What is it about the silly season that makes it a call to crime writers?

Certain settings and characters cry out to crime writers. Abandoned mansions. Small towns. Genius sleuths and down-on-their-luck cops. And, of all things, a jolly bearded bloke in a big red suit.

There’s just something special about a murder mystery set at Christmastime. Agatha Christie, P.D. James and many more have all turned their hand to the festive mystery. In joining their club with my latest book, I started wondering, just what is it about this holiday that makes it perfect for a crime writer?

The magic of Christmas happens in the dark ... in a silent house in the dead of night, with a creaking of floorboards. Credit: iStock

Most obviously, Christmas, even at its least murderous, is about secrets and lies. We literally wrap up secrets and hide them around the house. We lie to children about the existence of [REDACTED FOR THE SAKE OF THE EDITOR’S INBOX]. We snap carrots and half-munch cookies. Christmas is a game of pretending, and we’re all accessories. A parent’s job is, essentially, to leave a trail of clues to a break-and-enter.

The magic of Christmas also happens in the dark: in a silent house in the dead of night, with a creaking of floorboards. If this happened on any other day of the year, you’d be calling triple zero and bricking up the chimney.

The first image in your head at the mention of a Christmas murder-mystery is likely to be a snow-dusted town, detective’s footprints in the slush up the drive, and a grand staircase entrance leading to a crackling fire.

Hot or cold, the Christmas atmosphere provides an environmental obstacle to any detective, as tensions fester and characters reach a murderous breaking point.

BENJAMIN STEVENSON

The golden age of detective fiction originated in the northern hemisphere, and this environment brings with it irresistible features for a Christmas mystery: bitter cold and isolating storms. But an Australian Christmas, in the baking heat, is even more murderous. Tensions fray above 40 degrees. You can’t think straight. It’s hard enough to peel yourself off a leather couch, never mind solve a murder. Hot or cold, the Christmas atmosphere provides an environmental obstacle to any detective, as tensions fester and characters reach a murderous breaking point.

The breaking point is key to any murder mystery. I start every book by thinking of a group of characters with existing threads between them, and reasons that they might want to kill one another. And then I trap them somewhere, and simply see if they do. I mean, Christmas is defined by the bringing together of people.

Irresistible questions arise as I imagine a family and think about who doesn’t want to be there. How long has it been since the estranged uncle has been to the Christmas lunch, and why has he finally shown up? Any group of people provides a possible web for a murder mystery, but a yuletide gathering takes the cake.

Who has ever been blessed by a stress-free Christmas? Is there another breaking point that might make a character tip into becoming murderous? Being cut off while vying for a parking space? Listening to that friend who tries to start an argument about Die Hard being a Christmas film, unaware that this opinion has been non-contentious for decades?

Structurally, crime writers are also blessed by an automatic ticking clock for a Christmas mystery. It’s an unspoken rule, but it’s sacred: the murder must be solved by (or on) Christmas Day. A deadline in a novel is a technique to up the suspense, as characters race against it.

But atmosphere, environment and structural tricks aside, a good Christmas mystery comes down to one thing: fun. Christmas books are designed to be read while prostrate on the couch full of pudding, while floating in the pool on an inflatable lilo, or while pretending to umpire the backyard cricket game, paperback splayed open in one hand. Sure, the books may have murder and thrills in them, but they also have to be joyous. The clues must be Christmas-themed, the characters should don some kind of festive outfit, and when the murder is solved, justice is done and we get a happy ending.

I take this to its natural extreme in my new mystery, Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret. The baking heat of the Australian summer meets tinsel-draped corpses aplenty and a mystery to solve. However, my book is also an advent calendar. It’s 24 chapters, of which 23 hold 23 clues for the murder, and the 24th reveals the killer. If you start reading on December 1 and read a chapter a day, you’ll have it all solved by Christmas. But it’s not like I’m going to supervise. Some people like to eat all the chocolates at once.

We mustn’t forget the most important thing in a Christmas book. The puns! No writer can resist the opportunity for titles and taglines galore. There are several books out there titled, The Twelve Murders of Christmas because any serial killer worth their salt knows that body parts are more interesting than French hens, and that’s before we get into the plethora of Silent Nights and Better Watch Outs.

In short, if you want a perfect murder mystery: pick up a Christmas-themed one. They sleigh. Sorry: slay.

Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret (Penguin Random House) by Benjamin Stevenson is out now.

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