Competitions

Sam Christer: Christmas in Foster Care I love Christmas. Adore it. Would slay mercilessly any Grinch I caught trying to steal it. I start getting hopelessly excited about it long before the clocks are altered, before the spectres of darkness crowd the windows around four in the afternoon. As a child, Christmas was the one […]

Martyn Waites: The Box of Delights I must admit, I’m not big on Christmas rituals, or rituals at any time of year, apart from a horror film marathon every Halloween; but there’s one that I do every year. I watch The Box of Delights. For those of you who haven’t seen it – and there […]

Louise Penny: The Huron Carol If you’ve read How The Light Gets In you know it’s set at Christmas and the old song, The Huron Carol, plays a role. It’s one of my favorite carols.  It’s purely Canadian, written in the 1640s by the Jesuit missionary Jean de Brébeuf. He wrote it in Huron, for […]

Patrick Redmond: Wishing You a Scary Christmas One of my favourite Christmas memories occurred on Christmas Eve when I was about eight. I was sharing a room with some cousins and we were sent to bed despite our pleas to be allowed to stay up and watch a ghost story on television. Fortunately another cousin […]

Chris Brookmyre: Alternative Christmas Playlist For my seasonal contribution, I present my alternative Christmas playlist: three tracks that should be playing in every living room, restaurant and pub instead of those mindless atrocities by Cliff Richard and Shakin’ Stevens. Manic Street Preachers: ‘Christmas Ghost’ Boasting a Seventies glam-rock stomp and bursting into life with a […]

C. J. Lyons: Homicidal Holidays As a former pediatric ER doctor turned thriller writer, I love talking about the really important things in life: namely, the best ways to kill someone and get away with it. So, given the winter holiday season, I thought I’d throw out a few ideas on Homicidal Holiday Hazards.   […]

  Sara Blaedel: A Christmas Q&A   What books do you give as gifts? I like to see myself as an ambassador for the fantastic crime writers I have met on my travels around the world, so I always give books by my crime fiction colleagues as gifts. I also enjoy giving classics; this year […]

Stephen Booth: Christmas . . . in a Cave How about a Christmas celebration in a cave? It’s nothing unusual – at least, not in the Peak District town of Castleton. Every year, visitors enjoy carols and brass band music inside Peak Cavern, a cave system known to generations of local people as the home […]

Mark Billingham’s Cheery Christmas Message Christmas is of course a time of peace, goodwill and socks to all men. But it’s also the time when a man’s mind turns to murder. All right then, this man. OK, so this man who happens to be a crime writer and enjoys thinking up creative ways to dispose […]

  The fifteenth day of our Crime Vault advent calendar brings you a recipe idea from our very own Jade. This recipe is fun to make for kids and grown-ups alike and will impress Christmas visitors more than the usual mince pie!  (P.S. No reindeer were harmed in the making of this recipe.)  Crime Vault Christmas […]

 Away in a Manger by Alex Marwood ‘Have you got a receipt?’ The young woman shakes her head, bounces the baby strapped to her chest with an awkwardness that suggests that this might well be her first go at motherhood. It’s a very small baby. Can’t be more than a few days old. His head […]

KILLER COCKTAILS What with all that going out and partying in December you’re sure to need a morning-after pick-me-up at some point and, for me, the best solution is a Bloody Christmas Mary! This is basically a Bloody Mary with a little extra festive decoration. Here’s my recipe if you fancy giving it a go. […]