Off My Rocker

Lovers of mysteries and crossword puzzles who find themselves with little time to read during the holidays will be glad for these short stories involving crossword puzzle editor, Belle Graham and her husband, P.I. Rosco Polycrates.

Rosco and Belle change the lives of the owners of a Montreal B&B who were left out of Grandpa’s will; find a dead gambler’s missing legacy to an animal shelter; find a Caribbean treasure via a crossword puzzle and a mouthy (beak-y?) parrot; and solve the mystery surrounding the death of a crossword convention attendee who falls to his death.

At the end 1923, Christmas at Brockdene, the seat of Lord Westmoor, is disrupted by greed when a dour and disapproving clergyman is murdered amidst the celebrations.

It seems the Reverend Mr. Calloway has a copy of a marriage license which will affect the line of succession to the wealthy estate.

The Honourable Daisy Fletcher (nee Dalrymple) is visiting the estate, with her husband Detective Chief Inspector Alec Fletcher, in order to research it for a magazine article so, of course, the team of Fletcher & Fletcher are recruited to figure out whodunit.

Queen Elizabeth I fears that the Christmas of 1564 may be the last for a dear friend and so is determined that it will be the finest revel seen in many a year, with tables groaning with food, holly and ivy, caroling, wassailing, mummery, and a Lord of Misrule to oversee the whole thing.

Unfortunately the whole thing includes a number of increasingly bizarre murders and nearly ends the life of the queen herself as she and her Privy Council try desperately to find the murderer.

Other Holiday Murders for your reading pleasure are Mad As The Dickens, by Toni Kelner, The Twelve Deaths of Christmas, by Marian Babson, Not A Creature Was Stirring, by Jane Haddam, and Rest You Merry, by Charlotte MacLeod.