Christmas At The Island Hotel Christmas fiction Midwinter Murder

Jenny Colgan

Sphere, £14.99

On the remote Scottish island of Mure, Christmas is coming and, with it, the launch of luxury hotel The

Rock. The property was the lifelong dream of wealthy Coltan but he recently died and his husband Fintan has lost the heart for the project.

Staff are hastily hired. There’s tortured but talented chef Gaspard and clueless kitchen porter Konstantin, an aristocratic Norwegian playboy disowned by his father. The hotel’s first big event is a disaster thanks to Konstantin’s dog Bjark destroying the food. And after the debacle is posted on Instagram, The Rock is swiftly labelled The World’s Worst Hotel.

Can the hastily assembled team pull together before Christmas and save the place from ruin?

And in a gripping will-they-won’t-they subplot, will the pampered Konstantin and timid hotel worker Isla ever realise they’re made for each other? This is an enjoyable festive read, a deeply satisfying seasonal page-turner.

Agatha Christie Harpercollins, £14.99

A selection of short stories by the Queen of Crime, mostly published in the 1920s and 1930s, find Hercule Poirot facing danger from a poisoned Christmas pudding and Miss Marple on a holiday interrupted by murder.

The tales tend towards the light-hearted – a couple are romantic comedies rather than crime stories – but there’s still a high body count. And, as so often with Christie, sharp and unsentimental insights into human nature prevent the book from becoming too cloyingly cosy.

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