Crooks, Crimes, and Christmas

by Susan Slater, Ed Gorman, Irene Marcuse

CROOKS, CRIMES AND CHRISTMAS This original collection from Worldwide Mystery brings four festive tales of foul play...a perfect way for mystery enthusiasts to celebrate the holiday season.

Genres: Mystery

378 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 1, 2003

About the author

Susan has lived in the Southwest for 32 years. The enchantment of New Mexico comes alive in her Ben Pecos series - The Pumpkin Seed Massacre, Yellow Lies, Thunderbird, and A Way to the Manger.

Reviews

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really enjoyable collection of Christmas-related mysteries. Each of the stories was very different -- a kidnapped Native American teen in New Mexico, a murder plot involving a high school reunion at Christmas in 1950s Iowa, a baby "sold" by a crackhead to a social worker, and a wedding ring found inside a Christmas goose being prepared for cooking. It was also apparent that each of the stories involved characters who would be familiar to the regular readers of each of the authors, with references to other cases, but I felt that each of them was able to stand alone. The characters were all interesting and the mysteries were all well-done as far as clues and resolutions. I would happily read any books by any of these authors that I came across in the future, and will keep my eye out for more by Susan Slater and Michael Jahn, as the first and last stories were my favorite.

[Victoria Martin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I will never read anything else by the authors in this compilation. This might have been four of the most dull murder mysteries that I have ever read. They weren’t poorly written or anything, just super bland plots and uninteresting characters. Didn’t connect at all with any of the stories and I didn’t even feel a desire to figure out “whodunnit”, especially with the last two tales.

[Jerrilynn Lilyblade · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining collection of holiday stories

[Ted · Rating 2 out of 5]

A Way to the Manger - 1 star
The Santa Murders - 2 stars
What Child Is This - 1 star
The Gold Band - 3 stars

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I almost gave up reading this book after finishing the first story - 'A Way to the Manger'. I found it hard to get into the characters. Seemed like I was missing a lot of background information about the relationships involved. There really was not a mystery per say and the plot itself was not that entertaining. But I stuck it out and read the next story which was much more interesting.

I actually enjoyed all of the last 3 stories about equally. Each was interesting in it's own way.

I really liked the main characters in all 3 of the stories and would not mind picking up some of the series books that they are in.

Overall an interesting introduction to some new authors.