Plenty of mysteries are set during the holidays, since it’s easier to commit a crime when joyful distractions abound and opportunity is ripe, and for ironists the contrast between merriment and murder is irresistible. Two top mystery novelists have gone all in with these ideas this season, producing Christmas novellas that provide welcome escape for stress-shredded minds.
Janice Hallett made a big splash with her first novel, The Appeal, by updating the English-village cozy with a mischievous blend of satire and crime. She returns to that book’s village of Lockwood with The Christmas Appeal, where the beleaguered Fairway Players amateur theatrical group is about to stage its Christmas pantomime, Jack and the Beanstalk. (This wacky British tradition, usually shortened to panto, is based on a fairy or folk tale, and involves singing, dancing, slapstick comedy, drag, and audience participation—a safe space for even the most buttoned-up Brit to unleash their inner Dame Edna.)
