The Crime Warp Advent Calendar: who needs chocolate when you can have a Crime Short Story each Day ( 1st - 13th Dec)

From  the criminally comic to the  nostalgically nefarious, from  raunchy romance  to the decidedly dark, from the criminally classic to the warped word - crime authors of all descriptions form The Crime Warp Advent Calendar -

A Criminal Short Read A Day Christmas Treat.
 Ruth's First Christmas Tree by Elly Griffiths
(Free on Kindle)


Thought I'd start the festive season with a feel good story - and what could be more feel good than Cathbad helping Ruth to decorate an alternative  Christmas tree  whilst Ruth earns his gratitude when she discovers  and returns the tiny piece of The Henge that has gone missing and that Cathbad feels is causing his friend to be ill.  Full of mysticsm.. but why not? - it is Christmas after all

 Christmas Past by Mary Burton
(99p on kindle)
Atouch darker but with loads of romance (sex) and snow... just what Santa ordered!
Nicola Piper's abusive deceased husband continues his tricks from beyond the grave in this psychological thriller

Helsinki Homicide: Christmas On Duty by Jarkko Sipila (77p or (Free on Kindle unlimited)

What better place to spend Christmas than in Finland and what better way to spend Christmas than staking out an armed bank robber – and that’s just what Detective Takamaki finds himself doing when he should be sharing his traditional Christmas Day Sauna with friends.


Four Killing Birds  by Leslie langtry
(99p kindle free on kindle unimited)
Mississippi Bombay comes from a retired family of ‘Robin Hood’  type assassins.  However, Mississippi is given one last ‘hit’ to complete and, being the inventive one in the family, she comes up with an ingeniously novel way to dispose of four evil men on Christmas Eve.




A Christmas Tragedy by Agatha Christie
(69p on kindle)Miss Marple

Classically good Christmas Crime,  A good old Miss Marple Christmas story is like sinking into a comfy chair with a glass of mulled wine and a home- made mince pie.  Miss Marple (my favourite sleuth ever) delivers the double twist right at the end with such aplomb that despite the serious business of murder I indulged myself in a little chuckle.  Took me back over thirty years to when I first read this and I still got as much enjoyment from it.



6 - Geese - a -Laying  (12 Days of Winter) by Stuart Mac Bride (99p fork12 Days book on kindle..  For audio download of 6 geese a laying story - £1.75)
Loads darker, little romance and no mysticism.  With the first sentence including the phrase 'trying not to aggravate her piles and strutting'  you can be sure this is Stuart Macbride at his humerous best.
The Twelve Days of Christmas is a book of 12 short stories - I've selected the one I enjoyed the most.

Christmas is for the Kids by Peter James
(29p Kindle)

This is  an eerily, spooky tale  A haunting story of what could have been in the same vein as The Little Matchstick Girl, by the talented author of the Roy Grace novels.

Happy Frigging Christmas by Cath Bore
(£1.75 Kindle)
As if being called out on Christmas day, missing your mam's roast tatties and an afternoon of Christmas TV isn't bad enough, you discover you're headed to the worst crime scene ever... Happy Frigging Christmas indeed!

From Christmas Is Murder : A Traditional Christmas by Val McDermid
(£1.49 kindle)

The opening line of this short story (so similar to the opening of Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier) immediately flings you back in time to old fashioned traditional Christmasses spent in small all white  (and I don’t mean the snow)middle class villages  with middle upper class attitudes.  A joy of Christie - like nostalgia and a reminder of how society has progressed- loved it!

New!  Edie Kiglatuks Chrismas by MJ McGrath
(Free on kindle)
When the Great Dark hits people disappear with no one noticing.  This is a tale of a crime of passion, and a romantic gesture featuring Edie Kiglatuk.

A Braw Yuletide Baiver by JF Duncan (77p on kindle)
Be warned - You might need a Scottish dictionary for this. Operation Elf is being investigated by Detectives Partridge and Grouse.  Hilarious - I sniggered and snorted my way through this and loved every delicious second of it.

A Christmas Tail by 
TF Muir  (No I didn't misspell it) (free on Kindle)
Feel good, snowy weather, and glad tidings.  DCI Andy Gilchrist is asked by an ex girlfriend friend to find a magic  loner cat called Hamish McHamish that wanders St Andrews at will.  In assisting his friend he manages to reduce the crime in St Andrews and change lives for the better.

Check Out 13th - 25th advent reads posted on 13th December

Don't forget to like The Crime Warp on Facebook