Christmas books don’t always have to be cozy romances and happy endings. Sometimes I want snow, Christmas lights and holiday traditions with a murder or two thrown in.
These books go in a much darker direction. There are isolated mansions, family secrets, strange Christmas traditions, killers, locked-room mysteries and more than one holiday gathering that goes very wrong.
If that sounds more like your kind of Christmas reading, these dark Christmas thrillers and murder mysteries might be worth adding to your list.
If murder isn’t what you’re in the mood for, I also have a list of holiday romance books for fans of Hallmark movies.
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The Christmas Guest
by Peter Swanson
Ashley Smith is an American student studying in London when a classmate invites her home for Christmas. Instead of spending the holiday alone, she suddenly finds herself at Starvewood Hall, a big family home in the Cotswolds that seems almost too perfect for Christmas.
Things get darker once Ashley learns that her friend’s brother Adam is being investigated for the murder of a local girl. There is also a strange man appearing along the path near the house, and Ashley starts realizing that this Christmas visit may not be quite as charming as she thought.
The story later jumps forward more than thirty years, when what happened during that Christmas in 1989 comes back up again.
Dying for Christmas
by Tammy Cohen
Jessica Gould is out Christmas shopping when she meets Dominic Lacey and agrees to go home with him for a drink. That decision turns into a nightmare when Dominic refuses to let her leave.
He keeps Jessica captive through the Twelve Days of Christmas and gives her a new “gift” each day. Unfortunately, these are not normal Christmas presents. They are disturbing pieces of Dominic’s past, and they get worse as the days go on.
Jessica knows he has something planned for her, but Dominic is not the only one keeping secrets.
The Christmas Murder Game
by Alexandra Benedict
Lily Armitage has avoided Endgame House since her mother died there twenty-one years ago. Then a letter from her aunt gives her a reason to go back. If Lily takes part in the family’s annual Christmas Game, the clues may finally tell her what really happened to her mother.
The game lasts through the Twelve Days of Christmas, and Lily has to compete against her estranged cousins for the house. Then the snow comes down, the phone lines go out and it becomes clear that somebody is taking the competition a lot more seriously than everyone else.
This is one of those Christmas mysteries where the big house, family secrets and being trapped by the weather are basically part of the whole appeal.
The Family Game
by Catherine Steadman
Harriet Reed is newly engaged to Edward Holbeck, whose family is extremely wealthy, powerful and more than a little intimidating. Edward has kept his distance from them for years, but once Harriet enters the picture, she gets pulled into the Holbeck family world too.
Things really start getting strange when Edward’s father gives Harriet a cassette tape with a confession on it. From there, she starts questioning what the family is hiding while also trying to survive their increasingly unsettling Christmas traditions.
I’ve read this one and gave it 5 stars. The family dynamics, secrets and weird holiday traditions worked really well for me.
If you like darker books that get more into the psychological side of things, I also have a list of psychological horror books.
The Secret Santa
by Trish Harnetiaux
Henry and Claudine are hosting their company Christmas party at a remote mansion, which already feels like the setup for something to go wrong.
Then someone opens a disturbing gift during the Secret Santa exchange. A snowstorm traps everyone inside, and it becomes pretty clear that somebody at the party has an old score to settle.
What starts as an awkward holiday gathering turns into a locked-room mystery where nobody can leave and nobody really knows who they can trust.
The Deaths of December
by Susi Holliday
DC Becky Greene receives what looks like a normal advent calendar. Then she starts opening the doors and finds crime scenes hidden behind them.
At first, the police hope it is some kind of horrible prank. But the calendar appears to be connected to murders stretching back twenty years, and there are still unopened doors left.
That means Becky and DS Eddie Carmine are not just looking into old crimes. They are trying to stop whoever is behind the calendar before the final doors reveal new victims.
Mistletoe and Murder
by Laura Stewart
Amelia Adams has turned the Scottish mansion she inherited into a luxury hotel, and Christmas is already busy with guests and an upcoming wedding.
Then she gets a strange phone call from someone who says he has something important to tell her. Before long, the holiday atmosphere starts falling apart as a series of suspicious events turns the hotel into the scene of a murder investigation.
This one leans more toward a traditional Christmas mystery, but the isolated hotel setting and growing list of suspects still give it that darker holiday feel.
The Santa Killer
by Ross Greenwood
Less than two weeks before Christmas, a single mother is attacked and DI Barton is called in to investigate. At first, there does not seem to be an obvious reason why anyone would target her.
Then the woman’s young daughter reveals that she saw the attacker through the window. Her description is simple and terrifying: Bad Santa.
As rumors spread, the police start realizing this may not be an isolated attack. Whoever is doing it is using the whole Bad Santa thing as part of the attacks.
The Christmas Party
by Mikayla Davids
The Bailey family gathers at an isolated hotel in the English countryside for Christmas. It is the first time they have all been together since an accident changed the family ten years earlier.
The family already has plenty of problems before anyone dies. Old grudges and secrets start coming out almost as soon as everyone is under the same roof.
Then one member of the family is found dead at the bottom of the staircase, and suddenly the holiday reunion turns into a murder mystery where everyone is a suspect.
Last Christmas
by Maria Frankland
Neil is already struggling with drinking and depression when he and his wife Sacha head off to spend Christmas with her family.
The reason everyone is together is a sad one. Sacha’s father is very ill, and the family believes this may be his last Christmas. Unfortunately, putting everyone under one roof also brings years of resentment and strained relationships right to the surface.
With too much alcohol, too many old grudges and nowhere to escape each other, the holiday starts feeling less like a family gathering and more like something waiting to go very wrong.
The House in the Woods
by Mark Dawson
On Christmas Eve, DCI Mackenzie Jones is called to a remote farmhouse after a shooting. What first looks like one death turns into four, and a family Christmas gathering becomes a much bigger crime scene.
At first the case seems pretty straightforward, but new evidence starts pointing in a different direction. Private investigator Atticus Priest is also working the case, except he and Mack aren’t exactly on the same side.
This one is more crime mystery than psychological thriller, but the Christmas Eve setting and remote farmhouse make it fit the darker holiday theme really well.
The Girl and the Black Christmas
by A. J. Rivers
FBI agent Emma Griffin is looking forward to a quiet Christmas with the people closest to her when a package containing a severed hand shows up at her door.
From there, the holiday starts falling apart fast. Someone begins sending disturbing reminders tied to Emma’s past, and what should have been a peaceful Christmas turns into another investigation.
The mystery is personal this time, and Emma has to figure out what somebody from her past wants before the holiday gets even worse.
The Christmas Appeal
by Janice Hallett
The Fairway Players are putting on a Christmas production of Jack and the Beanstalk to raise money for a new church roof. Unfortunately, there is already plenty of drama behind the scenes before the actual mystery even starts.
Rivalries, missing cast members and a very questionable beanstalk are only part of the problem. Then a dead body turns up onstage.
Lawyers Femi and Charlotte have to sort through letters, emails and police reports to figure out who the victim is and who wanted them dead.
Secret Santa
by Amy Tackett
Five friends reunite for a holiday tradition after someone from their old group dies unexpectedly.
Then a snowstorm hits, strange boxes appear under the Christmas tree and it becomes obvious that their Secret Santa exchange is not going according to plan. Someone in the group knows more than they are saying, and old secrets start coming back up fast.
There is also a mean-girl history between the friends, and the Appalachian setting gives this one a different feel from most of the other books on the list.
If your Christmas TBR could use a little less cozy romance and a lot more murder, there are plenty of options here. Some of these go full thriller while others are more traditional mysteries, but they all still feel like Christmas books. Apparently, snowed-in houses, family gatherings and Secret Santa exchanges work just as well for murder as they do for holiday cheer.
For something completely different after all that murder, I also have a list of Christmas books for the whole family.
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