Christmas Mysteries to Solve

Who it's for

For readers who enjoy Christmas mysteries to solve before the answer is revealed, this Kindle eBook brings together twelve cozy short stories set in Gullcombe, an invented British harbour town. The stories run from the thirteenth of December through Christmas Eve, with a question to answer and an optional hint at the end of each one.

Read one story a night, compare guesses with someone else, or work through several at your own pace. The explanations are kept at the back of the book, with links that take you straight to the relevant clues.

It is a Kindle eBook, so it reads on a Kindle, a phone or a tablet, and it is in Kindle Unlimited.

Inside the book

• Twelve short mysteries, one for each day from 13 December to Christmas Eve, set in Gullcombe, a made-up harbour town on a cold coast. The stories run from about 1,600 to 2,500 words each, with a solution of several hundred words; the whole book is about 31,600 words.
• A returning cast. Maud Tremayne, sixty-seven, is the town's piano tuner. Every December she tunes thirty-one pianos in nineteen days, so her work takes her around Gullcombe, where she hears plenty of local conversations. Constable Jowan Kitto, twenty-six, is the town's only policeman. A page at the front, The People of Gullcombe, introduces the people you will meet more than once.
• Stories built for solving. Each story ends at a box marked Pause and Solve, with the question and a hint if you want one. Everything you need is in the story before that box, and the solution brings in no new evidence.
• Solutions that show their working. All twelve are collected at the back, away from the stories, so you cannot see one by accident. Each one walks through the clues in order, and every clue it uses is a link that jumps back to the exact passage in the story where it appeared. Every one of the twelve has been independently checked to confirm its clues rule out every suspect but one.
• Three marked levels. Stories 1 to 4 are labelled Easy, 5 to 8 Medium and 9 to 12 Hard, printed on the stories themselves. Reading in order also lets the continuing tangerine mystery unfold as intended.
• A thirteenth mystery. On the first morning Maud finds a tangerine on her doorstep, wrapped in a page of old printed music, and one keeps coming every morning after that. Who is leaving them is not solved until the last story, and its clues are scattered through all twelve.
• Cozy and kind. Thefts, a missing dog, a mystery Santa, some unkind Christmas cards and a kitchen disaster; no gore, no violence, and nobody dies. Every story ends with something put right.
• British setting, British spelling. Gullcombe is invented, and so is everyone in it.

How to use it

• Read the stories in order. The book moves from stories marked Easy to Medium and Hard, and the continuing tangerine mystery gathers clues across the twelve stories.
• Stop at the box. Think it through, go back over the story if you like, then follow the link to the solution. The hint is there if you want it and easy to skip if you don't.
• Take your time. Each story is roughly 1,600 to 2,500 words; how long you spend on the deduction before moving to the solution is up to you.
• Use the links in the solutions. If a clue surprises you, tap it and the book takes you back to where it was hiding.

New to solve-along mysteries? Short mysteries to solve explains the fair-play rules these stories follow and gives you an original one to try.

How it compares

The Twelve Cases of Christmas is a paperback puzzle book built around suspect elimination: you cross names off a list until one remains, from forty names to fifteen hundred. The Pennyfold Deduction Club is eighty logic grid puzzles with every step written out. Christmas Mysteries to Solve takes a different approach: you read a complete short story, find the clues hidden in its ordinary details, and stop to make your deduction before following the solution. It is for readers who prefer a story to a grid.

Frequently asked questions

See it on Amazon