THE MERRY CHRISTMAS MURDERS

A collection of extremely strange, short stories
by LOUISE ANN BARTON

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This book contains the following tales:

 

OVER THE MEADOW AND THROUGH THE WOOD 

A beautiful Russian socialite is traveling by sleigh through dark and snowy woods. With only her brother for protection and a gift of ham and mutton for her grandmother, they are beset by hungry wolves. The driver calls to the girl to throw down the meat, hoping the delay will allow the sleigh to reach the village.

THE DEVIL’S FOOTPRINT

A young woman witnesses a supernatural event so terrifying that 20 years later, she is compelled to record the experience in a diary. When she’s found as she feared she would be, torn to pieces in a blizzard on the madhouse lawn, her mother and a private detective investigate.

THE LITTLE LIE
When her successful husband is killed by a New York City street gang during a robbery attempt on Christmas Eve, Marion relives the same day over and over in her mind. There are those who find her behavior so disturbing, they’d rather see her locked away, but there is one man who’d lie to save her.

THE MAGICIAN’S WIFE

During a performance on a Christmas cruise to nowhere, The Amazing Alphonso puts his wife in the Cabinet of Illusion. The lady disappears, on stage, in front of the magician and the audience, never to return. And investigators are beginning to wonder if she was ever on aboard. But all is an illusion and nothing is as it seems.

HIDE AND SEEK

When a young boy answers, a telemarketer asks for his parents. But the parents can’t come to the phone because they’re with the police, searching for their son. And the boy is being held in his bedroom closet by the infamous Hide and Seek killer. Thus far, none of his victims has survived so a detective asks the telemarketer to go undercover.

DEMONS ARE FOREVER: A WINTER’S TALE

On the off chance of getting their own Ghost Hunting TV show, the McCulloch family opts to spend their Christmas vacation in a Romanian castle noted for demonic activity. A castle surrounded by wolf-infested woods, without food or water, from which no visitor has ever returned. And the inn keeper has noted that, just like demons, three of the McCulloch females have green eyes. But no one in this superstitious village has staked out a tourist since 2004.

MY FABULOUS FIANCE

Elderly Maddie, a resident of a senior complex is horrified to learn her fiancé has been accused of murder. But this is impossible as he doesn’t exist. Just a story Maddie made up to impress her catty neighbor. Then Maddie claims her father was a spy during WWII and her French grandmother was a member of a European traveling circus. And now a detective must decide whether Maddie is just a harmless spinner of tall tales or a murdering jewel thief.

CREATURES OF THE STORM

Laura and Ralph sign up for a two-year stint on a military base at Arctic Ice Station Aurora. When the high-weather crew finds a small boy wandering in the snow, naked and barefoot on Christmas Day, they ask Laura to care for him. But there’s something feral and sinister about the child. The boy’s family is able to travel within ice storms and they’re tracking him, determined that everyone responsible for taking their child will die.

THE MANSION MURDERS

Investigative reporter, Raven Black, moves to New Orleans and becomes stuck with Astrology and Love Lorn columns. Agreeing to interview two aging belles in their crumbling mansion, she soon runs afoul of their family ghost and an axe murderer. Can the old Colonel’s ghost really be responsible for a series of rapes and murders? Will our heroine be able to discourage a persistent suitor? And does a murderous gene run rampant through this family’s generations?

DECK THE HALLS 
A grumpy collector of rare Hummel figurines is beset by annoying groups of carolers. When he's accused of stealing the latest Hummel, a scuffle ensues, ending with a corpse under the Christmas tree. A series of uninvited visitors threaten the collector's attempts to dispose of the body.

HELLER’S HOUSE

Charlie Heller married Anna, the love of his life, and they moved into a lovely, old Victorian. Two years after his wife and children die in a highway pile up, his dream home becomes haunted by something not so very nice. When the entity begins pushing people down the cellar stairs, Charlie calls in a paranormal investigation team. And the neighbors are quick to blame Anna for the supernatural disturbances.

PURE WITCHERY

Two young Wiccans, Heather and Hester, would like nothing more exciting than attending their local book discussion group and celebrating the upcoming Winter Solstice. But the sisters become caught up in an old, family feud, where one of them may have been sired by a werewolf and their supposedly dead parents return to hex again. The Witches’ High Counsel hopes to save the girls, but few of their membership survived the last attack.

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Louise Ann Barton is also a Pine Barrens author and a Pine Barrens poet.