The Christmas Murder Game

My takeaway from this book….. I would suck at this game 🥴 also I absolutely loved Miss Lenora Castle… she carried the story, imo!

I listened to the audio book therefore missed out on being able to study the clues. Although I am sure I would not have solved many if any, since a detailed knowledge of the house and the compiler was necessary. The elimination of guests one by one is not a unique plot. Not a bad read.

Throughout this whole book I was torn: Would I either love the ending or hate it? But when the ending came, it was amazing! The plot twist was okay, but more so I loved the vibe and the characters Alexandra Benedict had going on. I also loved the Easter eggs scattered throughout the book! 8.5/10

A festive Christmas game turned murder mystery with actual anagrams hidden in each chapter sounded like a blast. It was not. At first this seemed to be going somewhere, the characters were cliche and dull, but the plot and the extra element of clues for the reader kept me going. Unfortunately, the pacing in this book is horrendous and it didn’t keep me going for very long. You can only drag this game out so far with such cardboard characters. The whole novel gives Lifetime Movie, and not in a good way. This book goes so LONG before the first murder occurs and even LONGER after that. The deaths were so poorly paced and absolutely meaningless because all of the characters sucked due to their complete lack of originality and depth. I wanted characters to die, I wanted no one to take this stupid house. A character would die and I would have to go to the family tree in the front of the book to remind myself why I should even care and who they were, which did not make this an engaging mystery for me. Along with horrible pacing, and boring, borderline infuriating , characters is the books complete failure to write a cohesive, intriguing, and gripping mystery. This book is so long because I swear there are chapters that are only 3-4 pages long and written solely for the purpose including one of her stupid anagrams. These long drawn out chapters to reach anagram goals or make the 12 days of Christmas relevant, really dragged the plot to the point where I’d read about 50 pages and NOTHING plot driven would happen. I would get another paragraph on the food, or Sara being a bitch, or Lily again being the entire source of her own problems but never fucking doing anything about it. I think if you took out the anagrams, 12 days gimmick, holiday food, and Lily’s annoyingly repetitive self involved narratives, this book would barely be a novella. So a murder mystery with terrible pacing, a poorly executed plot, and the worst characterizations I’ve experienced so far makes this a 1/5, 1/10. I would say read anything else. I like mysteries, ive read Agatha Christie, I know good mysteries and this is very much NOT

This book was kind of “ehh” to me, but I do read A LOT of thrillers so maybe I am being hypercritical.

First off, I enjoyed the “game” aspect and the family drama. Experiencing death in your family is hard, but it’s after the death and the reading of the will that can be harder for the surviving family members. I thought that was a realistic idea, having family turn against each other to get what they think is owed to them.

Secondly, I definitely did not guess the killer!

The book felt a little like “And Then There Were None”. We have a locked room scenario where the killer has to be someone on the property since no one is coming and going and the setting is this one place. I was glad that this wasn’t a retelling of that novel and the killer blew my mind!

What I didn’t enjoy about the book was there was so much emphasis on solving the clues and the characters would read the puzzle and immediately get the answer. As the reader along for the ride, it just seemed like the rushed through the game part. So, why even have the game and out in the extra effort of making sonnets, anagrams, etc. if you’re going to have the characters just solve it right away.

I also felt like the ending was SUPER rushed and then just ended kind of abruptly.

Again, why get me so interested in this game and the process and the rules just for it to be brushed over quickly!

Overall, I think it was an entertaining Christmas themed thriller. Would I read it again? No. Would I suggest it? Maybe! If you want a murdery Christmas or family drama or locked room scenario then absolutely! If you want character development, resolution, different POVs or past/present/future insight then no.