Christmas Stalkings, published in 1991, was the second Christmas short story anthology edited by Charlotte MacLeod. As the subtitle "Tales of Yuletide Murder" suggests, these are all mystery stories. All of the stories in the book appeared in print for the first time in this book. Last Wednesday, I reviewed three of the stories. I have several more stories to talk about today. Here they are:
"Counterfeit Christmas" by Charlotte MacLeod
MacLeod is a Canadian crime fiction writer who has written two series under her own name, and two under a pseudonym, as Alisa Craig. One of her series features Peter Shandy, a professor at Balaclava Agricultural College in rural Massachusetts.
This story also features Peter Shandy, who lives in a faculty dwelling alongside the homes of seven other members of the faculty. Each year at Christmas all of the homes are decorated, and tourists come on campus to enjoy the decorated homes. Food is sold by the students to make money. This year, the campus comptroller, Moira Haskins, finds a counterfeit twenty-dollar bill in the funds from the previous days' sales. The bill has the portrait of President Thorkjeld Svenson on the bill rather than that of President Andrew Jackson. As more counterfeit bills show up the next night, Shandy helps to figure out what is going on and how to deal with it. It is a tame story, but the solution is clever and fun. This story features Peter Shandy's cat, Jane.
"The Running of the Deer" by Reginald Hill
Reginald Hill's most well-known mystery series is his Dalziel and Pascoe series. I have read 14 of the 24 books in that series. The character in this story is Joe Sixmith. At the time this story was published, there were two short stories about Sixsmith. Two years later, in 1993, Hill published the first novel in the Joe Sixsmith series, Blood Sympathy. I haven't read any novels in that series but I have copies of all five of them.
In "The Running of the Deer," Joe Sixsmith is hired to look into "lamping" incidents on an estate in Cumbria. Lamping is using extremely bright lights in hunting, in this case for deer. Joe is invited to stay in a converted barn while he is investigating. I liked this story because events take a surprising sharp turn at the end. And because Sixsmith has a black and white cat that travels with him. And now I am going to get moving on reading the first Joe Sixsmith novel.
"A Political Necessity" by Robert Barnard
Robert Barnard is one of my favorite authors. I have read all of his Perry Trethowan series, most of the Charlie Peace series (which broke off from the Perry Trethowan series), and a lot of his standalone novels. His books are quirky, often have interesting twists, and are generally considered in the cozy sub-genre. They have bite but they are not violent or gritty.
"A Political Necessity" is a story about a politician who has recently gotten a promotion to a position in the Home Office. Immediately he starts planning to kill his wife.
First few sentences in the story:
It must be rare for the first thought of a newly appointed government minister to be: Now is the time to kill my wife. Don’t get me wrong—I’m sure many of my colleagues would like to, with that dull, insistent sort of wishing which will never actually impel them to action, and which is characteristic of second-rate minds. My thought was not If only I could but Now I can.
This is a pretty dark story, but I loved it.
"The Only True Unraveller" by John Malcolm
"Death is the only true unraveller" is a quote from The Gondoliers by Gilbert and Sullivan. This story starts with two men, long time friends, going for a walk on a cold night in December, on Christmas Eve. They are walking through a cemetery near to Quentin Cranbrooks' home. The protagonist is visiting Quentin at Christmas because he has been widowed for two years and has no one to spend Christmas with. The story is atmospheric, the mood gradually gets darker, and the setting is wonderful. If you like Gilbert and Sullivan and/or cemeteries, you might enjoy this story.
"The January Sale Stowaway" by Dorothy Cannell
This story is very cozy. It doesn't truly take place at Christmas but is about the days following Christmas and into January at a time when the main character was alone and lonely. And it also involves a department store Father Christmas who is bitter because he has been accused of theft. I loved the story and was very glad I read it.
The first Christmas anthology edited by MacLeod was Mistletoe Mysteries, published in 1989.
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