"Everyone knows that Christmas is the season to be jolly--or is it? If there is so much good cheer, human kindness and brotherly love passed around during the holiday, why is it so often the setting for murder? At least of the fictional variety. Why is the Yule so very popular as a backdrop for crime, murder, blood and mayhem? A brief examination of several Christmas mystery novels should be enough to supply anyone with a few 'clues.'

First of all, 'there is no place like home for the holidays'; everyone gathers there for the festivities--husbands, wives, children, in-laws, long-lost aunts and uncles, and, of course, the occasional detective or amateur crime solver. Where better to find a motive than amongst squabbling 'blood' relatives or friends? ...Sometimes it is not the family gathering or the snowbound nature of the frivolities that lends a touch of mystery and murder to the season, however; it's eccentric customs or unexpected events which catapult the characters into a holiday pursuit of crime."

--Patricia J. Fanning