I received a letter the other day from a site reader asking me this question regarding Mary Higgins Clark:<\/p>\n
“… I’m trying to figure out if Clark was the first blockbuster crime writer to start a recurring Christmas series…. wondered if you know of any that predate Clark’s first Christmas book.”<\/p>\n
I started writing her back, and then realized that since I haven’t read every single book on the list I came up with, I had better ask you all for help in addressing this question. The authors who I came up with that predate<\/p>\n
Mary Higgins Clark<\/strong>…..Still watch\u00a0\u00a0 ’84 are the following:<\/p>\n Marian Babson<\/strong>…..Murder, Murder, Little Star\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ’77(see Judith’s comment below) Charlotte MacLeod<\/strong>…..Rest You Merry\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ’78 Robert Barnard<\/strong>…..Death in a Cold Climate\u00a0 ’81 Martha Grimes<\/strong>….The Man with a Load of Mischief\u00a0\u00a0 ’81 First of all, since I haven’t read all of the books above, do any of you know if one of the listed books above is not a Christmas mystery? I try to make sure that they are when I update my Christmas mystery book list as best I can.<\/p>\n Also, are there any other “blockbuster crime writers” who you all know about who predate Mary Higgins Clark (other than the ones I have listed above)?<\/p>\n Thank you all for the help!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I received a letter the other day from a site reader asking me this question regarding Mary Higgins Clark: “… I’m trying to figure out if Clark was the first blockbuster crime writer to start a recurring Christmas series…. wondered if you know of any that predate Clark’s first Christmas book.” I started writing her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6940","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-cozy-mystery-administrators-observations","7":"entry","8":"override"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pI0sr-1NW","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cozy-mystery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cozy-mystery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cozy-mystery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cozy-mystery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cozy-mystery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cozy-mystery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6940\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cozy-mystery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cozy-mystery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cozy-mystery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nSilent Night\u00a0\u00a0 ’95
\nMy Gal Sunday\u00a0\u00a0 ’96
\nAll Through the Night\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ’98
\nSanta Cruise\u00a0\u00a0 ’07 (w\/Carol Higgins Clark)
\nDashing through the Snow (w\/Carol Higgins Clark)\u00a0 ’08<\/p>\n
\nThe Twelve Deaths of Christmas\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ’79
\nLine Up for Murder\u00a0\u00a0 ’80
\nMurder on a Mystery Tour\u00a0\u00a0 ’85
\n(Babson’s are all Stand Alones)<\/p>\n
\nMurder Goes Mumming\u00a0\u00a0 ’81
\nThe Convivial Codfish\u00a0\u00a0 ’84
\n(All three of MacLeod’s Christmas mysteries belong to different mystery series)<\/p>\n
\nThe Habit of Widowhood\u00a0\u00a0 ’96
\n(Barnard’s are Stand Alones)<\/p>\n
\nOld Fox Deceived\u00a0\u00a0 ’82
\nJerusalem Inn\u00a0 ’84
\n(All three belong to the same mystery series)<\/p>\n