INTRODUCTION Otto PenzlerA Traditional Little Christmas THE ADVENTURE OF THE CHRISTMAS PUDDING Agatha Christie GOLD, FRANKINCENSE AND MURDER Catherine Aird BOXING UNCLEVER Robert Barnard THE PROOF OF THE PUDDING Peter Lovesey THE ADVENTURE OF THE DAUPHIN’S DOLL Ellery Queen MORSE’S GREATEST MYSTERY Colin Dexter MORE THAN FLESH AND BLOOD Susan Moody THE BUTLER’S CHRISTMAS EVE Mary Roberts Rinehart THE TRINITY CAT Ellis PetersA Funny Little Christmas THE BURGLAR AND THE WHATSIT Donald E. Westlake DANCING DAN’S CHRISTMAS Damon Runyon A VISIT FROM ST. NICHOLAS Ron Goulart THE THIEVES WHO COULDN’T HELP SNEEZING Thomas Hardy RUMPOLE AND THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS John Mortimer A REVERSIBLE SANTA CLAUS Meredith NicholsonA Sherlockian Little Christmas A SCANDAL IN WINTER Gillian Linscott THE CHRISTMAS CLIENT Edward D. Hoch THE SECRET IN THE PUDDING BAG & HERLOCK SHOLMES’S CHRISTMAS CASE Peter Todd CHRISTMAS EVE S. C. Roberts THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE Arthur Conan DoyleA Pulpy Little Christmas DEAD ON CHRISTMAS STREET John D. MacDonald CRIME’S CHRISTMAS CAROL Norvell SERENADE TO A KILLER Joseph CommingsAn Uncanny Little Christmas THE HAUNTED CRESCENT Peter Lovesey A CHRISTMAS IN CAMP Edmund Cox THE CHRISTMAS BOGEY Pat Frank THE KILLER CHRISTIAN Andrew Klavan THE GHOST’S TOUCH Fergus Hume A WREATH FOR MARLEY Max Allan CollinsA Scary Little Christmas THE CAROL SINGERS Josephine Bell WAXWORKS Ethel Lina White CAMBRIC TEA Marjorie Bowen THE 74TH TALE Jonathan Santlofer THE UNINNOCENT Bradford Morrow BLUE CHRISTMAS Peter RobinsonA Surprising Little Christmas NOEL, NOEL Barry Perowne DEATH ON CHRISTMAS EVE Stanley Ellin THE CHINESE APPLE Joseph ShearingA Modern Little Christmas AND ALL THROUGH THE HOUSE Ed McBain AN EARLY CHRISTMAS Doug Allyn THE LIVE TREE John Lutz THREE-DOT PO Sara Paretsky MAD DOG Dick LochteA Puzzling Little Christmas SISTER BESSIE Cyril Hare THAT’S THE TICKET Mary Higgins Clark DEATH ON THE AIR Ngaio Marsh THE THIRTEENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS Isaac Asimov THE CHRISTMAS KITTEN Ed Gorman THE SANTA CLAUS CLUB Julian SymonsA Classic Little Christmas THE FLYING STARS G. K. Chesterton CHRISTMAS PARTY Rex Stout THE RAFFLES RELICS E. W. Hornung THE PRICE OF LIGHT Ellis Peters A PRESENT FOR SANTA SAHIB H. R. F. Keating THE CHRISTMAS TRAIN Will Scott MARKHEIM Robert Louis Stevenson A CHAPARRAL CHRISTMAS GIFT O. Henry THE CHOPHAM AFFAIR Edgar Wallace A CHRISTMAS TRAGEDY Agatha Christie

“I REGRET EXCEEDINGLY——” SAID M. Hercule Poirot.He was interrupted. Not rudely interrupted. The interruption was suave, dexterous, persuasive rather than contradictory.“Please don’t refuse offhand, M. Poirot. There are grave issues of State. Your cooperation will be appreciated in the highest quarters.”“You are too kind,” Hercule Poirot waved a hand, “but I really cannot undertake to do as you ask. At this season of the year——”Again Mr. Jesmond interrupted. “Christmas time,” he said, persuasively. “An old-fashioned Christmas in the English countryside.”Hercule Poirot shivered. The thought of the English countryside at this season of the year did not attract him.“A good old-fashioned Christmas!” Mr. Jesmond stressed it.“Me—I am not an Englishman,” said Hercule Poirot. “In my country, Christmas, it is for the children. The New Year, that is what we celebrate.”“Ah,” said Mr. Jesmond, “but Christmas in England is a great institution and I assure you at Kings Lacey you would see it at its best. It’s a wonderful old house, you know. Why, one wing of it dates from the fourteenth century.”Again Poirot shivered. The thought of a fourteenth-century English manor house filled him with apprehension. He had suffered too often in the historic country houses of England. He looked round appreciatively at his comfortable modern flat with its radiators and the latest patent devices for excluding any kind of draught.“In the winter,” he said firmly, “I do not leave London.”“I don’t think you quite appreciate, M. Poirot, what a very serious matter this is.” Mr. Jesmond glanced at his companion and then back at Poirot.