Golden Age Christmas Mysteries, Otto Penzler
Golden Age Christmas Mysteries, Otto Penzler
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.49

Golden Age Christmas Mysteries

Author: Otto Penzler

Narrator: Jonathan Sleep

Unabridged: 10 hr 4 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/14/2025


Synopsis

Christmas has served as a fertile background for mystery fiction for a very long time, perhaps because it has the appearance of a time of peace and love while being so deeply at odds with violence, crime, and even murder.

Many of the stories in this anthology have been written by some of the greatest Golden Age authors, undoubtedly inspired by the juxtaposition of the disparate elements of love and hate. There is a cliché about anthologies (and clichés become clichés because they are true) that compares them to a good party, where you see old friends and meet new ones―and this collection is a wonderful example. It offers such giants of the genre as Ellery Queen, Mary Roberts Rinehart, John D. MacDonald, and John Dickson Carr while introducing you to such lesser-known writers as Norvell Page, Meredith Nicholson, and Pat Frank.

The range of subjects and styles may be surprising, ranging from truly chilling to heart-warming to hilarious to puzzling. This is no accident, of course, since genuinely talented authors have their own voices and, like snowflakes, no two are alike. Golden Age Christmas Mysteries is the perfect gift for the season, to be enjoyed on a cold, snowy night, in a comfortable chair near a blazing fire.

About Otto Penzler

Otto Penzler, proprietor of The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City, founded The Mysterious Press in 1975, now an imprint at Grove/Atlantic, and publishes classic crime fiction through MysteriousPress.com. Penzler has won two Edgar Awards, MWA's Ellery Queen Award, and the Raven Award. He has been given Lifetime Achievement awards by Noircon and the Strand Magazine.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Get Your Tinsel in a Tangle on October 08, 2025

Nothing says "Merry Christmas" quite like a corpse under the tree and a butler who knows way too much about poisons. Golden Age Christmas Mysteries is less hot cocoa and cookies, more brandy-soaked blackmail, ghost-adjacent family drama, and at least one doll-related theft that made me stare at my n......more

Goodreads review by Darius on October 11, 2025

With the weather getting chilly, it’s time for the Christmas-themed mysteries to start coming out. Otto Penzler gives us an early present with “Golden Age Christmas Mysteries”, a collection of short stories from the golden age (early to mid-twentieth century) of crime novels, all with a Christmas se......more

Goodreads review by David on December 11, 2025

My wife and I were browsing the shelves of our local Barnes & Noble a few weeks ago, when I came across this collection. One of my pleasures this time of year is reading seasonally themed works by the lights of our tree and other Christmas decorations, so I purchased this. I consider the Mystery/Thri......more

Goodreads review by Carole on October 16, 2025

A collection of vintage stories curated by one of the best in the business The title tells you almost everything you need to know about this book...it is a compilation of short stories, all mysteries of one sort or another, all originally published during the Golden Age of Detective Fiction (generall......more

Goodreads review by Elisa on October 02, 2025

This amazing collection will put you in a Christmas spirit, regardless of when you read it. Otto Penzler brings together stories by the best of the best, 14 Yuletide treats by writers of the Golden Age, including some hard-to-find gems. Most of the authors are widely known: Mary Roberts Rinehart, Jo......more