Obscured text on back cover due to sticker attached.Īccess-restricted-item true Addeddate 15:04:03 Associated-names McDermid, Val, writer of foreword Boxid IA1828823 Camera Sony Alpha-A6300 (Control) Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier The Mistletoe murder - A very commonplace murder - The Boxdale inheritance - The twelve clues of Christmas With wry humour, she pays tribute to her English crime-writing forebears, delighting in the secrets that lurk beneath the surface at enforced family gatherings and in old country houses, from the title story about a strained family reunion on Christmas Eve, to another about an illicit affair that ends in murder, and two cases that introduce James's poet-detective Adam Dalgliesh as a young detective sergeant Each treats the reader to her masterfully atmospheric storytelling, a mystery to be solved, and enjoyable puzzles to keep the reader guessing. James's understanding of human nature illuminates each of these stories, making them ideal reading for the darkest days of the year. Four of the best have been collected together for the first time in one volume.

James was frequently commissioned by newspapers and magazines to write a special short story for Christmas. James's legions of fans and anyone who enjoys the pleasures of a masterfully wrought whodunit.As the acknowledged Queen of Crime, P.D. Each of these stories is as playful as it is ingeniously plotted, the author's sly humor as evident as her hallmark narrative elegance and shrewd understanding of some of the most complex-not to say the most damning-aspects of human nature. Dalgliesh's godfather implores him to reinvestigate a notorious murder that might ease the godfather's mind about an inheritance, but which will reveal a truth that even the supremely upstanding Adam Dalgliesh will keep to himself. A best-selling crime novelist describes the crime she herself was involved in fifty years earlier. A 'pedantic, respectable, censorious' clerk's secret taste for pornography is only the first reason he finds for not coming forward as a witness to a murder. Dalgliesh is drawn into a case that is 'pure Agatha Christie.'.

Four previously uncollected stories from one of the great mystery writers of our time-swift, cunning murder mysteries (two of which feature the young Adam Dalgliesh) that together, to borrow the author's own word, add up to a delightful 'entertainment.'

The mistletoe murders