A review by chrissie57
Murder on Christmas Eve: Classic Mysteries for the Festive Season by Ian Rankin, G.K. Chesterton, Cecily Gayford, Lawrence Block, Margery Allingham, Julian Symons, Val McDermid, Ellis Peters, Michael Innes, Marjorie Bowen, John Dickson Carr

2.0

This is the third of the Cecily Gayford edited collections of Christmas crime stories I have read and, fo some reason I found it the most disappointing. Possibly having as close a remit as crimes committed on one particular day is too limiting but I found the ten stories presented here lacklustre at best. It starts with the ubiquitous Trinity Cat by Ellis Peters and ends with the unlikely and uninteresting On Christmas Day in the Morning by Margery Allingham, taking in one of the most boring Father Brown stories ever (so boring I could not remember reading it before, although I must have done) and a cliche ridden effort from a writer called Marjorie Bowen, Cambric Tea.

My favourite story was by Val McDermid A Wife in a Millionbut I have read it several times before and it gains nothing from a Christmas setting - in fact, Christmas doesn't really figure in the story at all and I was a bit lost as to why it was included in a Christmas Eve collection since the day itself is not mentioned at all.