These are the crime novels I want to read in December:
Robin Stevens: Cream Buns and Crime, Once Upon a Crime, Mistletoe and Murder (Puffin Books)
I wrote about it recently, that the series Murder Most Unladylike has become one of my new favorites. In the first two volumes listed, we find short stories in which further mysteries are revealed by the girls. Once Upon a Crime is the last, additional volume of the series, which also includes a chronology, with the help of which we can place the investigations in time. Mistletoe and Murder takes place at Christmas, when the two girls spend the holidays at Daisy’s.
Ágnes Mészöly: Drawn murders* (Prae Kiadó 2022)
The Drawn Murders is the ‘continuation’ of the Rókabérc, haláltúra (Fox Hill, Death Tour*), which you have already read about on BogiWrites. Former prosecutor Ágota Szabó has to investigate again, this time after a serial killer who murders men in Budapest and leaves drawings of their actions at the scene. The author signed her book for me at the Book Festival.
Agatha Christie: Marple – Twelve new stories (HarperCollins Publishers 2022)
Miss Marple is investigating again. In the collection of short stories, we can read 12 original short stories by 12 bestselling authors. These stories introduce Jane Marple’s character to a whole new generation. Each author re-imagines Agatha Christie’s Marple through their own unique perspective, while remaining true to the original characteristics of the story and the character. The authors include Leigh Bardugo (Ninth House, Six of Crows), Lucy Foley (The Guest List, The Paris Apartment) and Karen M. McManus (One of Us Is Lying, Two Can Keep a Secret), so the stories promise to be good fun.
Agatha Christie: Christmas Crimes* (Helikon Kiadó 2022)
Christmas cannot pass without Agatha Christie. The writer thought so herself and tried to treat her readers with new stories for Christmas. Recently, several volumes of thematic short stories have been published, which you may have read about before (Midwinter Murder, Midsummer Mysteries, A Deadly Affair), but the Christmas Crimes, although the edition is in the same style as the previous ones, were made specifically for Hungarian readers and were first published in 2019.
*my translations
