To celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, we’re bringing out stand-alone editions of readers’ favorites from Carried to the Grave and Other Stories . Our second selection, after An Unholy Death , is the holiday short story “The Christmas Stranger.”

Amid the holiday rush of keeping the shelves stocked and filling orders for the Merc, the grocery her family has run for more than a century, proprietor Erin Murphy treasures the way her tight-knit community of Jewel Bay seems to grow even closer during the Christmas season. And this year, when she slows down to do a simple favor for a mysterious stranger, he shows his thanks with a small, quiet gesture—a gift that changes lives, and so much more . . .