The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories by PD James

I am a great lover of mystery writing of a certain kind. I do not like the more gruesome, graphic novels that are popular today, but give me a cosy mystery, an English village mystery, or a psychological mystery and I am usually quite happy.

I have always loved books and I love reading about books and listening to conversations about books. I get emails about books and download podcasts about books.

In one of those emails several weeks ago, I read that there was a posthumous collection of short stories by PD James about to be published. I like PD James and Christmas whodunits are right up my street, so I clicked right over to the library website, found that it was on order, and added my name to the queue. The other day it came in and I read it yesterday. It was an enjoyable couple of hours!

In the foreword, Val McDermid says that these were stories written for newspapers back in the day when they did that kind of thing. Although the novels of PD James vary in style, these are all English country house mysteries, complete with references to Agatha Christie. James' most well known detective, Adam Dalgliesh appears in a couple of the stories. It is a slim volume (136 pages) with 4 stories in it. They all take place at Christmastime.

I loved this book. With a nice hot cup of tea, it was just the thing for a rainy, chilly, lazy Sunday afternoon at the leading edge of the Christmas season. It is worth picking up if you come across it at your local library or charity shop!

Happy reading!

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