What books do you tend to read during the festive period? Recently, there has been a growing trend of people picking up Christmas-themed thrillers.

On the surface, Christmas and thrillers, are a strange pairing of genres, being on completely different sides of the spectrum. But the mystery world of crime fiction can be vast and cryptic – that’s what makes it so enticing.

There’s also something comforting about reading a fast-paced plot, the type that keeps you turning the pages in one sitting, during the holiday season.

Here are some of the best Christmas-themed thrillers to read.

The Christmas Guest

This captivating page-turner is from best-selling author Peter Swanson, the author of nine novels including The Kind Worth Killing, which won the New England Society Book Award.

Credits: PA; Author: PA;

The Christmas Guest is a devoured seasonal treat that follows Ashley Smith – an American studying abroad in London – who is invited to spend Christmas with her classmate and their family at a manor house in the Cotswolds. But she notices something weird about the Chapman family and their house, as secrets start to unravel. What are their real intentions?

The Christmas Appeal

For some, this book is the perfect stocking filler. Janice Hallett’s festive murder mystery is based in Lower Lockwood, where there are many suspects who could be responsible for the death of Santa.

So lawyers Femi and Charlotte investigate the crime by looking through police transcripts and emails in order to get to the bottom of things.

But there’s also a Christmas pantomime, Jack and the Beanstalk – being put on by Fairway Players – that is meant to be taking place to raise money for the local church’s damaged roof. But will the show still go on?

Credits: PA; Author: PA;

The Christmas Party

Gripping readers from the first page, author Mikayla Davids’ The Christmas Party is packed with many psychological twists and turns.

The book is set on a cold December evening, where the Bailey family reunite for the first time since an accident changed the course of their lives for good, at a isolated hotel in the English countryside.

But due to each guest coming with an ulterior motive and a dead body being found at the bottom of the staircase, exactly at midnight, every family member becomes a suspect.

The Christmas Jigsaw Murders

Alexandra Benedict’s book is about puzzle setter and Christmas sceptic, Edie O’Sullivan, who receives a hand-delivered gift at her doorstep.

When O’Sullivan opens it, she finds a jigsaw box with six jigsaw pieces inside, which show part of a crime scene – blood-spattered black and white tiles and part of an outlined body – when pieced together.

The parcel also includes a message: ‘Four, maybe more, people will be dead by midnight on Christmas Eve, unless you can put all the pieces together and stop me.’

But with the support of her nephew, DI Sean Brand-O’Sullivan, they work together to solve the clues, until a man is found, close to death with a jigsaw piece in his hand, all pointing to the fact that she may also be in danger. How will she stop the killer?

This book is a mix of horror, violence and dark mystery, all perfect from the Christmas period.