Though Christmas is a time of peace and joy, there can be a dark side to holiday cheer -- murder and mayhem may lurk within the merriment. This tempting collection serves up Christmas crime stories from some of the best mystery writers of the past 150 years: Agatha Christie, Ellis Peters, Arthur Conan Doyle, H.C. Bailey, and Thomas Hardy.

The trinity cat / Ellis Peters
A happy solution / Raymund Allen
Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle / Arthur Conan Doyle
An upright woman / H.R.F. Keating
A book for Christmas / Christopher Hallam
A pair of muddy shoes / Lennox Robinson
The unknown murder / H.C. Bailey
The buoy that did not light / Edgar Wallace
A Christmas tragedy / Agatha Christie
The ghost's touch / Fergus Hume
The grotto / Pamela Sewell
The show must not go on / David G. Rowlands
Red lily / Dick Donovan
The black bag left on a doorstep / C.L. Pirkis
The grave by the handpost / Thomas Hardy
Mr Wray's cash box / Wilkie Collins
Solution of the endgame in 'A happy solution.'