You're Looking for a Christmas Mystery

Want an armchair adventure or have a hankering for Chinese food

Hi friends,

Hope you’re surviving the end-of-year rush. Saturday, I did one of my favorite DC holiday activities — visiting the National Zoo decorated in lights.

They went all in on jelly fish this year.

Quick programming note: I’m taking the next two weeks off from this newsletter. I’ll be back in your inboxes on January 8. If you’re looking for extra book recommendations while I’m out, you can check out this list of 50 Christmas books I rounded up for Parade last year. And don’t forget that I’m wrapping up my 12 Days of Romance over on Instagram, too.

And, now, what to read if…

You Wish There Was Another “Knives Out” Sequel This Year

You Must Remember This by Kat Rosenfield

I spent the day after Christmas last year curled up on the couch with my brother, sister-in-law and best friend watching “Glass Onion,” the sequel to “Knives Out.” (My take: It was fine. The first one was better.) Sadly, a new Benoit Blanc movie will not be gracing our screens this year, so if you’re looking for book with similar vibes, check out Kat Rosenfield’s You Must Remember This.

On Christmas Eve, as her three children, grown granddaughter and health aide slept inside, eighty-five-year-old Miriam Caravasios fell through the ice surrounding her seaside estate, The Whispers. In her younger years, Miriam walked across the frozen sea to meet her boyfriend, but now, in the throes of dementia, she doesn’t realize it’s not thick enough to hold her. Her family, poised to inherit millions, is left to wonder if it was an accident, suicide or something else.

Narrated by Miriam’s granddaughter Delphine in the present with flashbacks from Miriam, You Must Remember This is a delicious slow-burn of a mystery. The tension mounts as Miriam’s fractured family gathers for the first time in years at Christmas, and The Whispers, complete with secret passages built by Miriam’s bootlegger father, serves as a character itself. Tense and taut, a great Gothic-esque novel.

Reminder rec: The Christmas Murder Game is another “Knives Out” holiday mystery — which features a word search in the acknowledgments, among other puzzles.

You Want an Armchair Adventure

The Antiquity Affair by Lee Kelly and Jennifer Thorne

If you’re hunting for a book to enjoy with a cup of hot chocolate while curled up under a blanket on your couch (or your parents’), look no further than The Antiquity Affair, an adventure set in 1907, spanning continents with a touch of magic.

Sisters Lila and Tess were once inseparable, until Tess ran off to join their father, Warren, a renowned Egyptologist, on his dig. When they return to New York for Lila’s coming out to society, Tess is kidnapped by a mysterious organization convinced she knows the key to finding the Serpent's Crown, a legendary artifact rumored to make its wearer invincible. Lila and her father set out to save Tess and prevent the crown from falling into the wrong hands.

The Antiquity Affair is a classic swashbuckling adventure story, complete with puzzles and a burgeoning romance. I appreciated its examination of the ethics and morals of archeology — which were informative but not heavy handed. If you’ve ever thought, ‘I want a book that’s ‘Indiana Jones’ meets Veronica Speedwell,’ this one is for you.

You Crave Chinese Food at Christmas

Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant by Curtis Chin

Fifteen or twenty years ago, my hometown got slammed with a blizzard on Christmas. Our extended family was unable to join us for dinner, so my mom, dad, brother and I decided to recreate the final scene from “A Christmas Story” and went to the Chinese buffet less than a mile away. Eating dumplings under the absurdly bright fluorescent lights is one of my favorite holiday memories. In Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant, Curtis Chin lovingly describes keeping his family’s restaurant open on Christmas, for anyone who needed a place to go.

The family restaurant, Chung's Cantonese Cuisine, was a Detroit landmark, a place where the city’s first Black mayor, a Hollywood star, drag queens and more, all came for a delicious meal, as the city they lived in declined. Chin describes growing up as a gay Chinese American kid in a big, multi-generational family, grounded by their work at the restaurant. It’s a story of finding your place in the world — and in your family.

Even when the book grows serious, Chin maintains an easy-going, conversational and, occasionally, funny tone. It’s the kind of book that is like listening to a friend tell a story (especially true of the audiobook, which the author narrates). It let me feel like Chin was really letting me in to his life, inviting me to sit at a booth at Chung’s.

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Thanks for reading! Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! See you in 2024!

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