In the bleak midwinter ... murder awaits. The halls might be decked, and the mistletoe hung, but in these ten classic crime stories you're more likely to come across a corpse under the Christmas tree than a present. From a Santa Claus with a secret to a violent theft that snowballs into something quite unexpected, pull up a chair, throw another log on the fire ... and let history's greatest crime writers surprise, delight and chill you to the bone. Featuring stories by Dorothy L. Sayers, Arthur Conan Doyle, Cyril Hare, Margery Allingham, Mark Billingham and more... Table of contents: A Surprise for Christmas, Cyril Hare The Snowball Burglary, H. C. Bailey Tall Story, Margery Allingham A Present from Santa Claus, Julian Symons The Undignified Melodrama of the Bone of Contention, Dorothy L. Sayers The Motive, G. D. H. and M. Cole Underneath the Mistletoe Last Night, Mark Billingham The New Catacomb, Arthur Conan Doyle The Motive, Ronald Knox Dog in the Night-Time, Edmund Crispin