Mystery writers reveal their go-to books for holiday gift-giving

Dying to Know 4 mystery writers answer burning questions If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores. I loved the Southern Gothic vibe in this legal whodunit set in a small community outside Charleston, S.C. Christopher Bollen, author of “Havoc.” Havoc By Christopher Bollen Harper: 256 pages, $30 Out now In Christopher Bollen’s accomplished sixth novel, Maggie Burkhardt is an 81-year-old widow whose peripatetic travels to Europe’s grand hotels come to an abrupt end when COVID sidelines her in Egypt at Luxor’s less-than-regal Royal Karnak Palace Hotel. Alex Segura, author of “Alter Ego.” Alter Ego By Alex Segura Flatiron Books: 320 pages, $29 Out now Alex Segura brought all of his passion and knowledge of mystery and comic book writing to 2022’s “Secret Identity,” a fictional story set in the mid-1970s about a Cuban American finding her voice as both comic book artist and a queer woman. Jonathan Ames, author of “Karma Doll.” Karma Doll By Jonathan Ames Mulholland Books: 240 pages, $27 Jan. 14 L.A.-based writer Jonathan Ames has been delighting readers of California noir with the darkly comic, bloody adventures of ex-cop and PI Happy Doll since his debut in 2021’s “A Man Named Doll.” A 21st century reimagining of Raymond Chandler’s iconic Philip Marlowe, Doll pursues thugs, organ harvesters and other miscreants down the mean streets of Southern California and other points West “in search of a hidden truth,” as Chandler describes the Marlowe stories in “The Simple Art of Murder.” For Doll, that hidden truth is Buddhism, which he begins to study in “The Wheel of Doll”; by “Karma Doll,” which follows directly after, he’s applying the principles of karma to his own violent actions and trying to find an enlightened solution. As he says in the fourth Doll novel, which I’m currently writing: “Bad karma is my business model.” What books are you giving as gifts this holiday season?