Thanksgiving Mysteries

 by Sybil Johnson

Halloween is behind us. Here in the U.S., Thanksgiving is only a couple weeks away. Yet a lot of retailers are focusing, as usual, on Christmas. Poor Thanksgiving. It doesn’t get its due.

In the cozy world, holiday themed mysteries are common. You’d think there would be more Thanksgiving themed ones than there are. After all, families get together, arguments ensue, etc., etc., etc.

Back in 2015, I wrote a post about the lack of Thanksgiving mysteries.

Okay, okay, I’m part of the problem. In my Aurora Anderson series, I have a Halloween themed mystery and a Christmas themed book. I just passed right over Thanksgiving. In the series, I decided when I first started writing it that books would take place 2 months apart to give my characters a little breathing room between murders. Hence, the skipping over Thanksgiving. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

I feel like I’m seeing more books set around Thanksgiving these days or maybe I’ve just become more aware of them. I happened upon this list of Thanksgiving Thrillers and Mysteries put together by The Monroe County public library in Indiana. It was nice to see some non-cozies mentioned.

This year, I heard through author Diane Vallere about a bunch of novellas set around Thanksgiving. I haven’t read any of the, but I’m happy to see they exist. These are all ebooks only, which makes sense to me for a novella.

I’ve never written a novella, but the idea intrigues me. Any ideas I’ve had so far fall into the short story or novel space. I suppose I could write a Thanksgiving novella that occurs between my Halloween mystery (Designed For Haunting, Aurora 4) and my Christmas one (Ghosts of Painting Past, Aurora 5) and label it book 4.5. I shall ponder the idea.

Do any of you have a favorite mystery or book set around Thanksgiving?