Christmas Crimes at the Mysterious Bookshop

Each December, the Mysterious Bookshop in New York City commissions a new short story from a crime writer as a holiday gift for its customers, on the condition that the story involve a crime — or the suspicion of one — and take place at least partly inside the bookshop.

This collection, edited by the shop's owner Otto Penzler, gathers thirteen of those stories from contributors including Laura Lippman, Jeffery Deaver, Lyndsay Faye, Ragnar Jónasson, and Thomas Perry, ranging from dark suspense to comic capers, all built around the world's oldest surviving mystery specialty bookstore.