plumber to visit the cottage. On Thanksgiving Day, she is sipping a cup of coffee when someone knocks on the door. She looks out the window and sees an old man, an old truck, and an old dog. Lettering on the truck announces that Angus O’Malley, Plumber Extraordinaire, is standing on her doorstep. What she doesn’t know is that Angus is on a mission and that his appearance heralds the beginning of something wonderful, and the best Christmas Meg has ever had. The Little Cottage by the Sea was formerly published as The Christmas Cottage. The content has not changed. It is a short book of 20,000 words.

    When she returns to the community just days before Christmas, her father turns her away. After running her car off the road in a blizzard, Grace ends up at the mercy of Ethan Bontrager, the man whose proposal she'd refused before leaving the community. Will the two of them be able to put the past behind them while trapped together in a blizzard? THE CHRISTMAS PRAYER: The day before school lets out for the holiday season, students are asked to submit a confidential and unselfish prayer to their teacher as an end-of-the-year assignment. When two of the students realize they share a common prayer, they join forces to make certain those prayers are answered. Will their shenanigans bring two broken families together, or will their efforts be in vain?

    But he soon finds himself struggling to keep the peace between three feisty fellow judges who have very different views about how to do their job, and about how Charlie should do his.And as if that’s not enough, there’s the endless battle against the ‘Grey Smoothies’, the humourless grey-suited civil servants who seem determined to drown Charlie in paperwork and strip the court of its last vestiges of civilisation.No hope of a quiet life then for Charlie, and there are times when his real job – trying the challenging criminal cases that come before him – actually seems like light relief. If you like Rumpole of the Bailey, you'll love Walden of Bermondsey Praise for Walden of Bermondsey 'No one writes with more wit, warmth and insight about the law and its practitioners than Peter Murphy. He has no equal since the great John 'Rumpole' Mortimer' - David Ambrose'Though his exasperation is sometimes palpable, what triumphs over everything is his sense of humour. And it is the humour that makes Walden of Bermondsey such a delightful read. Think of him as what Rumpole would be like if he ever became a judge, and you get some idea of his self-deprecating wit and indomitable stoicism. Add a dash of Henry Cecil for his situation and AP Herbert for the fun he has with the law, and you get a sense of Peter's literary precedents' - Paul Magrath

     As a single mom, small business owner, and president of the local Chamber of Commerce, the last thing she needs is to find a dead body on the floor of her jewelry shop on the busiest shopping day of the year. And as if that isn't enough, Lilly has to deal with a deadbeat ex-husband, a mother with declining mental health, and two teenagers. But when a second body turns up, Lilly finds herself squarely in the crosshairs of suspicion. Can she figure out who killed the victims before she becomes one herself? And will her family's Christmas be merry...or scary?

     While trying to support her grieving Goth office manager, Ellen ponders the mysterious flashes of light she saw in another part of Santa Fe, wondering if they are related to Captain Dusenberry, the tearoom's resident ghost. She asks for help from the local spirit-tour guide, Willow Lane, who takes curiosity about the captain's unsolved murder to a new level, where Ellen finds herself exploring the very meaning of spirit. Will a séance in the tearoom finally provide the answers to her questions? (This is a novella, a short companion story to the Wisteria Tearoom Mysteries series. It is recommended that you read A Masquerade of Muertos before reading this story.)

     When Cressi Harris got dumped by her husband Huxley for a woman half her age, she changed everything. She left New York City for Seascape Cove, a tiny village almost a hundred miles north of San Francisco. She stopped ghost writing Huxley’s very successful mystery series and started expressing her creativity in the kitchen of her new restaurant, The Dockside Cafe. Cressi made the transition painlessly. So did Jacko, her lively black spaniel. Both of them preferred fresh ocean breezes to the traffic fumes of New York City. She never even thought of New York, except when Huxley phoned, which he did too often because he wasn’t a very good writer without Cressi’s help. Cressi was smart and good at what she did. The Dockside Cafe flourished, even in the winter, and so did her growing friendship with good looking Police Chief, Trent Marlow and crusty retired banker Kevin Rodgers. Life was pretty darned good... ...Until her troubles started. Somebody had it in for Cressi, but who? She hadn’t been in town long enough to upset anybody, had she? Apparently she had... because somebody really had it in for her. Trent Marlow wasn’t about to let anybody get away with destroying the new life and business Cressi was building. He was determined to discover who was trying to destroy her business, and why. Welcome to Seascape Cove is Book One of The Seascape Cove Cozy Mystery Series. If you like strong women who take charge of their lives and handle whatever life throws at them, you’ll love Cressi Harris and the friends and family who support her. Download the book now and welcome Cressi to your Library. I know you’ll like her.

    

    Hitler has just conquered Poland, but life in London continues much as it did in peacetime, albeit a little more restricted since the introduction of petrol rationing. No bombs have been dropped on the city as yet, but the population go about their daily business under the constant threat of German air raids, and a blackout remains in force at night. For Scotland Yard and the criminal fraternity, however, it is business as usual. When a pawnbroker’s assistant is wounded by a gunman wearing a gasmask, it appears to be a straightforward case of a bungled armed robbery, but as Hawker proceeds with his investigation, the more facts he uncovers the more confusing the affair becomes. A red-headed soldier, a missing gun, a dead cat, an empty violin case and a damaged violin are only a few of the threads that have to be unravelled before he can wrap up the case – with a little help from Sherlock Holmes.

    Past winners and shortlisted authors have included the Pulitzer winners Junot Díaz, Anthony Doerr and Adam Johnson, plus Hilary Mantel, Ali Smith, Yiyun Li, CK Stead and Elizabeth Strout.Six Shorts 2017 brings together the six stories shortlisted for this year's award: ‘Reputation Management’ by Kathleen Alcott; ‘Half of What Atlee Rouse Knows about Horses’ by Bret Anthony Johnston; ‘The Hazel Twig and the Olive Tree’ by Richard Lambert; ‘The Tenant’ by Victor Lodato; ‘Every Little Thing’ by Celeste Ng; and ‘Mr Salary’ by Sally Rooney.Chosen by a hugely experienced and prestigious judging panel that included Booker-winner Anne Enright, Orange- and Whitbread-winner Rose Tremain, Booker-shortlistee Neel Mukherjee and critic and novelist Mark Lawson, the six stories represent the very best in contemporary English-language short fiction.

    Claus is rolling up her red sleeves and playing matchmaker. With a little advice from Cupid and a list of potential brides, she’s convinced a dash of magic will get the snowball rolling. There’s just one problem, Nick isn’t looking for love. All he wants to do is fill his father’s boots as he prepares to take over as Santa Claus.While Mrs. Claus is scheming away, Nick meets Heather, a charming artist with a giving heart and a loving smile. Preparing for her first Christmas alone, Heather is looking for adventure. Nick becomes a kindred spirit as they both remember what it’s like to live in the moment. Just as they think they found a fairytale romance, Nick discovers his mother’s magical meddling.With Christmas Eve quickly approaching, Nick must decide if his love for Heather was the real magic all along or if it was just the work of Cupid Claus?