But James does both things easily, and with barely more than a few paragraphs we are thrust into succinct stories which intrigue and fascinate us as readers. One must breathe life into characters quickly and conjure up a sense of place with the finesse of a magician’s slight of hand. Instead, he finds himself spending the holiday with a very peculiar family, trying to figure out the truth behind a very untimely death.Īs a writer, I know the challenges of writing short fiction. First, in “The Boxdale Inheritance,” Adam’s godfather wants to know how his recently deceased Great Aunt Allie came by her fortune before he accepts his inheritance.įinally, in “The Twelve Clues of Christmas,” all Adam wants is a quiet night with his aunt in front of the fire. James’s iconic poet-detective, Adam Dalgliesh, has long been a fan favorite, and he makes an appearance in the last two stories in this volume. How he decides to handle the the situation will change his life forever.

Visiting her grandmother for Christmas, the author ( not James, but a fictitious scribe) is involved in a locked room mystery that she simply can’t let go.Ī “respectable” clerk with a penchant for salacious reading material becomes a secret voyeur in “A Very Commonplace Murder.” As an unwitting witness to murder, he suddenly finds himself weighing a man’s life in the balance. James embraces the challenge of the short-story form and ingeniously weaves the strands of plot, setting, characterization and surprise to create a satisfying whole within only a few thousand words.įrom the title story about a strained country-house party on Christmas Eve, to another about an illicit affair that ends in murder and two cases for James’s poet-detective Adam Dalgliesh, each treats the reader to James’s masterfully atmospheric storytelling, always with the lure of a mystery to be solved.In the title story, a bestselling crime novelist remembers the event that launched her career 50 years before. While she delights in the secrets that lurk beneath the surface at family gatherings, her Christmas stories also provide tantalizing puzzles to keep the reader guessing. James’s prose illuminates each of these perfectly formed stories, making them ideal reading for the darkest days of the year. Four of the best of these have been drawn from the archives and published here. James was frequently commissioned by newspapers and magazines to write a special short story for Christmas.

The mistletoe murder and other stories