Golden Age Christmas Mysteries Edited by Otto Penzler

 

Title:  Golden Age Christmas Mysteries

Author:  Otto Penzler

Narrated by:  Jonathan Sleep

Publisher: Highbridge Audio

Length: Approximately 10 hours and 4 minutes

Source: Review copy from NetGalley.  Thank-you!

What is your favorite holiday decoration?  My favorites are the ceramic decorations my Grandma made me through the years.

Golden Age Christmas Mysteries is a collection of Christmas stories.  My thoughts on these stories:

·       I loved the little biographies about each author before the stories.  I felt like I was learning more about classic mystery authors. 

·       These were all new Christmas stories to me.

·       There were 14 stories with a mix of authors and styles.  Some more famous classic mystery authors such as Mary Roberts Rinehart, and John Dickson Carr, etc. were included.

·       I was surprised watching the new Knives Out movies that the author John Dickson Carr was prominently featured, and I had just read his Christmas story in this collection.

·       I really enjoyed this collection, especially as I got more into the book.  I’ve since downloaded eBooks/audiobooks of a few of the authors.

·       The narrator was great and did excellent voices.  His voice sounded like a Golden Age mystery narrator.

·       My favorite story in the collection was The Reversible Santa Claus by Meredith Nicholson.  It was a delightful and fun story.  The Hopper is a reformed thief who is trying to live an honest life when he feels the call to steal an automobile with a large purse inside.  He soon finds himself in a pickle as he as inadvertently kidnapped a child.  Hilarity ensues as he tries to figure out how to return the child without getting into trouble.  I want to read more of this Indiana author’s works.

Overall, Golden Age Christmas Mysteries Edited by Otto Penzler was a delightful collection of all new to me Christmas mystery stories.  I greatly enjoyed it and recommend it.

Christmas Crimes at the Mysterious Bookshop edited by Otto Penzler

 

Title: Christmas Crimes at the Mysterious Bookshop

Editor:  Otto Penzler

Narrated by:  Jennifer Pickens, Graham Rowat

Publisher: HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Length: Approximately 7 hours and 21 minutes

Source: Review Copy from NetGalley.  Thank you!

 

Do you have a favorite bookstore that focuses on a specific genre?  I was interested to learn about the Mysterious Bookshop in New York City that specializes in selling mysteries.  I have never been to a genre specific bookstore.  Each year, the store commissions an original short story for its customers.  It must be set at Christmas, include a crime or suspicion of a crime and must have at least have a partial setting at the Mysterious Bookshop.  This is a collection of twelve of the stories.

My thoughts on this audiobook:

·       I enjoyed this collection.  The main narrator, Graham Rowat, has a newsman type voice that was interesting to listen to.  It gave it an old-time mystery feel.

·       One of my favorite authors, Laura Lippman, had a story in the collection.

·       The 1^st story had a lot of cheating in it, which I didn’t like, but the ending was something else and thought provoking.

·       One story seemed to be if a Tony Soprano type character had come back to New York City out of witness protection to see his son give a talk at the Mysterious Bookshop.  Things do not go as planned.  Never threaten a dangerous man’s family.

·       I loved the story where an expensive bottle of vintage cognac travels through New York City with everyone adding to it and resealing it.

·       An interesting story included a puzzle to solve that included classic Christmas stories by classic mystery authors.  I had read a few and it was fun to solve. 

·       I liked how the last story had a mysterious component involving the completion of the novel Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens.

·       I loved how each story was unique and seemed to be even more enjoyable than the last story.

Overall, Christmas Crimes at the Mysterious Bookshop was a wonderful, unique collection of Christmas mystery short stories that were a perfect read for the Holiday season.  I highly recommend it.