
The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries
Big Book Series
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Narrated by:
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Cat Gould
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Matthew Lloyd Davies
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By:
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Otto Penzler
About this listen
Have yourself a crooked little Christmas with The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries.
Edgar Award-winning editor Otto Penzler collects more than 50 of his all-time favorite holiday crime stories - many of which are difficult or nearly impossible to find anywhere else. From classic Victorian tales by Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Thomas Hardy, to contemporary stories by Sara Paretsky and Ed McBain, this collection touches on all aspects of the holiday season, and all types of mysteries. They are suspenseful, funny, frightening, and poignant.
Included are puzzles by Mary Higgins Clark and Isaac Asimov; uncanny tales in the tradition of A Christmas Carol by Peter Lovesey and Max Allan Collins; O. Henry-like stories by Stanley Ellin and Joseph Shearing; comic gems from Donald E. Westlake and John Mortimer; and many, many more. Almost any kind of mystery you're in the mood for-suspense, pure detection, humor, cozy, private eye, or police procedural - can be found in this book.
©2013 Otto Penzler (introduction and compilation) (P)2020 HighBridge, a division of Recorded BooksListeners also enjoyed...
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Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories
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Pitch perfect narration of Agatha Christie!
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The Christmas Bookshop
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Laid off from her department store job, Carmen has perilously little cash and few options. The prospect of spending Christmas with her perfect sister Sofia, in Sofia’s perfect house with her perfect children and her perfectly ordered yuppie life, does not appeal. Frankly, Sofia doesn’t exactly want her prickly sister Carmen there, either. But Sofia has yet another baby on the way, a mother desperate to see her daughters get along, and a client who needs help revitalizing his shabby old bookshop. So Carmen moves in and takes the job.
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Irritating and filthy language
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The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding
- By: Agatha Christie
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- Unabridged
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In this short story, Hercule Poirot is asked to attend a Christmas celebration in order to apprehend a jewel thief who has taken advantage of an unwary Eastern prince.
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I Great story and plot.
- By SARALEE SAENZ on 12-01-21
By: Agatha Christie
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Heathcliff Lennox - France 1918
- By: Karen Baugh Menuhin
- Narrated by: Sam Dewhurst -Phillips
- Length: 1 hr
- Unabridged
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Spring, 1918. The Great War is at a crucial stage, the Germans are making one last push into France, and the Allies are struggling to hold them back. Battle lines are shifting, and men, and their machines, are being sent up and down the front to shore up defenses. Major Heathcliff Lennox, and his batman Greggs, are told to report to their new HQ. They set off on a sunlit day to fly the distance, but the enemy is never far away, and disaster strikes. They're sent crashing to the ground behind enemy lines, where life, death, and love await.
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Another great Heathcliff Lennox
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Letters from Father Christmas
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- Length: 2 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Can you imagine writing to Father Christmas and actually getting a reply? Every year, the children of J.R.R. Tolkien would write to Father Christmas, and the letters they received told wonderful stories of his adventures at the North Pole. These humorous tales are brought to life by Derek Jacobi as Father Christmas, John Moffatt as Polar Bear, and Christian Rodska as Ilbereth the Elf, complete with specially composed music.
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A fun little read.
- By James on 06-30-14
By: J. R. R. Tolkien
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Christmas Radio Classics
- By: Original Radio Broadcast
- Narrated by: Jack Benny, Vincent Price, George Burns
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Original Recording
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Come back to the tradition and warmth of Christmas in the Golden Age of Radio, with the great performers and shows of yesteryear. Go shopping with Jack Benny. Go to the snow covered woods with Johnny Dollar. Go to Bethlehem with Family Theater. The voices of Vincent Price, George and Gracie, Bergen and McCarthy, Abbott and Costello, Red Skelton, Jimmy Durante, and more are lifted in story and song. They celebrate the yuletide with equal parts hope and hokum, silliness and sacrifice, merriment and mystery....
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loved it
- By Christine McIntyre on 12-05-18
What listeners say about The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries
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- cary austin
- 12-19-23
Excellent mix of stories
This is a great mix of contemporary and those short stories from the past! I recommend it for the holidays!
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- KCMC
- 12-13-23
Perfect for Christmas
Delightful story selections including some authors I didn’t know. Narration was great.
Get a cup of cocoa and settle in.
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- ka&freddy
- 02-22-21
All my favs!
all my faves. made me want to go back and read the authors again. Interesting!
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- Roberta L. Ruben
- 12-01-22
Not Complete Book
Not all 100 stories that appear in the hard bound book are read in the Audible version. Including “Sister Bessie,” “A Christmas Tragedy”.
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4 people found this helpful
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- John
- 12-22-20
Female Narrator Needs Breathing Lessons
I would have gladly given this book a full 5 star rating but for the female narrator s issue with the cadence of her breathing... it is most bizarre..
She stops in the middle of a word pushing out her breath,.. only to hurry along pell mell running the ending sentence into the start of the next one.
It was most disturbing,.. and I can’t fathom why no one caught the issue.
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8 people found this helpful
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- D.W.
- 12-17-22
NOT UNABRIDGED
This is only a little over half of the stories in the printed Anthology - many of the titles/authors mentioned in the introduction are NOT included in the audiobook. Don't purchase this based on the sample provided either, the narration is very un-even (some readers are MUCH better than the others. Its the same with the audio quality.
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7 people found this helpful
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- MztCB
- 02-25-20
Not unabridged missing several stories
There are a handful of stories from this book not included on this audio production. The carol singers by Josephine bell (which is the story I was looking forward to hearing the most) is nowhere to be found. Even though it’s mentioned in the intro by penzler. Also the Agatha Christie story the Christmas pudding the very first story in the book is also nowhere to be found. As I went through the titles and tracks I found 3-4 other stories like the Santa Claus club is in the book not on here. What a shame. I was very excited for this release.
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42 people found this helpful
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- Laura Judd
- 11-07-23
Enjoying it, but… these aren’t mysteries?
Exactly as the title says. These are not mysteries. Maybe I’m spoiled by Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but it’s not like Doyle’s work is actually within the realm of the “mystery” genre either. I don’t mind a “police serial” where Sherlock lectures Watson (and us) about our stupidity and then proceeds to explain that he noticed a never-before-mentioned drop of maple syrup somewhere that apparently has to do with everything. That’s fine in its way. But these stories, the ones in this book, are not mysteries.
I am still enjoying the book! The stories are good, and the narrators are clearly talented. I would have retitled the book perhaps, as many of these stories have zero mystery at all about them, and could be better labeled as “Christmas oddities” or “incidents” or something. I especially liked the story about the butler coming home for Christmas, but a man finding a radio behind a box of decorations does not a mystery make.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Jeannie
- 11-08-21
Boring!
When I read a Christmas novel, I want it to hold my interest. None of this collection did that for me.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Darlene
- 11-14-22
Disappointed
Some of the stories had foul language in them some of the stories are weren’t very good ,some of the narrators were irritating. I was totally expecting some light Christmas/ even humorous mysteries but got some depressing annoying stories .
Even from a author I liked.
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