Ah, Christmas morning… is there anything more blissful than curling up with one of the brand new books you got for a holiday gift? What stories were on your holiday wishlist this year? If you’ve already burned through your own TBR pile (you know who you are), I have some wonderful recommendations to share for your Yuletide reading pleasure!
First, we’ll start with the obvious. In fact, I’ve been feeling quite nostalgic about this myself, and may well pull it off the shelf for another go this week:
Myrtle Hardcastle Mysteries book 3, Cold-Blooded Myrtle, features an Exceptionally Victorian Christmas interrupted by a series of bizarre murders in Swinburne Village. Can Myrtle & Co. stop an “unhinged villain” (Buffalo News) from ruining Christmas? Will Myrtle ever find the Perfect Christmas Gift for Miss Judson? And what delectable inedible clue will Peony the Cat eat next?
Chock full of the erudite H.M. Hardcastle’s pithy observations on the holiday, and positively dripping with traditional Yuletide spirit, this is a Christmas mystery sure to delight even the Grinchiest and Scroogiest readers. And since it’s also available as an audiobook, it’s perfect for those long drives over the river and through the woods!
Our next recommendation is that Most Exceptionally Christmassy of Victorian Christmas classics, the book that launched, and then cemented, a thousand holiday traditions, A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas by Charles Dickens. That link will take you to Project Gutenberg, where several free, illustrated versions await your reading pleasure.
Those who do not finish their To Be Read pile in life are doomed to roam libraries forever after…
Speaking of ghost stories, Read More: ‘Tis the Season to be Spooky: The Ghost Stories of a Victorian Christmas. Even more wonderful tales of hauntings to get you in the, ahem, spirit.
We’re still speaking of ghost stories! Our Irrepressible Sleuth and her Stalwart Governess go ghost hunting—Victorian style (viz, in an Exceptionally Modern and Scientific Manner)—in the latest Myrtle Hardcastle Mystery, Myrtle, Means, and Opportunity! Downloadable on that brand-new e-reader you just got… or likewise available on audio, for the dull drive back home.
And what would a Victorian Christmas be without a goose on the table for Christmas dinner? In 1892, Arthur Conan Doyle gave that holiday tradition a diabolical twist in the only Sherlock Holmes story set at Christmas, “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle.” You can read more about this tale here: A Sherlockian Christmas, or just dive right in to one of my own favorite Holmes mysteries at this link (sroll past the spoilers!).
Wherever you are celebrating this December the 25th, everyone here at Myrtleverse World Headquarters wishes you the very happiest of holidays!
Merry Christmas!
Thanks for all the hours of joyous reading you have given us all! I have loved all your backstory research and the ever-developing line of Myrtle wear and her friends’ wardrobe, as well as Peony’s iconic looks. Your creativity brings joy and laughter…and makes a difference in this world. We just donated Myrtle Means and Opportunity to our small local library to complete their available-to-borrow Myrtle series. Merry Christmas! Debby