A female detective - an unusual thing in her time - works hard trying to find the killer, but with the help of her unemployed girlfriend - another unusual thing in there time - sheds some inside what it is like to not be able to get a job, thus helping her find the killer. And even though I am a big fan of Rankin and I enjoyed 'No Sanity Clause', my favourite was the story from Lawrence Block which did not contain an actual murder, but described a mystery nevertheless. Across the world, and throughout time, there have been people who have risen to the challenge of leading others. When I bought Murder on Christmas Eve, I was simply looking for a nice collection of short stories that would keep me entertained during the holidays. Val McDermid is a number one bestseller whose novels have been translated into more than forty languages, and have sold over eighteen million copies.

They may have improved if I had persevered but I had other books that I would rather be reading over the festive period.

So he hires a detective from Scotland Yard to investigate, inviting him to The Santa Claus Club, where throughout the night the target seems to be getting drunker, and drunker until he drops dead.

There are six, seven to eight suspects all who have read and handled the manuscript throughout the night, though none of them took it.Her series featuring criminal profiler Tony Hill was the basis for the TV series The Wire in the Blood for ITV.