It’s Christmas Eve at the Emporium, a bespoke gift shop hidden in the depths of London’s winding streets, where a select few shoppers are browsing its handcrafted delights.

But when they go to leave, they find the doors are locked and it isn’t long before they realise this is no innocent mix-up. The shoppers have been trapped here by someone who knows their darkest secrets, who will stop at nothing until they have all been unwrapped – and there is a gruesome gift waiting in Santa’s grotto . . .

For those that survive the night, it will be a Christmas to remember.

Murder at the Christmas Emporium was shortlisted for the inaugural Crime Writers Association Whodunit Dagger award.

Behind The Scenes:

A few years ago a friend of mine shared a video of an automaton on her social media. It was designed by Pierre Jaquet Droz in the 1770s – her fingers moved over the keys of her instrument, her eyes seemed to follow the music. There was something so amazingly complex and so creepy about her that the image stayed with me. So when I came to write Murder at the Christmas Emporium I used her as a basis for Clockwork Peg, the possibly haunted automaton with a backstory all her own.

“Cordani is an expert at misdirection. She leads you in one direction and then, slamming the door in your face, sends you down another path entirely.”

New York Times

“A gleefully demented stocking stuffer.”

Publishers weekly