The British Library Publishing Division
Christmas is a mysterious, as well as magical, time of year.
Strange things can happen, and this helps to explain the hallowed tradition of telling ghost stories around the fireside as the year draws to a close.
Christmas tales of crime and detection have a similar appeal.
When television becomes tiresome, and party games pall, the prospect of curling up in the warm with a good mystery is enticing - and much better for the digestion than yet another helping of plum pudding.
Crime writers are .