WHO KILLED FATHER CHRISTMAS?

Edwards’ fifth collection of 20th-century Christmas mysteries inevitably includes fewer familiar names and more discoveries.

Readers should prepare for a certain amount of repetition even within these 15 tales, originally published between 1911 (Frank Howel Evans’ “The Christmas Thief”) and 1995 (Catherine Aird’s “Gold, Frankincense, and Murder”): robberies aboard trains, masquerades of criminals as coppers and vice versa, surprises that aren’t all that surprising. The best of the discoveries, Will Scott’s “The Christmas Train,” is also the smartest of those railroad thefts, although Garnett Radcliffe’s roughly contemporaneous “On the Irish Mail,” which telegraphs its twist much earlier, finishes a respectable second. J. Jefferson Farjeon’s “Secrets in the Snow” tells a story much like Evans’, but with far greater economy and professionalism. The humor in Peter Todd’s 1916 parody “Herlock Sholmes’ Christmas Case” is so obvious that many readers will be surprised by the one-dimensional ingenuity of its puzzle. Of the big-name contributors, John Dickson Carr’s “Scotland Yard’s Christmas” (two robbery suspects disappear from closely watched telephone booths) and Michael Gilbert’s “The Bird of Dawning” (a local politician’s holiday festivities are marred by the apparent suicide of his agent) are as satisfying as roast goose or its vegan equivalent. Michael Innes’ quickie “Who Suspects the Postman?” and Patricia Moyes’ story about a slain Santa, which lends its title to the whole collection, are highly satisfactory side dishes. Ellis Peters’ “A Present for Ivo,” which uses the theft of a treasured old manuscript as the basis for a howdunit that turns into a chase, then an escape from captivity, and finally a climactic unmasking, is a perfect conclusion because, like “The 12 Days of Christmas,” it includes everything you can imagine.

The editor’s introduction indicates that he’s already thinking about a sixth collection: more Christmas gifts to dream of.