Cartoon of the Day: Cats at Christmas

 

TYPEWRITERS: Christmas Gift Ads from the TWENTIETH CENTURY

I have a softspot for Typewriters. I don't collect typewriters (no space or I would), but I do take photos of them.. and occasionally post here on Mystery Fanfare. But for today, here Typewriter gift ads for Christmas from the 1920s through the 1970s. Happy Holidays! 

Chanukah Mysteries // Hanukkah Crime Fiction

Chanukah (no matter how you spell it - Hanukah, Hanukkah) starts on Christmas this year! Because the holiday lasts eight days, you will have plenty of time to read these books! Let me know if I've missed any authors or titles. Put a note in the comments. This is an updated list for 2024. Happy Chanukah!

Want some chocolate with your reading? Make Sufganiyot! Chocolate Donuts or Hannukah Gelt Cookies!

Hanukkah Mystery Novels 

A Crafty Christmas by Molly Cox Bryan
As Dog is My Witness by Jeff Cohen

Holiday Grind by Cleo Coyle (mostly about Christmas but Hanukah is mentioned)
Beautiful Lie the Dead by Barbara Fradkin
Strength to Stand by Sheyna Galyan
Festival of Deaths by Jane Haddam
Hanukkah Gelt by T. Lee Harris
Out of the Frying Pan into the Choir by Sharon Kahn
Saturday the Rabbi Went Hungry by Harry Kemelman

Murder at the Minyan by Shlumat E. Kustanowitz
The Body in the Sleigh by Katherine Hall Page (mostly about Christmas but Hanukah is mentioned)
Dog Have Mercy by Neil Plakcy
Sleep in Heavenly Pizza by Mindy Quigley (a Chrismukkah house party) 

Chanukah Guilt by Rabbi Ilene Schneider
The Tattooed Rabbi by Marvin J. Wolf
Mom Lights a Candle by James Yaffe

Children's Hanukah Mysteries

Rabbi Rocketpower and the Mystery of the Missing Menorahs - A Hanukkah Humdinger! by Rabbi Susan Abramson and Aaron Dvorkin and Ariel DiOrio
Too Many Latkes: A Chanukah Mystery by Sonia Zylberberg
The Mohel from Mars by Miri Ariel
The Case of the Disappearing Chanukah Candles by Ellen Roteman
The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming by Lemony Snicket.

Hanukkah Mystery Short Stories

"Mom Lights a Candle" by James Yaffe, appeared in Mystery: The Best of 2002, ed. by Jon L. Breen.

"Hanukah" by Morris Hershman in Cat Crimes for the Holidays, ed. by Martin Greenberg, Edward Gorman and Larry Segriff
"The Worse Noel" by Barb Goffman in The Gift of Murder, ed. by John M. Floyd
"A Great Miracle Happened There" by Alan Orloff in Black Cat Weekly (Issue 119, 2023)

"Death on the List" by B.K. Stevens (AHMM, January 1999)

For more info on Jewish short story mysteries, check out Steven Steinbock who blogs on Criminal Brief, the Mystery Short Story Web Log Project.
"Navidad" by Elizabeth Zelvin, EQMM, January 2011
"No Candles for Antiochus" by Barry Ergang
Murder is no Mitzvah: Short Stories about Jewish Occasions, edited by Abigail Browning
The Latke in the Library & Other Mystery Stories for Chanukah by Libi Astaire

Mystery Chanukah Anthologies

The Melancholy Menorah (Jewish Regency Mystery Stories Book 4), Libi Astaire
The Latke in the Library and Other Mystery Stories for Chanukah, Libi Astaire
36 Candles: Chassidic Tales for Chanukah, Libi Astaire

Murder is No Mitzvah: Short Mysteries About Jewish Occasions, Abigail Browning
Eight Very Bad Nights: A Collection of Hanukkah Noir, edited by Tod Goldberg

Jewish Noir, Edited by Kenneth Wishnia

Cartoon of the Day: Santa's Reindeer

Now you know!

 

Merry Murder with a Santa Noir: Guest Post by Jeri Westerson

Santa Noir? What the heck? Actually, I wrote a paragraph of it for a Facebook post with an image I shared of a bearded bro sort of Santa, just a few lines of parody taking from several noirs and hardboiled crime stories I enjoy. 

All my friends and followers seemed to like it so much that I decided to expand on it and wrote a short story, bringing in all the tropes from Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and others to make a world-weary Santa dread the investigation of the murder of one of his reindeer in a sort of seedy version of Christmas Town, going all out for the humor. Santa laments in the story, in a parody of the words of Sam Spade, “When someone murders one of your flying reindeer, you’re supposed to do something about it.” And it’s up to him to bring down the culprit. 

You just don’t know what’s stuck in your head until you get on the parody kick and then it just flows out to make a humorous tale; a drunken penguin desperate to snitch on his pals for just one more hit; one of the reindeer addicted to candy canes (“he’s on the cane”) and willing to talk to Santa, but only alone under a frozen bridge; and a mob boss walrus that sounds suspiciously like Sidney Greenstreet from Casablanca who owns the Blue Penguin café and wants to make a deal. 

It’s definitely an admiring hat tip to all the books and stories I have loved over the years. Even Frosty the Snowman makes an appearance. And when other writers and readers know these stories just as intimately, then, well…it’s just a community sharing in the joke. 

The title “Last Pole on the Left” is reminiscent of Where the Sidewalk Ends or One Way Street, wonderful noir films from the 1950s, where people get caught up in their own corruption with really no way out. That’s the fun of noir anyway, to see how tangled the characters can get as they try to worm their way out of trouble and only get themselves deeper in by foolish choices. When I wrote my fifteen-book series the Crispin Guest Medieval Noir novels, they were definitely along the same lines, with a hero who just couldn’t get out of his own way, but managed to do the right thing, though still losing it all and getting knocked around a bit too. 

I wanted to lighten it up with this short story. 

It’s all in good fun to bolster your holiday spirit, but keep it away from the kiddies. This isn’t the Santa they’re looking for. But it just might be the Santa we need. 

Find it on Draft2Digital or Amazon: https://a.co/d/cJfhkIG

***

Jeri Westerson is currently writing a Sherlockian pastiche, An Irregular Detective Mystery series, with a former Baker Street Irregular as a new sleuth under the guidance of Sherlock Holmes. Westerson writes medieval mysteries, Tudor mysteries, several historical standalones, and a few paranormal series. See JeriWesterson.com for the entire oeuvre. 

CATHERINE AIRD: R.I.P.

So sorry to hear about the passing yesterday of Diamond Dagger author Catherine Aird at the age of 94. She was one of my favorite writers in the 'Golden Age' tradition. I've read all of her books and enjoyed them. I was privileged to have her as a bus seat companion on a CWA trip many years ago. Such a delightful journey. I will cherish the memory.

Catherine Aird was the author of more than twenty crime novels and story collections, most of which feature Detective Inspector C. D. Sloan. She held an honorary M. A. from the University of Kent and was made an M.B.E. Her other works include Amendment of Life and Little Knell. She lived in England. Apart from writing the successful Chronicles Of Calleshire she also wrote two collections of short stories as well as writing and editing a series of village histories. Having made a significant contribution to crime writing published in the English Language, Catherine Aird was awarded the 2015 Crime Writers Association Diamond Dagger.

Here's a a link to Martin Edwards' memory of Catherine Aird. 

Here's a link to Catherine Aird's work.