Christmas Fiction

Twas the Night Before : a Love Story, by Jerry B. Jenkins, 1998

Cynical reporter Tom Douten meets optimistic journalism professor Noella Wright who still believes in Santa Claus. Tom wangles a trip to the Black Forest to research Kris Kringle with an eye to disproving his existence and learns a few things about love. This book is by the author of the Left Behind series.

Hogfather : a Novel of Discworld, by Terry Pratchett, 1998

When a contract is put out on the Hogfather (red robe, white beard, says "Ho, ho, ho), Death tries to help out by wearing the costume, driving the sleigh pulled by the jolly pigs, Gouger, Tusker, Rooter, and Snouter, etc. But Death is so literal-minded… Fans of bad puns, laugh-out-loud writing, and general loopiness will enjoy this tale of Christmas or Hogwatch as its know on Discworld.

All Through the Night (large print), by Mary Higgins Clark, 1998

Alvirah and Willy Meehan get involved in a Christmas mystery concerning a disputed inheritance and a woman who is looking for the daughter she abandoned as an infant seven years before.

Christmas in Calico, by Jack Curtis, 1998

For those who prefer their Christmas reading on the tough side Curtis delivers this story of very pregnant widow Rose Cameron’s struggle to keep her ranch in the face of enormous odds including drought, theft, and a grim Scots banker who’s about to foreclose until a tall, dark stranger rides in and forces him to look at what he’s doing. Shades of Dicken’s Christmas Carol set in the Old West.

Skipping Christmas, by John Grisham, 2001

Tired of all the Christmas Sweetness-and-Light? So are Luther and Nora Krank. To the disgruntlement of their neighbors, the Kranks decide to eschew the pressures of the Christmas season and take a Caribbean cruise instead. This is a book to take the taste of all that Christmas treacle out of your mouth.

Fallen Angel : a novel, by Don J. Snyder, 2001

And this is the book to put it right back in. Thirty years ago Terry McQuinn saw how tragedy could leave a family in ruins. He has spent the intervening years trying to distance himself from that tragedy and from his father, a caretaker of vacation cottages owned by the rich. Returning home to deal with his father’s final illness, Terry carries out one last commission and in the process finds Love.

The Mitford Snowmen : a Christmas story, Jan Karon, 2001

Always reminiscent of Miss Read, Karon is never more so than in thisChristmas tale. There’s nothing heavy here, just your favorite characters joining in a snowman-building contest that provides an island of warmth and humor in a cold old world.

In this cross between Dickens’ Christmas Carol and O. Henry’s Gift of the Magi newly married Peter and Lucy move to The Big Apple at the height of the Depression. Even though Peter’s promised job fails to materialize, they maintain their love for each other and good cheer until tragedy strikes and Lucy is left alone with a baby on the way. Get out your hankies for this one.

Deck the Halls, by Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark, 2000

C. B. Dingle, angry that Uncle Goodloe dies and leaves his money to the local gardening club, decides to go after the man who first led Uncle down the garden path.

Christmas Cookie Murder : a Lucy Stone mystery, by Leslie Meier, 1999

Even during the Season of Good Will all is not well in tinker’s Cove. At the annual cookie exchange one baker accuses the other of stealing her low-sugar-low-fat cookie recipe. Flaming controversy is chilled when the accused thief is found strangled the next day. Ladies, ladies, they’re just cookies!

A Highland Christmas, by M.C. Beaton, 1999

So dour is Calvinist Lochdubh, Scotland that someone has stolen the village’s newly purchased Christmas lights. Village bobby, Hamish Macbeth must solve this and other mysteries. Nothing deep here, just put up your feet and enjoy.

Aunt Dimity's Christmas, by Nancy Atherton, 1999

Lori Shepherd is furiously busy with her preparations for celebrating Christmas with her husband, Bill and twin sons in the beautiful cottage willed to her by Aunt Dimity until she discovers the body of a mysterious stranger out in the snow and barely alive.

A Magical Christmas (large print), by Heather Graham, 2001

The Radcliffes, suffering from the stresses of modern life, decide to spend Christmas vacation at an out-of-the-way country inn in Virginia which is run by the rather odd Wainscotts. The Wainscotts dress in clothes straight out of the Civil War. Just how straight the reader learns as the Wainscotts teach the Radcliffes about the value of Family.

A Hamptons Christmas, by James Brady, 2000

Beecher Stowe’s plans for a traditional Christmas with Lady Alix Dunraven and his father, the Admiral go off track with the advent (sorry) of a poor little rich girl who has escaped from her Swiss convent school and battling parent.