This is, as you can tell from the title, a collection of mystery/crime short stories.
In general, I like the stories in this book, but a few of the noir stories, like "There's Only One Father Christmas, Right?" "Martin," and "Queen of the Hill" were pretty dark and weren't favorites. There were other dark stories, like "Red Christmas," with its flashback to wartime Korea, that weren't quite as bad. Please note that most of these aren't "charming country house mysteries," but have grim settings or just plain situations where karma catches up with bad people, like the opening story "An Elderly Lady Seeks Peace at Christmastime," set in Sweden, and the titular story, which involves eight Santa Clauses working at a "Mall of America" type shopping complex.
Perveen Mistry, a woman attorney in 1920s India, figures in one of my favorite tales; Jane Austen solves a mystery on New Year's Eve in Bath; and the talented Peter Lovesey supplies a mystery cum ghost story set on a train--plus there are more. Enjoyable, especially if you can get into the noir pieces.
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