The Christmas Tree Murders

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THE DELICIOUSLY DARK VICTORIAN MURDER MYSTERY PERFECT FOR GIFTING THIS CHRISTMAS

A Christmas party.
Two dead bodies.
A mystery that no one can solve.

It is December 1884, and we have a murder to solve.

Inventor and millionaire Sir Russell Morgan has invited his friends and investors to celebrate Christmas at Clifftop House. His esteemed guests are welcomed to his brand-new home, complete with all the latest technological innovations: electric light bulbs, dumb waiters, working lifts.

But when a footman is found dead – electrocuted – on the very first night of the party, the festivities are thrown to the wind. The police dismiss Fred’s death, and the inquest declares it an accident, but his friend Millie, the kitchenmaid, is not so sure.

Who would have wanted to kill Fred? Did he know a secret about the Morgan family? Or about Sir Russell’s guests?

Christmas Day comes, but can the killer be caught before they strike again?

'Vivid, haunting, surprising' Stacey Halls

'A full-blooded gothic mystery with bite’ Emma Stonex

© Katie Lumsden 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

About Katie Lumsden

Katie Lumsden read Jane Eyre at the age of thirteen and never looked back. She spent her teenage years devouring nineteenth century literature, reading every Dickens, Brontë, Gaskell, Austen and Hardy novel she could find. She has a degree in English literature and history from the University of Durham and an MA in creative writing from Bath Spa University. Her short stories have been shortlisted for the London Short Story Prize and the Bridport Prize, and have been published in various literary magazines.
Katie's YouTube channel, Books and Things, has more than 28,000 subscribers. She lives in London and works as an editor.

Katie's debut novel, The Secrets of Hartwood Hall, was shortlisted for the HWA Debut Crown Award. Her second novel, The Trouble with Mrs Montgomery Hurst, is a love letter to Jane Austen and Elizabeth Gaskell.

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