On our penultimate day of Christmas crime reads, we’ve got the return of one my favorite authors from last year. Andreina Cordani’s The Twelve Days of Murder was somehow both creepy and Christmassy, delivering a satisfying thriller. I don’t personally enjoy thrillers very much, but loved Cordani’s writing style, her story’s structure, and her characters.

This year, Cordani is back with another thriller, this time in a special Christmas store straight out of a cozy fantasy novel. Murder at the Christmas Emporium takes place in a Christmas gift store that promises only the finest presents. When Merry finds a way into a special VIP event at the Emporium, she’s expecting wonder, magic, and the perfect present for her best friend (maybe more?). Instead, she’s trapped inside with the other VIPs as someone starts to pick them off one by one. It’s up to the guests to figure out what’s happening – and how they’re all connected – if they want to survive the night.

It’s an interesting take on a Christmas crime – I’m not sure I’ve read that many in a store, rather than a home. And the setting gives me reminders of a twisted version of a Japanese or Korean “healing fiction” story. Lots of interesting things going on here… but how well does Cordani pull them together?

A thrilling, character-driven plot…

Let’s start with the puzzle. One of the joys of The Twelve Days of Murder was discovering a thriller with a great puzzle inside it. In that story, the mystery was the specific set of events among a group of friends. The puzzle, then, was about untangling unreliable narration to understand what might happen and why.

Murder at the Christmas Emporium gives that structure an interesting twist. The VIPs on the Christmas list are a set of strangers. While a few know each other, there’s no clear event or experience that ties them together. Some are well known celebrities; others seem to be total nobodies. But it becomes clear that there’s some link tying them together – and causing them to draw the ire of a killer. And until they can figure it out, they’re stuck waiting for their deaths…

Cordani’s grasp of character-driven returns again, creating a compelling and propelling narrative. In the moment of reading each character’s flashbacks, it’s hard not to get sucked in. The puzzle itself is a little more of a stretch than in Twelve Days of Murder, with some of the character backgrounds being just a bit harder to buy into. But it’s all so much fun to read and to watch all the pieces come together (even if it’s not, I think, technically solvable by the reader).

…with a fantastical, festive air

Perhaps the biggest contributing factor to the festive vibes of this novel is the setting. There’s something almost otherworldly about Cordani’s settings… The Christmas Emporium feels like something out of a cozy Japanese fantasy. The perfect store! With the perfect toys! And a Willy Wonka-esque man who runs it! Cordani takes the time to go into loving detail about the different floors of the store, how warm and cozy they feel when it’s open – which makes the differences once it’s dark much more effective.

The Christmas flavor isn’t limited to just the settings, though. The diversity of characters means that they’re each experiencing the holiday differently. And that means we get to see many angles of Christmas – from the gift-giving to the celebrity events to the mercantile angle. And of course, the murders are Christmas-themed, relying on various elements of the decorations around the store to make their ironic impact.

The overall effect is a thriller that’s weirdly celebratory of Christmas, even as it makes Christmas shopping a thing of terror. This would be more than enough for me, had I not read The Twelve Days of Murder, which had a fun “eat the rich” message to boot. This one is a little more straightforward – but there’s plenty of holiday vibes for a Christmas lover to dig into.

The most Christmas-y thriller this year

I had an absolute blast reading Murder at the Christmas Emporium. It’s a little sillier than The Twelve Days of Murder, with a little bit more fantasy and a little more stretching to make the puzzle fit. But Cordani continues her streak as possibly the only thriller writer I will continue to eagerly await, year after year.

One day more… and I’ve saved the best for last. See you on Christmas Eve – and until then, stay cozy, and stay curious!