The Christmas Murder Game

Never wanting to return to the family home where her mother died, Lily reluctantly accepts an invitation from her late aunt to return to the manor for one more Christmas game. Now Lily is stuck in the house for twelve days with cousins she has not seen in years. All must solve clues to attempt to win the estate at the end of the game, while Lily is also looking for answers to her mother’s death.

The narrator did a great job with this book. There was a decent sized cast ensemble cast for this book. The voices and mannerisms for each character were easily distinguishable from each other. This was a solid performance and the audio quality as a whole held true throughout the entire book.

This was a solid mystery story. I genuinely could not guess anything before the facts were actually revealed. I can admit the game itself and the secrets revealed were just a little bit convoluted. I do think that’s just the nature of these types of stories and more or less expected this going into it so I didn’t mind it. I feel it’s worth noting though that it does feel a bit campy in the regard.

The characters in this story play an equally important role to the narrative. Everyone had uniquely defined personalities. Everyone brought something to the experience. Lily was a great main character to follow. It was obvious from the start how much of the game an overall experience through the story was catering toward her winning or just being able to solve all the clues in general. This was understandable. Lily is essentially there with a separate agenda to learn a truth that her aunt hid among the clues that will shed light on her mother’s death many years ago. I did like Lily and watching her grow and change in the twelve days she was stuck in the house. She sets very meek, resistant to human connection. As she solves clues and attempts to remember the more pleasant aspects of childhood she grows, becomes more confident. Her growth is also a really important aspect to the plot and another great reason to read.

I won’t go into the ending in detail, as that would defeat the purpose of reading a mystery. I was very pleasantly surprised by many aspects of the conclusion. Again, I couldn’t really predict anything through reading, though I did start to guess at a few things near the end. I found this acceptable considering by that point you should have all the information to start making some educated guesses.

Overall if you like murder mysteries with a touch of flair I would definitely recommend this book. A twisty mystery with entertaining characters.

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