11 Christmas-Themed Novels to Read This Month

'Tis the season to read holiday books. Although many of you may be seeking out books about Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Druids, the solstice, and other December holidays or events or religious observances, today I'm featuring 11 books that have something to do with Christmas. You'll find humor, mysteries, a middle grade book, and adult fiction. Enjoy the Christmas spirit, or bypass these books for tales that fit your own celebrations.

• Bel, Book, and Scandal by Maggie McConnon (St. Martin's, Dec. 5): A wedding caterer who takes a healthy interest in crime. In this outing she's on the trail of a missing person.
• A Bella Flora Christmas by Wendy Wax (Penguin, Nov. 7): Old friends gather to celebrate the holiday in this brand new Ten Beach Road novella.
• A Christmas Return by Anne Perry (Ballantine, Nov. 7): An anonymous Christmas gift provides a clue to a long-ago unsolved murder, prompting grandmother Mariah Ellison to visit an old friend; set in 1896 England.
• The Ghost of Christmas Past by Rhys Bowen (Minotaur, Nov. 14): PI Molly Murphy Sullivan and her husband are celebrating Christmas 1906 at the home of friends when a young woman knocks on the door, claiming to be the hosts' long-lost daughter.
• The Gift by Shelley Shepard Gray (Avon Inspire, Nov. 7): A series of not-so-accidental accidents threaten to mar Christmas for a newly arrived family in this Amish of Hart County story.
• The Girl Who Saved Christmas by Matt Haig (Knopf Books for Young Readers, Oct. 31): One of Santa's secret sources of magic comes from Amelia, the first child to have ever received a Christmas present; this is her story, set in Victorian London.

• Hark the Herald Angels Slay by Vicki Delany (Berkley, Nov. 28): Christmas in July in a small town in upstate New York will come to a murderous halt unless a gift shop owner can track down the killer.
• Last Christmas in Paris by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb (William Morrow, Oct. 3): When Evie's brother and best friend go off to war in 1914, everyone is sure they'll be home for Christmas; this epistolary novel reveals their fates.
• Mr. Dickens and His Carol by Samantha Silva (Flatiron, Oct. 31): This historical fiction imagines how Dickens came to write his famous Christmas story by reimagining that very tale.
• Not a Creature Was Purring by Krista Davis (Berkley, Nov. 7): Christmas in West Virginia is tinged with the wrong kind of red, when Holly Miller stumbles on a murder victim at the holiday market; she and her furry helpers are determined to find the killer.
• Twas the Nightcap before Christmas by Katie Blackburn (Faber & Faber, Sept. 26): After putting the kids to sleep Mom and Dad get a little too carried away with holiday cheer; good fun (and a good stocking stuffer).