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Duncan Maclain Mystery
Murder for Christmas - Volume 2
Within these covers are stories for every nasty taste: tales of murder, robbery, kidnapping, and espionage. They’ll help to make the season bright.
Merry Christmas. And God help us, every one.
Contents: Death on the air / Ngaio Marsh — Mr. Big / Woody Allen — Cambric tea / Marjorie Bowen — A terrible night / Anton Chekhov — Christmas is for cops / Edward D. Hoch — The butler’s Christmas Eve / Mary Roberts Rinehart — Blind man’s hood / Carter Dickson — Silent night / Baynard Kendrick — Markheim / Robert Louis Stevenson — Dancing Dan’s Christmas / Damon Runyon — The necklace of pearls / Dorothy L. Sayers — A Chaparral Christmas gift / O. Henry — The stolen Christmas box / Lillian de la Torre — Christmas party / Rex Stout — Ring out, wild bells / D. B. Wyndham-Lewis
Merry Christmas. And God help us, every one.
Contents: Death on the air / Ngaio Marsh — Mr. Big / Woody Allen — Cambric tea / Marjorie Bowen — A terrible night / Anton Chekhov — Christmas is for cops / Edward D. Hoch — The butler’s Christmas Eve / Mary Roberts Rinehart — Blind man’s hood / Carter Dickson — Silent night / Baynard Kendrick — Markheim / Robert Louis Stevenson — Dancing Dan’s Christmas / Damon Runyon — The necklace of pearls / Dorothy L. Sayers — A Chaparral Christmas gift / O. Henry — The stolen Christmas box / Lillian de la Torre — Christmas party / Rex Stout — Ring out, wild bells / D. B. Wyndham-Lewis
336 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published December 1, 1988
5 people are currently reading
105 people want to read
About the author
Gahan Wilson
283 books50 followersGahan Wilson was an American author, cartoonist and illustrator known for his cartoons depicting horror-fantasy situations.
Wilson's cartoons and illustrations are drawn in a playfully grotesque style, and have a dark humor that is often compared to the work of The New Yorker cartoonist and Addams Family creator Charles Addams. But while both men sometimes feature vampires, graveyards and other traditional horror elements in their work, Addams's cartoons tended to be more gothic, reserved and old-fashioned, while Wilson's work is more contemporary, gross, and confrontational, featuring atomic mutants, subway monsters, and serial killers. It could be argued that Addams's work was probably meant to be funny without a lot of satirical intent, while Wilson often has a very specific point to make.
His cartoons and prose fiction have appeared regularly in Playboy, Collier's Weekly, The New Yorker and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. For the last he also wrote some movie and book reviews. He has been a movie review columnist for The Twilight Zone Magazine and a book critic for Realms of Fantasy magazine.
His comic strip Nuts, which appeared in National Lampoon, was a reaction against what he saw as the saccharine view of childhood in strips like Peanuts. His hero The Kid sees the world as a dark, dangerous and unfair place, but just occasionally a fun one too.
Wilson also wrote and illustrated a short story for Harlan Ellison's anthology Again, Dangerous Visions. The "title" is a black blob, and the story is about an ominous black blob that appears on the page, growing at an alarming rate, until... He has contributed short stories to other publications as well; "M1" and "The Zombie Butler" both appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and were reprinted in Gahan Wilson's Cracked Cosmos.
Additionally, Gahan Wilson created a computer game titled Gahan Wilson's The Ultimate Haunted House, in conjunction with Byron Preiss. The goal is to collect 13 keys in 13 hours from the 13 rooms of a house, by interacting in various ways with characters (such as a two-headed monster, a mad scientist, and a vampiress), objects, and the house itself.
He received the World Fantasy Convention Award in 1981, and the National Cartoonist Society's Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.
Gahan Wilson is the subject of a feature length documentary film, Gahan Wilson: Born Dead, Still Weird, directed by Steven-Charles Jaffe.
Wilson's cartoons and illustrations are drawn in a playfully grotesque style, and have a dark humor that is often compared to the work of The New Yorker cartoonist and Addams Family creator Charles Addams. But while both men sometimes feature vampires, graveyards and other traditional horror elements in their work, Addams's cartoons tended to be more gothic, reserved and old-fashioned, while Wilson's work is more contemporary, gross, and confrontational, featuring atomic mutants, subway monsters, and serial killers. It could be argued that Addams's work was probably meant to be funny without a lot of satirical intent, while Wilson often has a very specific point to make.
His cartoons and prose fiction have appeared regularly in Playboy, Collier's Weekly, The New Yorker and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. For the last he also wrote some movie and book reviews. He has been a movie review columnist for The Twilight Zone Magazine and a book critic for Realms of Fantasy magazine.
His comic strip Nuts, which appeared in National Lampoon, was a reaction against what he saw as the saccharine view of childhood in strips like Peanuts. His hero The Kid sees the world as a dark, dangerous and unfair place, but just occasionally a fun one too.
Wilson also wrote and illustrated a short story for Harlan Ellison's anthology Again, Dangerous Visions. The "title" is a black blob, and the story is about an ominous black blob that appears on the page, growing at an alarming rate, until... He has contributed short stories to other publications as well; "M1" and "The Zombie Butler" both appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and were reprinted in Gahan Wilson's Cracked Cosmos.
Additionally, Gahan Wilson created a computer game titled Gahan Wilson's The Ultimate Haunted House, in conjunction with Byron Preiss. The goal is to collect 13 keys in 13 hours from the 13 rooms of a house, by interacting in various ways with characters (such as a two-headed monster, a mad scientist, and a vampiress), objects, and the house itself.
He received the World Fantasy Convention Award in 1981, and the National Cartoonist Society's Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.
Gahan Wilson is the subject of a feature length documentary film, Gahan Wilson: Born Dead, Still Weird, directed by Steven-Charles Jaffe.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
December 16, 2025
First reading: December 2012 to January 2013 - 4 stars:
Great fun! Spans the gamut from Chekhov and Robert Louis Stevenson to Damon Runyon, Rex Stout, O.Henry and Woody Allen.
Second reading: December 2022 to January 2023 - 2.5 stars
I don't know if this will count as last year's book or this year's book. It looks like I read it at the same time back in 2012, in between December and January. This time I was less enchanted with it and have lowered my rating to 2.5 stars. Some of the stories were very good, like A Terrible Night by Chekhov, the spooky Blind Man's Hold by Carter Dickson, Silent Night by Baynard Kendrick, Cambric Tea by Marjorie Bowen and Christmas is for Cops by Edward D. Hoch. Some were either weird or not well done like O'Henry's A Chaparral Christmas Gift (surprisingly bad) and Woody Allen's ridiculous Mr. Big (satire and parody gone wildly astray). Robert Louis Stevenson's tale, Markheim, was boring and long-winded. The rest of the stories were mediocre. Many were published in the early and mid 20th century and I was happy to read some of them by authors who are unknown to me. In between each story was a macabre cartoon by author and cartoonist, Gahan Wilson who published many of his cartoons in The New Yorker. My copy of this book is a small, pocket sized book from the 1980s, so some of the illustrations were washed out. This is a book that put me to sleep on many nights, so I thank it for that!
Great fun! Spans the gamut from Chekhov and Robert Louis Stevenson to Damon Runyon, Rex Stout, O.Henry and Woody Allen.
Second reading: December 2022 to January 2023 - 2.5 stars
I don't know if this will count as last year's book or this year's book. It looks like I read it at the same time back in 2012, in between December and January. This time I was less enchanted with it and have lowered my rating to 2.5 stars. Some of the stories were very good, like A Terrible Night by Chekhov, the spooky Blind Man's Hold by Carter Dickson, Silent Night by Baynard Kendrick, Cambric Tea by Marjorie Bowen and Christmas is for Cops by Edward D. Hoch. Some were either weird or not well done like O'Henry's A Chaparral Christmas Gift (surprisingly bad) and Woody Allen's ridiculous Mr. Big (satire and parody gone wildly astray). Robert Louis Stevenson's tale, Markheim, was boring and long-winded. The rest of the stories were mediocre. Many were published in the early and mid 20th century and I was happy to read some of them by authors who are unknown to me. In between each story was a macabre cartoon by author and cartoonist, Gahan Wilson who published many of his cartoons in The New Yorker. My copy of this book is a small, pocket sized book from the 1980s, so some of the illustrations were washed out. This is a book that put me to sleep on many nights, so I thank it for that!
January 11, 2018
Anthology of short stories set at Christmas time:This 1982 book contains over fifteen short stories from authors as diverse as Chekhov and R. Louis Stevenson to Damon Runyan and O. Henry through Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy Sayers, Mary R. Rinehart and Rex Stout. All are somewhat holiday related and range from charming and sweet to silly to classic whodunits. Gahan Wilson adds his usual macabre touch to black and white cartoons with roughly Christmas themes.
murdered.
murdered.
October 31, 2019
The Holliday season is usually about celebrating your favorite traditions and spending time with family, not dealing with cases of murder. However the poor families in the book, Murder For Christmas by Thomas Godfrey, have to deal with horrendous crimes during the holiday season. This book is set during a time when there was not as many technological advancements, so the crimes are solved the old fashion way. The characters look for clues and consider every possible motive. This mystery novel contains many short intriguing mystery stories that may fit people that enjoy these kinds of books, but may not have the substance some readers are looking for .
The book Murder For Christmas can be very interesting to people that enjoy reading stories that wrap up quickly and do not have a lot of development. However, for people that enjoy a developing mystery, this book is not the best. One of the reasons I enjoyed this book is different detective work in each mystery. All of the stories include the detective looking for clues any way he can, but there is always something that makes the mystery interesting. There’s always a how that adds suspense to the story. For example, in one story it seems as if a man has been killed by just adjusting the radio. These twists keep the reader interested and want to see what happens next in the story. However, one thing that this book lacks is a developed story line. People who like to read one story through the entire book and enjoy reading books that have a lot of characters they might not enjoy this book.
While most people may like ongoing mystery books, those who like short stories may like this one. There is nothing very special about this book, you won’t read it and change how you live your life. However it is not that hard to read and there are some good stories inside of this book. So for people like me who enjoy a good short story it is pretty decent.
The book Murder For Christmas can be very interesting to people that enjoy reading stories that wrap up quickly and do not have a lot of development. However, for people that enjoy a developing mystery, this book is not the best. One of the reasons I enjoyed this book is different detective work in each mystery. All of the stories include the detective looking for clues any way he can, but there is always something that makes the mystery interesting. There’s always a how that adds suspense to the story. For example, in one story it seems as if a man has been killed by just adjusting the radio. These twists keep the reader interested and want to see what happens next in the story. However, one thing that this book lacks is a developed story line. People who like to read one story through the entire book and enjoy reading books that have a lot of characters they might not enjoy this book.
While most people may like ongoing mystery books, those who like short stories may like this one. There is nothing very special about this book, you won’t read it and change how you live your life. However it is not that hard to read and there are some good stories inside of this book. So for people like me who enjoy a good short story it is pretty decent.
January 1, 2018
The stories themselves are really quite good, for the most part. One or two are more modern and thus, somehow, stamped with an air of smarmy self-amazement. I think this is, in part, due to the unfortunate air the editors brought to the introductions before some of the stories. In a particularly telling moment, they complain that Cristie doesn't know how to describe people under thirty. It sounds as if she is accused of being out of touch. Yet within the pages of her included story are several young people well described...particularly the villain. My daughter voiced this and I feel I have to agree: said villain was a materialistic worldly modern-fashion self-idolizing type. Which we came to suspect struck too close for comfort to the sensibilities of the editors of the book. The one character they could relate to was depicted as ridiculous, dangerous, unworthy, and a murdering thief. Zing, Agatha Cristie, zing!
We will return to other series like "Murder Most Cozy" rather than this stuff that has some implicit war against traditions, taste, and civility, and whatever else those whiffs of moody attitude resented. Great stories, sometimes weird spoiled intros. I found it academic, my daughter had hackles up feeling protective of 'her' author Cristie.
My big take away besides good old fashion murder mysteries was the reaction I had to the Gahan Wilson cartoons sprinkled throughout the book. I used to love those very same cartoons- or maybe I just thought I did. I had such poor taste in my youth. I have settled on Charles Addams as the highest form of macabre cartooning there is, when I am in that sort of mood. Wilson...dated, ugly, and trying too hard.
Find the stories elsewhere.
We will return to other series like "Murder Most Cozy" rather than this stuff that has some implicit war against traditions, taste, and civility, and whatever else those whiffs of moody attitude resented. Great stories, sometimes weird spoiled intros. I found it academic, my daughter had hackles up feeling protective of 'her' author Cristie.
My big take away besides good old fashion murder mysteries was the reaction I had to the Gahan Wilson cartoons sprinkled throughout the book. I used to love those very same cartoons- or maybe I just thought I did. I had such poor taste in my youth. I have settled on Charles Addams as the highest form of macabre cartooning there is, when I am in that sort of mood. Wilson...dated, ugly, and trying too hard.
Find the stories elsewhere.
January 22, 2021
A delightful collection of story stories all revolving around the Christmas holiday. A sort of charcuterie for the literary senses. As expected, some of the stories are better than others. Overall, a fun book to read. As a note, many of the stories in volume two are duplicates from the first volume.
January 20, 2018
A mixed bag, but totally enjoyable. It made me nostalgic for my mispent youth when I read this sort of mystery by the bookful.
December 28, 2025
Some stories and narrators were good. Others not so much.
March 5, 2016
This is kind of hard to rate because it's a collection of short stories. Also because some were great and others weren't. It was a nice collection of stories and no two are alike. Some of them are kind of boring but most were either funny, thrilling, or just plain weird. I don't think I have a favorite one but I really like "Back for Christmas" by John Collier. Its really weird, which I loved. But then again all of them are about murder or crime and those two things are always weird.
June 23, 2016
Captain Maclain, a blind man, is the detective.
A six year old boy is kidnapped. His parents receive Audograms to deliver proof of life as well as ransom demands.
There is a murmuring drone on parts of the 'grams as well as on the first ransom demands,which also had a snippet of Bing Crosby's Silent Night. Captain Macclain, having honed his senses other than sight, figures out where the boy is being held.
Where?
A six year old boy is kidnapped. His parents receive Audograms to deliver proof of life as well as ransom demands.
There is a murmuring drone on parts of the 'grams as well as on the first ransom demands,which also had a snippet of Bing Crosby's Silent Night. Captain Macclain, having honed his senses other than sight, figures out where the boy is being held.
Where?
May 5, 2016
There's nothing like the holidays for reading mystery stories. Better yet, reading holiday mystery stories. Amongst standards from Conan Doyle, Rex Stout an offering from Woody Allen can be found.
The pressing needs of the holidays creates openings and opportunity for the criminal element, much to the peril and misfortune of others.
The pressing needs of the holidays creates openings and opportunity for the criminal element, much to the peril and misfortune of others.
December 1, 2015
This is tricky to rate because it is a collection of short stories and some I would give 5 stars to and other zero. So I rated right in the middle. It was fun to read the month of December as my son said when he pointed out the book at the thrift store - two of your favorite things murder mysteries and Christmas.
August 22, 2015
My Rating System:
* couldn't finish, ** wouldn't recommend, *** would recommend, **** would read again, ***** have read again.
March 6, 2014
On Friday 20th December, a week to the day since six year old Ronnie Connatser had been kidnapped from Miss Murray's School, Arnold Cameron, Special Agent in Charge of the New York F.B.I., telephoned early in the morning to make an appointment with Capt. Duncan Maclain.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 27, 2013
Read these every year. There is also a Volume 1. Its nice to read a lot of short stores for the season. Never get bored. Consider them classics.
July 10, 2018
Popsugar: a book with an ugly cover.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews