New holiday fiction titles out now!

’Tis the season for Christmas fiction! This year there’s plenty of new titles to choose from.

The Ghost of Christmas Present: A Novella. Abbott, Scott & Amy Maude Swinton.  Howard: S. & S. Oct. 2012.  ISBN 9781451660395. 

Patrick Guthrie’s wife unexpectedly died of an enlarged heart, a condition their son Braden inherited. Now Guthrie spends his evenings at the hospital, waiting for Braden’s heart surgery as his world crashes down around him. He abruptly loses his teaching job and promptly receives a visit from child protective services, who were tipped off by his estranged father-in-law. Desperate for money and inspired by a creative panhandler on the subway, he hits the streets as a Shakespeare-quoting Ghost of Christmas Present.

The Twelve Clues of Christmas: A Royal Spyness Mystery.  Bowen, Rhys. Berkley Prime Crime. Nov. 2012.  ISBN 9780425252789. 

Krampus the Yule Lord. by Brom.  Harper Voyager. Oct. 2012. c.368p. illus. ISBN 9780062095657. $27.99. Horror

The Christmas Star Fahy, Christopher.  Overlook Connection. Nov. 2012.  illus. ISBN 9781623300005. 

 

A Christmas Home. Kincaid, Greg. Crown. Oct. 2012. ISBN 9780307951977. 

Todd McCray, hero of A Dog Named Christmas, is now twenty-four years old and working at a local animal shelter, where he meets and quickly becomes best friends with Laura, a young volunteer. Laura, like Todd, has disabilities of her own, but her struggles are more physical than developmental. Their friendship is sealed when Todd—with the help of his trusted companion, the tenacious Labrador retriever named Christmas—trains a beautiful dog named Gracie to help Laura with the day-to-day life tasks that are difficult for her.

The Christmas Carol Murders: A Dickens Junction Mystery. Lord, Christopher.  Harrison Thurman Bks. 2012.  ISBN 9780985323608. 

Dickens Junction, OR, was founded on the values of Charles Dickens, and the charming Dickens-themed town has always been a safe, welcoming place. Now, a few days before Christmas, the town is shocked when the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come in the Christmas Carol tableau turns out to be a corpse. Simon Alastair, bookstore proprietor and great-grandson of one of the town’s founders, turns amateur sleuth as he tries to protect his hometown. With the support of handsome reporter Zach Benjamin, Simon might just find the murderer—and love—in time for Christmas.

Michaels, Fern & others. A Winter Wonderland. Zebra: Kensington. Nov. 2012. c.384p. ISBN 9781420121445. pap. $7.99. Romance

In the first story of this romantic holiday quartet, by Fern Michaels, Angelica Shepard leaves New York for Christmas in Colorado to relax and unwind - but an out-of-control snowboarder almost has her laid to rest. When she wakes up in the hospital, all she remembers is the handsome angel who saved her.

A Christmas Garland. Perry, Anne.  Ballantine. Oct. 2012.  ISBN 9780345530745. 

Colonial India is the setting for best-selling Perry’s tenth Christmas novella (A Christmas Homecoming).  “An annual treat,” declared The Wall Street Journal of Anne Perry’s Victorian-era holiday mysteries. Now she continues this magnificent tradition with A Christmas Garland.  This time the mistress of mystery tells the story of a terrible crime that sets the stage for another: accusing an innocent man of murder.

Pittman, Joseph. A Christmas Hope: A Linden Corners Novel. Kensington. Oct. 2012. ISBN 9780758276957. 

Favorite characters return along with some new ones in Pittman’s third novel (after A Christmas Wish) about the quaint New York village of Linden Corners with its iconic windmill.

Randisi, Robert J. & others. Six-Guns and Slay Bells: A Creepy Cowboy Christmas. Western Fictioneers. Nov. 2012. ISBN 9781478189169

The Western Fictioneers, the world’s only organization of professional authors devoted solely to Western fiction, presents 15 original Western horror stories just in time for the holidays.

Rosett, Sara. Mistletoe, Merriment, and Murder. Kensington. Oct. 2012 ISBN 9780758269218. 

Professional organizer Ellie Avery is the suspect in the seventh entry of this cozy mystery series (after Mimosas, Mischief, and Murder) when she’s discovered at the scene of the crime.

Webb, Peggy. Elvis and the Blue Christmas Corpse: A Southern Cousins Mystery. Kensington. Oct. 2012.  ISBN 9780758241436.

Basset hound Elvis, the reincarnated King himself, graces us with his presence in the fifth entry (after Elvis and the Tropical Double Trouble) of this comic Southern mystery series.

Willett, Marcia. Christmas in Cornwall. Thomas Dunne: St. Martin’s. Oct. 2012. ISBN 9781250003706

Following his wife’s death, Clem and his young son, Jakey, move to Cornwall, England, to be closer to Clem’s mother, Dossie. Clem finds work as a groundskeeper at a nearby convent where the elderly nuns become a surrogate family.