Blast from the Past – Great Christmas Mysteries in this reprint from 1991

Christmas Stalkings: Tales of Yuletide Murder

Collected By: Charlotte MacLeod

Rating: 5 of 5

“Christmas Stalkings” is a reprint of a collection of Christmas mysteries which was first published in 1991. The authors were some of my favorites then and still remain so today, even though a few of them have since passed away. I had not read these before (back when, I preferred full length mysteries to short stories) but it is possible that others may have read it when it was published previously.

The 12 stories are a wide variety of mysteries collected from various authors, with the sleuths solving everything from whodunnit to the background of a mystery guest. My favorite story was by the late Elizabeth Peters. I’ve been a huge fan of hers for many decades under all of her various pseudonyms. That this story featured herself in the story made it all the more humorous.

Some references in stories were a bit dated (for instance, referring to a word processor in the Elizabeth Peters wasn’t to a software program but instead a large machine with screen and keyboard before word-processing software became available on PCs.) Still, we have gotten used to this in much older works. I hazard a guess that any jarring reference to outdated technology in books/stories will mellow into same mind-frame we use in reading much older works.

I was provided a digital advance reader copy of this book by the publisher via Netgalley.