Christmas mystery books
The novel people mean by "the Christmas mystery" is often Jostein Gaarder's. The rest of the table is murder fiction with Christmas in the title or on the shelf.
| Title | Author | Year | Pages | Series | Status | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Christmas Mystery (Julemysteriet) | Jostein Gaarder | 1992 | 247 (Open Library 1999 record) | — | 4 publishers listed · field evidence varies | Source 1 (2026-11-13) Source 2 (2026-11-14) Source 3 (2026-11-13) Source 4 (2026-11-14) |
| Call a Hearse: A Lost Christmas Murder Mystery | Jonathan Stagge (pseudonym of Hugh Callingham Wheeler and Richard Wilson Webb) | 1942 | 416 (British Library 2026 reissue) / 288 (Stanfords / Foyles); 262 is a historical edition | Dr. Hugh Westlake #5 | 7 publishers listed · field evidence varies | Source 1 (2026-11-13) Source 2 (2026-11-13) Source 3 (2026-11-13) Source 4 (2026-11-13) Source 5 (2026-11-14) Source 6 (2026-11-14) Source 7 (2026-11-14) |
| Hercule Poirot's Christmas | Agatha Christie | 1938 | — | Hercule Poirot #20 | 1 source | Source 1 (2026-11-13) Source 2 (2026-11-13) |
| The Christmas Murder Game | Alexandra Benedict | 2021 | — | — | 1 source | Source 1 (2026-11-13) |
| The Christmas Jigsaw Murders | Alexandra Benedict | 2023 | — | Edie O'Sullivan #1 | 1 source | Source 1 (2026-11-13) |
| The Christmas Appeal | Janice Hallett | 2023 | — | The Appeal #1.5 | 1 source | Source 1 (2026-11-13) |
| Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret | Benjamin Stevenson | 2024 | — | Ernest Cunningham #3 | 1 source | Source 1 (2026-11-13) |
| The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year | Ally Carter | 2024 | — | Kiss, Merry, Kill #1 | 1 source | Source 1 (2026-11-13) |
| Murder on the Christmas Express | Alexandra Benedict | 2022 | — | — | 1 source | Source 1 (2026-11-13) |
| The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories | P. D. James | 2016 | — | — | 1 source | Source 1 (2026-11-13) |
| Deck the Halls | Mary Higgins Clark | 2000 | — | Regan Reilly / Alvirah and Willy | 1 source | Source 1 (2026-11-13) |
| Sugar Cookie Murder | Joanne Fluke | 2004 | — | Hannah Swensen #6 | 2 publishers listed · field evidence varies | Source 1 (2026-11-13) Source 2 (2026-11-13) |
Films are on the movie table. A classroom worksheet called The Mystery of the Missing Christmas Presents is a Twinkl pack, not a row in this table. I explained that on the kids page.
Where to start
If you want the advent-calendar novel, open The Christmas Mystery. Twenty-four chapters, first published in Norwegian in 1992. If you want a fair-play detective novel set in the days before Christmas, open Call a Hearse, Dr Hugh Westlake number 5, 1942, reissued as British Library Crime Classics 155. Adult murder and cozy shelves are grouped on Christmas murder mystery books, including Hercule Poirot's Christmas, which Goodreads shows with a large rating count. I am not copying that count into a star widget.
Why some cells are dashes
Page counts and publishers were filled only when a record printed them. Several recent novels have an author, a year, and a Goodreads URL, and nothing else I would treat as checked. Agatha Christie has more than one Christmas-related book. The table keeps Hercule Poirot's Christmas (1938) because that edition record was the one in hand. I am not building a full Christie bibliography from a single shelf page.
Questions
Is The Christmas Mystery a movie?
The 1992 book is Gaarder's. A 2007 Norwegian film with a similar title is Julemysteriet i Lilleby, about five children, and it is not an adaptation I am claiming here.
Which books are for children?
Gaarder's novel is often given to older children and adults. The seller age is blank in the record, so I am not printing a number. The murder titles are adult fiction.