Christmascrime

'Tis the season to be reading, so, as it is a Christmas tradition on Vraie Fiction, I suggest books to read for Yuletide. I suggested this one last year as well but as I'm revisiting it I thought I had to suggest it again. It is one of the early Ed McBain's 87th Precinct novels (the third in fact) title The Pusher. It starts like this: "Winter came in like an anarchist with a bomb". McBain sure knew how to create the right impact. It's the perfect crime fiction read for both the Season and the season. And this is not one of your cozy whodunits. It has a merciless urban setting in a merciless time of year, plenty of violence, drug abuse, blood on snow and a Christmas miracle or two. I don't want to give anything away, but the afterword gives some details about the origins of said miracle. One of my favourite Christmastime reads. And it HAS to be read during Christmastime to be fully appreciated.