A Corpse Among the Carolers

A Corpse Among the Carolers
Author: Debra Sennefelder
Publisher: Beyond The Page
Total Pages: 234
Release: 2024-11-12
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1960511912

Hope Early is fully immersed in the spirit of the Christmas season, until the sounds of joyful carolers are silenced by the words “Ho-ho-homicide” . . . Food blogger Hope Early always gets a hearty holiday laugh from knowing that the weeks leading up to Christmas are as frantic as they are festive. But in spite of everything she has to do, the one thing she always has time for is the annual Jingle Bell Stroll, a night when the community gathers to sing their hearts out and enjoy each other’s company. This year’s caroling feels especially heartwarming, until the final note lands with a thud when Hope finds the body of the man who’d volunteered to play Santa, a knife plunged into his back. With virtually the whole town present at the caroling, the list of suspects seems endless. It doesn’t take long, though, for both Hope and the police to turn a sharp eye on the victim’s bitter and vindictive ex-wife, along with his new wife, who may have been after his money. Then Hope unearths a clue that suggests the dead man may have been hiding a sordid past and connections to unseemly characters. But as she closes in on the killer, they’re determined to wring her neck before she can ring in the new year . . . Includes tasty and toasty holiday recipes!

The Cursed Carolers in Context

The Cursed Carolers in Context
Author: Lynneth Miller Renberg
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 169
Release: 2021-03-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000365603

The Cursed Carolers in Context explores the interplay between the forms and contexts in which the tale of the cursed carolers circulated and the meanings it had for medieval and early modern authors and audiences. The story of the cursed carolers has circulated in Europe since the eleventh century. In this story, a group of people in a village in Saxony skip Christmas mass to perform a circle dance in the cemetery, only to be cursed and forced to keep dancing for a whole year. By approaching the story in specific historical contexts, this book shows how the story of the cursed carolers became a space in which medieval readers, writers, and listeners could debate the meaning and significance of a surprising variety of questions, including ecclesiastical authority, gender roles, pastoral responsibility, and even the conduct of crusades. This consideration of the interplay between text and context sheds new light on how and why the story of the dancers achieved such popularity in the Middle Ages, and how its meanings developed and changed throughout the period. This book will appeal to scholars and students of medieval European history, literature, and dance, as well as those interested in cultural history.

Candle for a Corpse

Candle for a Corpse
Author: Marilyn Leach
Publisher: Pelican Ventures Book Group
Total Pages: 186
Release: 2012-12-08
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1611162521

Who would guess that a simple Advent wreath would light the way to solving a Christmastide mystery in a small English village? Well, when Berdie Elliott—the local vicar's wife and former investigative reporter—gets the scent, anything can happen. Though Berdie's husband often disapproves, her divine gift of sorting truth from lies puts her in the stew. Along with her best friend, Lillie, Berdie unwraps far more than Christmas presents when an Advent gathering at the vicarage goes awry, and murder rocks the village. Lively newcomers, secret identities, a clandestine wedding, and a dissenting constable add to the adventure of unraveling the mystery that Berdie—to the delight of the entire village—finally ties up like a bright Christmas bow. Tea and biscuits anyone? Formerly released as Advent of a Mystery.

The Stark Carpathians

The Stark Carpathians
Author: Anthony J. Amato
Publisher: Lexington Books
Total Pages: 507
Release: 2024-01-29
Genre: History
ISBN: 1793608393

The Stark Carpathians: Ritual, Text, and Authority Among Ukraine’s Hutsuls addresses rituals and texts in a small mountainous area located in today’s Ukraine. The residents of this remote region are known as the Hutsuls. This book argues that Hutsul rituals and texts, cast as ancient and extraordinary, had more mundane roots. They formed out of contact between the region’s residents and lowland institutions, and they became foundations for everyday life. Words and symbolic action had an inherent tension that stemmed from contests over authority. The nature of these contests was such that distant officials, willful locals, and diverse sources of information were often as important as collective traditions in shaping rituals and texts. Prolific producers of texts, Hutsuls carried on discussions that included diverse topics, such as agriculture, astrology, mass gymnastics, divine punishment, and witches and vampires. This volume covers these and other discussions in their small and exact particulars, and it investigates texts and rituals in their fullness and irreducible complexity. By crossing traditional lines of inquiry and following the region’s winding trails to their divergent ends, this book offers insight into a larger Hutsul world. Ultimately, the study of Hutsul creations informs the study of rituals and texts in many elsewheres far from the Carpathian Mountains.

Mrs. Jeffries and the Merry Gentlemen

Mrs. Jeffries and the Merry Gentlemen
Author: Emily Brightwell
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2014-11-04
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0425268098

Orlando Edison is a stockbroker using London’s infatuation with foreign mining ventures to make a fortune. He has curried favor with the nation’s most respected aristocrats, even inviting three influential investors—known as the Merry Gentlemen—to be part of his latest enterprise. Edison is welcomed in the highest circles and moves with ease among the rich and powerful. But a few days before Christmas, he is found murdered. Inspector Witherspoon and his household are looking forward to the festive season. But they all know their duty, and led by the intrepid Mrs. Jeffries, they plan to see justice served for the holidays... Mrs. Jeffries keeps house for Inspector Witherspoon...and keeps him on his toes. Everyone’s awed by his Scotland Yard successes—but they don’t know about his secret weapon. No matter how messy the murder or how dirty the deed, Mrs. Jeffries’ polished detection skills are up to the task...proving that behind every great man there’s a woman—and that a crimesolver’s work is never done.

A Carol for a Corpse

A Carol for a Corpse
Author: Claudia Bishop
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 202
Release: 2007-11-06
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 144061895X

From the author of Ground to a Halt comes a special holiday Hemlock Falls Mystery. Hemlock Falls is one of the most picturesque villages in upstate New York, with the Hemlock Inn, owned by the amateur sleuths, the Quilliam sisters, as its center piece. The Quillliam sisters would love the show their little slice of paradise to the tourists that come to stay at their historic inn, however, the village isn’t as peaceful as the picturesque quaint would have you believe… For the Quilliam sisters, there’s nothing jolly about this Christmas. Meg and Quill are near-broke. At least there’s one bright start on the horizon: a big-time magazine and television show will feature the Inn. But soon the editor’s husband skis to his death. Now, if the Quilliams are to save the Inn from a lawsuit, they’ll need to prove this was no accident.

The Exquisite Corpse

The Exquisite Corpse
Author: Kanta Kochhar-Lindgren
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
Total Pages: 366
Release: 2009-12-01
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0803227817

This work addresses historical and contemporary manifestations of poems, drawings, collages, and performance works that employ the ritual of the 'cadaver exquis'.

Redwood and Wildfire

Redwood and Wildfire
Author: Andrea Hairston
Publisher: Tordotcom
Total Pages: 361
Release: 2022-02-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1250808723

Andrea Hairston's alternate history adventure, Redwood and Wildfire, is the winner of the Otherwise Award and the Carl Brandon Kindred Award. At the turn of the 20th century, minstrel shows transform into vaudeville, which slides into moving pictures. Hunkering together in dark theatres, diverse audiences marvel at flickering images. Redwood, an African American woman, and Aidan, a Seminole Irish man, journey from Georgia to Chicago, from haunted swampland to a "city of the future." They are gifted performers and hoodoo conjurors, struggling to call up the wondrous world they imagine, not just on stage and screen, but on city streets, in front parlors, in wounded hearts. The power of hoodoo is the power of the community that believes in its capacities to heal. Living in a system stacked against them, Redwood and Aidan's power and talent are torment and joy. Their search for a place to be who they want to be is an exhilarating, painful, magical adventure. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

The Cursed Carolers in Context

The Cursed Carolers in Context
Author: Lynneth Miller Renberg
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 186
Release: 2021-03-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000365573

The Cursed Carolers in Context explores the interplay between the forms and contexts in which the tale of the cursed carolers circulated and the meanings it had for medieval and early modern authors and audiences. The story of the cursed carolers has circulated in Europe since the eleventh century. In this story, a group of people in a village in Saxony skip Christmas mass to perform a circle dance in the cemetery, only to be cursed and forced to keep dancing for a whole year. By approaching the story in specific historical contexts, this book shows how the story of the cursed carolers became a space in which medieval readers, writers, and listeners could debate the meaning and significance of a surprising variety of questions, including ecclesiastical authority, gender roles, pastoral responsibility, and even the conduct of crusades. This consideration of the interplay between text and context sheds new light on how and why the story of the dancers achieved such popularity in the Middle Ages, and how its meanings developed and changed throughout the period. This book will appeal to scholars and students of medieval European history, literature, and dance, as well as those interested in cultural history.

Jericho's Razor

Jericho's Razor
Author: Casey Doran
Publisher: Polis Books
Total Pages: 158
Release: 2014-04-10
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 194061001X

A riveting and original debut thriller from a crime writer you won't want to miss, featuring a protagonist you won't be able to forget. Horror writer Jericho Sands has had a hell of a month. He's endured a bitter break up with his punk rocker girlfriend, learned that his lungs are blacker than a coal mine, and served time in county jail for throwing a United States Congressman in a dumpster. He's heartbroken, sleep deprived and suffering from a debilitating case of writer's block Life is about to get much worse. Somebody from Jericho's past has left a decapitated body on his doorstep. The similarity to methods used in his books, his lack of an alibi and his proximity to the victim all lead the detectives handling the case to quickly identify Jericho as the primary suspect. But being framed for murder is the least of Jericho's problems, because this killer is only getting started. The mysterious executioner known as 'The River City Slasher' has made it clear that more innocent people will be killed before Jericho himself is the final victim. Unable to trust the cops, Jericho is forced to examine the darkest parts of his own psyche to catch a killer, save innocent lives, and free himself from his own guilt. When Jericho finally learns the identity of the killer terrorizing the city, it shocks him in ways he was unprepared for, causing him to doubt all he holds to be true, including his own judgment and motivations. The first book in the Jericho Sands series, Jericho's Razor heralds the debut of a phenomenal new thriller writer in Casey Doran.