Holiday Fiction Titles for Adults

librarians recommend the following fiction books for adults to read during the holiday season.

Christie, Agatha – Hercule Poirot’s Christmas (also a great mystery movie)

Simeon Lee has demanded that all four of his sons—one faithful, one prodigal, one impecunious, one sensitive—and their wives visit the family home for Christmas. But the cantankerous patriarch has anything but a heartwarming family holiday in mind. He bedevils each of his sons with barbed insults, while at the same time lavishing attention on his very attractive, long-lost granddaughter. Finally he announces that he is cutting off his sons' allowances and changing his will to boot.  So when the old man is found lying a pool of blood on Christmas Eve, there is no lack of suspects. Did Lee's taunts push one of the boys or their wives to a desperate act of murder? Or was the killer really after the fortune in uncut diamonds Lee kept locked away in his safe? And how did the murderer escape from the locked room?  Intrepid Belgian detective Hercule Poirot suspends his holiday sorting through the myriad suspects and motives to find the truth behind the old man's death.

Dickens, Charles – A Christmas Carol (always a favorite)

This engrossing tale relates Ebenezer Scrooge's ghostly journeys through Christmases past, present, and future and his ultimate transformation from a harsh and grasping old miser to a charitable and compassionate human being. A perennial classic that has become as much a part of the holiday season as holly, mistletoe, and evergreen wreaths.

Evans, Richard Paul – Lost December (a new book by the author of The Christmas Box)

Evans offers up another heartwarming, feel-good tale in time for the holidays. Luke Crisp is the son of a successful business owner, a man who has built a copy-shop empire from scratch. Luke lost his mother at a young age, leaving his father, Carl, to raise Luke alone while running Crisp's Copy Centers. Luke starts working when he is in his teens, learning how the centers run and soaking in his father's strong work ethic. Carl hopes Luke will take over the company when he returns from Wharton Business School, but Luke soon falls in with a group of hard-partying students, led by the charismatic Sean. Rather than return to Arizona to work for his father upon graduation, Luke decides to travel to Europe with his girlfriend, Candace; Sean; and several of their friends. This proves to be a terrible mistake when Luke, with the help of Sean, runs through his trust fund and finds himself truly broke—and disowned by his father. Based on the parable of the prodigal son, Evans' latest is a touching redemption story.

Grisham, John – Skipping Christmas (made into a movie called Christmas with the Kranks)

Accountant Luther Krank is a Scrooge for the new millennium. He calculates that he and his wife, Nora, can take a Caribbean cruise during Christmas for much less money than they spent during the previous year's Christmas season. But Luther doesn't just want to take a vacation during Christmas; he wants to take a vacation from Christmas and skip it altogether. This means that the Kranks will not buy a Christmas tree or calendar, put up any decorations, send any Christmas cards, give any gifts, or attend or host any parties much to the chagrin of their hyperfestive neighbors. However, an unexpected phone call at the last minute leads to a change in plans. Hilarity ensues, but the poignant conclusion is unforgettable.  

Grisham astutely captures the way many people spend the holiday season, from fighting the crowds to commenting on their neighbors' Christmas trees. A Painted House was Grisham's first departure from the legal thriller genre, and this further demonstrates his ability to tell a story with nary a courtroom in sight.

Collected by MacLeod, Charlotte – Mistletoe Mysteries

The Queen of the Whimsical Whodunit presents a collection of mystery stories centered around a Yuletide theme, written by some of the best practitioners of the cozy mystery working today.

Shepherd, Jean – A Christmas Story (also a funny movie)

The classic story that inspired the popular Yuletide film chronicles the lives of an American family's Christmas trials and joys in a small town in Depression-era Indiana, capturing Ralphie Parker's campaign to get a Red Ryder air rifle for Christmas, his duel with bullies Scut Farkas and Grover Dill, his parents' battle over a suggestive leg lamp, and more.

(Summaries by Baker & Taylor)