12 Gripping Christmas Thrillers & Novellas for the Season

Twelve clues. Twelve keys. Twelve days of Christmas. But how many will die before the Twelfth Night?

The annual Christmas Game is afoot at Endgame House, the Armitages’ grand family home. This year’s prize is to die for–deeds to the house itself–but Lily Armitage has no intention of returning. She hasn’t been back to Endgame since her mother died, twenty-one years ago, and she has no intention of claiming the house that haunts her dreams.

Until, that is, she receives a letter from her aunt promising that the game’s riddles will give her the keys not only to Endgame, but to its darkest secrets, including the identity of her mother’s murderer.

Now, Lily must compete with her estranged cousins for the twelve days of Christmas. The snow is thick, the phone lines are down, and no one is getting in or out. Lily will have to keep her wits about her because not everyone is playing fair, and there’s no telling how many will die before the winner is declared.

Harry is a novelist on the brink of stardom; Edward, her husband-to-be, is seemingly perfect. In love and freshly engaged, their bliss is interrupted by the reemergence of the Holbecks, Edward’s eminent family, and the embodiment of American old money. For years, they’ve dominated headlines and pulled society’s strings, and Edward left them all behind to forge his own path. But there are eyes and ears everywhere. It was only a matter of time before they were pulled back in . . .

After all, even though he’s long severed ties with his family, Edward is set to inherit it all. Harriet is drawn to the glamour and sophistication of the Holbecks, who seem to welcome her with open arms, but everything changes when she meets Robert, the inescapably magnetic head of the family. At their first meeting, Robert slips Harry a cassette tape, revealing a shocking confession that sets the inevitable game in motion.

What is it about Harry that made him give her that tape? A thing that has the power to destroy everything? As she ramps up her quest for the truth, she must endure the Holbecks’ savage Christmas traditions, all the while knowing that losing this game could be deadly.

A spine-tingling psychological thriller about a woman who, after taking in her dying, alcoholic mother, begins to suspect demonic possession is haunting her family.

Alison has never been a fan of Christmas. But with it right around the corner and her husband busily decorating their cozy Vermont home, she has no choice but to face it. Then she gets the call.

Mavis, Alison’s estranged mother, has been diagnosed with cancer and has only weeks to live. She wants to spend her remaining days with her daughter, son-in-law, and two granddaughters. But Alison grew up with her mother’s alcoholism and violent abuse and is reluctant to unearth these traumatic memories. Still, she eventually agrees to take in Mavis, hoping that she and her mother could finally heal and have the relationship she’s always dreamed of.

But when mysterious and otherworldly things start happening upon Mavis’s arrival, Alison begins to suspect her mother is not quite who she seems. And as the holiday festivities turn into a nightmare, she must confront just how far she is willing to go to protect her family.

Forty-eight hours until Christmas, Jessica Kane wakes up with blurred vision, ears ringing, and in excruciating pain. A gash in her head and blood running down her face, the last thing she remembers is going for a run, and something or someone hitting her in the head. It doesn’t take her long to realize she is trapped in an unknown, deserted town with five other strangers who share similar stories of being attacked and stranded there.

Unsure why and how they got there, she knows one thing for certain: she has to find a way out. That becomes nearly impossible when someone is meticulously orchestrating their deaths, one by one, and the only thing Jessica can do is watch the life leave their eyes.

The fenced-in town is the killer’s very own playground, and there’s nowhere left to hide… she better watch out because she could be next.

This Christmas, the season of joy turns into a terrifying game of revenge.

A man dressed as Santa is found murdered and shoved up a chimney—a meticulously staged scene straight out of a nightmare. Days later, another murder staged like a twisted Christmas display is discovered.

With every gruesome crime comes a taunting Christmas card bearing a hand-drawn snowflake… delivered directly to PI Martina Monroe’s door.

Martina, fearless and unyielding, teams up with homicide detective Kate Maddox and crime reporter Natalie Sloane, whose articles on real-life Christmas tragedies have begun inspiring the killer’s next acts—a sure sign he isn’t just reading her stories. He’s watching her.

As the killer’s motives come into focus, one thing becomes terrifyingly this isn’t just revenge. It’s a message.

Now, with the clock ticking toward December 25th, Martina and Kate must unmask a killer before the holiday turns deadly for them all.

Her Silent Night is a special holiday installment in the Martina Monroe series. It’s a dark, chilling standalone Christmas thriller that is perfect for longtime fans and new readers alike.

All she wants for Christmas is… payback.

After their mother is left with life-changing injuries from being attacked in their home, sisters Violet and Rose react very differently. Rose grows up seemingly well-balanced, while Violet —who witnessed the Christmas Eve assault—can think of nothing but vengeance.

When a freak accident brings Violet face-to-face with the intruder, fifteen years of torture culminate in the opportunity for cold, hard revenge. But while Violet worms her way into the attacker’s life, Rose discovers their father is not the man they thought they knew.

As Rose scrambles to uncover the secrets and lies at the heart of their family, not all the pieces of the puzzle fit—and she soon realises that the reason for their mother’s fate may be closer to home…

…too close.

This Christmas, truth is the most dangerous gift of all.

This tense psychological thriller will have readers guessing until the very end. When Neil and his wife, Sacha, are forced to spend the holidays with her family, tensions quickly rise. Neil has already been struggling with depression and drinking, and the three days spent in a confined space with an excess of alcohol prove to be a recipe for disaster. With long-held resentments between family members already simmering, it looks like this could be more than just one family member’s last Christmas.

An American art student in London is invited to join a classmate for the holidays at Starvewood Hall, her family’s Cotswold manor house. But behind the holly and pine boughs, secrets are about to unravel, revealing this seemingly charming English village’s grim history.

Ashley Smith, an American art student in London for her junior year, was planning on spending Christmas alone, but a last-minute invitation from fellow student Emma Chapman brought her to Starvewood Hall, the country residence of the Chapman family. The Cotswold manor house, festooned in pine boughs and crammed with guests for Christmas week, is a dream come true for Ashley. She is mesmerized by the cozy, firelit house, the large family, and the charming village of Clevemoor, but also by Adam Chapman, Emma’s aloof and handsome brother.

But Adam is being investigated by the local police over the recent brutal slaying of a girl from the village, and there is a mysterious stranger who haunts the woodland path between Starvewood Hall and the local pub. Ashley begins to wonder what kind of story she is actually inhabiting. Is she in a grand romance? A gothic tale? Or has she wandered into something far more sinister and terrifying than she’d ever imagined?

Over thirty years later, the events of that horrific week are revisited, along with a diary from that time. What began in a small English village in 1989 reaches its ghostly conclusion in modern-day New York, many Christmas seasons later.

Instead of presents this Christmas, one true crime podcaster is opening up a cold case…

When true crime podcaster Harley Granger drifts into Madeline Martin’s bookshop days before Christmas, he seems intent on digging up a past that Madeline would much rather forget.

Granger’s work has earned him fame and wealth – and some serious criticism for his various unethical practices. Granger also has a lot of questions about the night Madeline was left for dead, the only surviving victim of killer Evan Handy.

Handy, who also murdered Madeline’s best friend and is suspected in the disappearance of two local sisters, has been in jail for a decade. Since then, though, three other young women have gone missing in similar circumstances. Is the true predator still out there somewhere?

As Christmas approaches and a blizzard bears down, Madeline must confront the past to answer questions that have haunted her since that day. Is the truth more terrible than she ever imagined?

Coupling a picturesque, cosy setting with a deeply unsettling and suspenseful plot, Christmas Presents is a chilling seasonal tale that can be enjoyed all year long.

Molly Gray has always loved the holidays. When Molly was a child, her gran went to great lengths to make the season merry and bright, full of cherished traditions. The first few Christmases without Gran were hard on Molly, but this year, her beloved boyfriend and fellow festive spirit, Juan Manuel, is intent on making the season Molly’s most joyful yet.

But when a Secret Santa gift exchange at the Regency Grand Hotel raises questions about who Molly can and cannot trust, she dives headfirst into solving her most consequential—and personal—mystery yet. Molly has a bad feeling about things, and she starts to wonder: has she yet again mistaken a frog for a prince?

A heartwarming, magical story about the true spirit of the season, The Mistletoe Mystery reminds us that love is the greatest mystery of all.

Eighteen festive stories of murder and mystery in the grand tradition of Christmas crime fiction, from the masters of the genre.

The award-winning Marie O’Regan and Paul Kane invite you to a festive gathering of bestselling, critically acclaimed, and award-winning writers in tribute to classic, British period crime stories. From locked room mysteries on Christmas Eve to devilish whodunits and tales of simmering rivalries unfolding at the dinner table, these thirteen original seasonal tales will delight and shock at every twist and turn. So, unwrap the presents, pour a mug of mulled wine, and follow the bloodstained footprints through the freshly fallen snow as winter descends and darkness lurks in the shadows.