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~ FRIDAY COZY MYSTERY FEATURE ~
-- 'HOLIDAYS & HOMICIDES: A SHORT STORY
COLLECTION ' --
CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS ARE LISTED BELOW
Holidays & Homicides: A Short Story Collection
by Rosalie Spielman, Catherine Bruns, Gin Jones, Annie McEwen, Lena Gregory, Jennifer Fischetto, Anne Marie Stoddard, Kelly Rey, Misty Simon, Christine Knapp, Jamie L. Adams, Erica Wynters
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About Holidays & Homicides
Holidays & Homicides: A Short Story Collection
Holiday Cozy Mysteries
Publisher : Gemma Halliday Publishing
Publication date : December 2, 2025
Print length : 419 pages
ASIN : B0FSNH17GM
From twelve USA Today bestselling and award winning authors, comes a short story collection stuffed full of mirthful mysteries, clever criminals, and holiday cheer! These short holiday bites are perfect for enjoying between rounds of wrapping or binge-reading over a cup of cocoa!
Stories include:
A Hometown Christmas Caper (Hometown Mysteries)
by Rosalie Spielman
Gossip, Guilt & Gingerbread (Coffee & Cream Café Mysteries)
by Lena Gregory
Larceny & Twinkle Lights (Jamie Winters Mysteries)
by Kelly Rey
Holidays & Heists (Aloha Lagoon Mysteries)
by Anne Marie Stoddard
Ornaments, Surprise & Dead Guys (Gianna Mancini Mysteries)
by Jennifer Fischetto
It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Mischief (Northwoods Mysteries)
by Annie McEwen
You Can't see the Forest for the Christmas Trees (Modern Midwife Mysteries)
by Christine Knapp
Jingle Bell Rocker (Sunny Side Up Mysteries)
by Misty Simon
Holly, Handcuffs, and Hearsay (Camelot Flowers Mysteries)
by Erica Wynters
Search for the Silent Santa (Ghost Town Mysteries)
by Jamie L. Adams
Nothing But Truffle (Cookies & Chance Mysteries)
by Catherine Bruns
A Heartland Homicide (Bourbon B&BMysteries)
by Gin Jones
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Author Guest Post
by Rosalie Spielman
How do we make a Christmas
story a mystery without ruining the Christmas feel?
As a
writer, I see my job as providing an entertaining escape. In order to make a
story firmly settled into a place in time like a holiday, details and the use
of language matter. I’ve written a couple full-length holiday-themed murder
mysteries, and found the key is to weave in small mentions of the holidays
throughout. It’s not a Christmas murder, per se, but a murder that happens to
occur during the holidays.
In Home
for the Homicides (Hometown Mysteries #4), Tessa Treslow, an Army retiree,
investigates when the businesses in her small Idaho town of New Oslo are being
vandalized. Then the troublemaking escalates into violence and murder. In order
to keep the Christmassy feel, I made sure people were wearing holiday-themed
clothes and jewelry, mention the décor, weather, greetings, and foods. A specific
example to this story is the victim is running the Christmas tree lot. I ended
with Christmas morning after the perpetrator was caught.
In the
upcoming Hawaiian Holiday Homicide (Aloha Lagoon mysteries #26), Nelly
O’Hare is preparing not only for her first Christmas in Aloha Lagoon, but also
the wedding of her best friend, Kiki Hepburn. I had to make sure that the
wedding as well as the holiday were not forgotten when the murder occurs. Specific
details were to have Auntie Akamai making wedding leis for Kiki’s wedding, and
the wedding was rained out with the typical wintertime rains. (I’ve been to
Hawaii during Christmas and definitely remember the rain!)
For the
Gemma Halliday Publishing Holiday anthology, Holidays & Homicides, I
took a slightly different approach to holiday crime. I used the Hometown
Mysteries setting and characters for my story, A Hometown Christmas Caper, so Tessa and her Aunt Edna are
investigating again. Frankly, I was in the mood to write light and fun, so
there isn’t a murder in my story, which is a first for me, short story or novel.
Instead, the businesses in New Oslo are having holiday décor stolen off the
small trees each has out front and Tessa and Aunt Edna are asked to figure out
who is taking them, and why. And what were those items?
"We
watched her prance away before checking out the paper she gave us. We huddled
our heads together and looked at the list, sort of in chart form.
The
High Octane Café – Five golden canning rings
New
Oslo Library – Four call number birds
A
Piece of Quiet – Three finch/wrens
Good
Hair Salon - Two Santa gloves
Historical
Society - A cartridge wreath in a bare tree - with fairy lights and tinsel
Aunt
Edna and I exchanged a long look.
"I
don’t even know what half of those things are," said Aunt Edna.
"Well, I’m guessing we’ll
understand once we take a look." I swigged down the rest of my peppermint
mocha and waited while Aunt Edna finished hers."
In order
to impart the holiday feel for the story, I used a common, light-hearted
Christmas carol, but also specific words - the waitress "pranced"
away, which brings to mind Santa’s reindeer Prancer. And then Tessa is drinking
a peppermint mocha, which is my favorite winter drink. Both of those smaller details
add to the Christmassy feel.
And
while the smaller details help establish the setting in time and place, using
the Christmas carol puts it firmly in the holiday genre. Did reading those
lines make you hum the song, just a little? If so, my job here is done!
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About the Authors
Catherine Bruns is the USA Today bestselling author of the Cookies & Chance mysteries. She lives in New York with her very patient husband, three sons, and several spoiled pets. Catherine has a B.A. in English and is a former newspaper reporter and press release writer. She also writes the Italian Chef mysteries, Cindy York real estate and Carrie Jorgenson (Aloha Lagoon) culinary series. Her book, For Sale by Killer, won the 2019 Daphne du Maurier award for Mainstream Mystery/Suspense.
Get a free ebook when you sign up for Catherine's newsletter at https://www.catherinebruns.net/contact
Please feel free to connect with her on social media as well:
facebook.com/Catherine-Bruns-Books-218522341685434
twitter.com/@writesmystery
Lena Gregory is the author of the Bay Island Psychic Mysteries, which take place on a small island between the north and south forks of Long Island, New York, and the All-Day Breakfast Café Mysteries, which are set on the outskirts of Florida’s Ocala National Forest.
Lena grew up in a small town on the south shore of eastern Long Island. She recently relocated to Florida with her husband, three kids, son-in-law, and four dogs. Her hobbies include spending time with family, reading, jigsaw puzzles, and walking. Her love for writing developed when her youngest son was born and didn’t sleep through the night. She works full time as a writer and a freelance editor and is a member of Sisters in Crime.
To learn more about Lena and her latest writing endeavors, visit her Website: http://www.lenagregory.com/
Sign Up for her Newsletter:https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/492177/95264614748521780/share
Rosalie Spielman is a mother, veteran, and retired military spouse. She was thrilled to discover that she could make other people laugh with her writing and finds joy in giving people a humorous escape from the real world. Her cozy mystery novels are set in locales that have chickens—such as sunny Kauai and rural Idaho—writing for the multi-author Aloha Lagoon mystery series and her own Hometown Mystery series.
She currently lives in Maryland with her husband in a rapidly emptying nest. For more information on her books or to subscribe to her newsletter, go to www.rosalie-spielman-author.com, follow her Facebook page (Rosalie Spielman author), or join her Facebook group (You Know The Spiel). Rosalie strives to provide you a cozy escape...one page at a time.
Website:www.Rosalie-Spielman-author.com
Bookshop storefront: https://bookshop.org/shop/YouKnowTheSpiel
Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Rosalie-Spielman/author/B09FP95WC8
Facebook author page: Rosalie Spielman author https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063501963689
Facebook readers group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/YouKnowTheSpiel
From her first discovery of Nancy Drew, USA Today bestselling author Kelly Rey has had a lifelong love for mystery and tales of things that go bump in the night, especially those with a twist of humor. Through many years of working in the court reporting and closed captioning fields, writing has remained a constant. If she's not in front of a keyboard, she can be found reading, working out or avoiding housework. She's a member of Sisters in Crime and lives in the Northeast with her husband and a menagerie of very spoiled pets.
Gin Jones is a retired lawyer who specialized in ghost-writing for other lawyers. She prefers to write her own books, though, since she doesn't have to worry that her sense of humor might get her thrown into jail for contempt of court. In her spare time, Gin makes quilts, grows garlic, and advocates for patients with rare disorders.
Website:https://www.ginjones.com/
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/ginjones.bsky.social
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ginjonesmysteries/
Jamie L. Adams fell in love with books at an early age. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott opened her imagination and sparked a dream to be a writer. She wrote her first book as a school project in 6th grade.
A graduate of the Institute of Children's Literature as well as member of American Christian Fiction Writers, The Writing Desk and several critique groups, she spends most of her time writing, reading or learning more about the craft near to her heart.
The parents of three very active children, she and her husband live in the Ozarks surrounded by forest and wildlife.
Erica Wynters started as most authors do - as an avid reader. Cozy mysteries and romantic suspense offered her just the escape she was looking for! The combination of great love and great danger keeps her turning pages late into the night.
Now they keep her writing pages late into the night. Her goal is always two-fold: help you fall in love with love all over again and take you on an adventure that will keep you on the edge of your seat!
Falling in love has never been so fun...or so dangerous!
Misty Simon always wanted to be a storyteller…preferably behind a Muppet. Animal was number one, followed closely by Sherlock Hemlock… Since that dream didn’t come true, she began writing stories to share her world with readers, one laugh at a time.
Touching people’s hearts and funny bones are two of her favorite things, and she hopes everyone at least snickers in the right places when reading her books. She lives with her husband in Central Pennsylvania, where she is hard at work on her next novel or three.
Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/misty.simon.18
Instagram: @mistysimonwrites
Tiktok: @mistysimonwrites
Website:http://www.mistysimon.com
Christine Knapp practiced as a nurse-midwife for many years. A writer of texts and journal articles, she is now thrilled to combine her love of midwifery and mysteries as a fiction author. Christine currently narrates books for the visually impaired. A dog lover, she lives near Boston. Visit thoughtfulmidwife.com
Website https://www.thoughtfulmidwife.com/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/christine.w.knapp
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/maevecw/
Xhttps://x.com/chriswknapp
Blueskyhttps://bsky.app/profile/maevecwk.bsky.social
Annie McEwen is the author of the Northwoods Mysteries Series, set amongst the tall pines and sparkling lakes of northern Wisconsin where she spent vacations as a kid. Because of a sweet love story between her youngest sister and a local Wisconsin boy (storyline idea!), she’s still been able to keep on visiting the beautiful place that means so much to her.
Annie and her husband are empty nesters—their son is married to his high school sweetheart, and their daughter is married with two adorable toddler boys. Being grandparents is definitely the best gig ever! They also have four fur babies who just might make some special appearances in Annie's books.
When Annie isn’t writing, playing with her grandsons, or tackling trash-to-treasure projects, she works as a radiological technologist, aka, she takes pictures of bones...you can’t hide much from her! Writing, though, is her first love.
Jennifer Fischetto is the USA TODAY Bestselling author of the Gianna Mancini paranormal cozy mystery series, as well as a dozen other titles. She writes family-centric murder mysteries and things that go bump in the night.
A lover of rainstorms and snow, she prefers fiction over reality and longs to live in a world where French fries grow on trees, chocolate appears whenever desired, and every day is October. She watches too much television and movies, which fuel her never-ending supply of plot ideas, and is a rabid fan of suspense, horror, and everything supernatural.
You can learn about her next book by subscribing to her newsletter at https://jenniferfischetto.com/newsletter/
Visit Jennifer at:
Website:http://jenniferfischetto.com/
Bluesky:https://bsky.app/profile/jenniferfischetto.com
Anne Marie Stoddard is a USA TODAY bestselling author and former Amazon Mover & Shaker. She writes supernatural suspense and humorous cozy mysteries with an edge. Her Amelia Grace Mystery series, inspired by her years working in radio, and concert venues and music festivals across the U.S., has won several awards, including the 2012 AJC Decatur Book Festival Writing Contest, the 2013 Book Junkie's Choice Award for Best Debut Fiction Novel, and nominations for the 2014 & 2016 RONE Awards Best Mystery/Thriller Category.
Aside from writing, Anne Marie loves her husband and their dog, college football, hula hoops, music, coffee, and anything pumpkin-flavored.
For more details about Anne Marie's upcoming projects, giveaways, and more, visit her online and subscribe to her newsletter at http://www.amstoddardbooks.com/.
Connect with Anne Marie on social media!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AmStoddardBooks
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AMStoddardBooks
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