The Christmas Murder Game by Alexandra Benedict - #BookReview

 

24th December - Christmas Eve.

Snow is falling. Because of course it is. Nothing about this is going to be easy.

Lily presses her forehead against the cold window, her duvet wrapped around her. It's four in the morning and she can't sleep. Streetlights shower gold rings onto Catford High Street. Snowflakes dance down from the sky. Two blokes stumble along the middle of the road, arms around each other, shouting, "It's Christmas!"

***

Twelve clues.

Twelve keys.

Twelve days of Christmas.

But who will survive until Twelfth Night?

Lily Armitage never intended to return to Endgame House - the grand family home where her mother died twenty-one Christmases ago. Until she receives a letter from her aunt, asking her to return to take part in an annual tradition: the Christmas Game. The challenge? Solve twelve clues, to find twelve keys. The prize? The deeds to the manor house.

Lily has no desire to win the house. But her aunt makes one more promise: The clues will also reveal who really killed Lily's mother all those years ago.

So, for the twelve days of Christmas, Lily must stay at Endgame House with her estranged cousins and unravel the riddles that hold the key not just to the family home, but to its darkest secrets. However, it soon becomes clear that her cousins all have their own reasons for wanting to win the house - and not all of them are playing fair.

As a snowstorm cuts them off from the village, the game turns deadly. Soon Lily realises that she is no longer fighting for an inheritance, but for her life.

This Christmas is to die for . . . Let the game begin

***

Who does not like a Christmas thriller set within a traditional country house murder scenario? I think most of us do, and this book was a cut above many of them.

It undoubtedly contained all the usual tropes one would expect to find in a story of this kind but what elevates this above the average is the wonderful writing. It has a lyricism in the narrative that made it a pleasure to read. Ms Benedict's use of simile and metaphor was inspired.

Puzzle lovers will particularly enjoy this as it is possible to play along with solving the clues but from the safety of your own armchair. For the characters in the book, no such safety exists and the body count soon mounts up.

There was much of this novel that was predictable to anyone familiar with the genre but that did not make it any less entertaining or enjoyable to read.

This is my favourite Christmas themed book that I have read in a while and I hope that you enjoy it every bit as much as I did.

ISBN:  978 1838775384

Publisher: Zaffre

Number of pages: 400 (hardback)

About the Author:

Alexandra Benedict read English at Cambridge and studied creative writing at Sussex.

She composed film and television soundtracks, as well as performing as a musician before becoming a full-time writer in 2012.

As A.K. Benedict, she published the critically acclaimed The Beauty of Murder and The Evidence of Ghosts.

She lives in St. Leonard's with her dog, Dame Margaret Rutherford.

(photo and bio info courtesy of the authors website https://akbenedict.com/about/)