Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collections
Publication
Zaffre (2021), 325 pages
Description
Fiction. Literature. Mystery. HTML: "Curl up by the fire (and lock all the doors) for this Christmas cracker of a book." �??C.S. Green, author of Sleep Tight Twelve clues. Twelve keys. Twelve days of Christmas. But how many will die before Twelfth Night? Agatha Christie meets Clue in this delightful, tense manor house murder mystery. The annual Christmas Game is afoot at Endgame House, the Armitages' grand family home. This year's prize is to die for�??deeds to the house itself�??but Lily Armitage has no intention of returning. She hasn't been back to Endgame since her mother died, twenty-one years ago, and she has no intention of claiming the house that haunts her dreams. Until, that is, she receives a letter from her aunt promising that the game's riddles will give her the keys not only to Endgame, but to its darkest secrets, including the identity of her mother's murderer. Now, Lily must compete with her estranged cousins for the twelve days of Christmas. The snow is thick, the phone lines are down, and no one is getting in or out. Lily will have to keep her wits about her, because not everyone is playing fair, and there's no telling how many will die before the winner is declared. Including additional scavenger hunts for the reader, this clever murder mystery is the perfect gift for fans of classic mysteries, festive Christmas books, and armchair detective work.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member nicx27
The Christmas Murder Game is an inventive and clever story of family rivalries. The Armitage cousins return to Endgame House, the large country house in Yorkshire where they spent much of their childhood. Lily feels the most attachment to it as she spent more time there than the others and it's
This is a book that sounds like it ought to be cosy crime set in the past but it's most definitely contemporary and a serious crime thriller. There are clues throughout the book that were way too clever for me to solve but which I enjoyed watching the characters try to work out. The author plotted the story perfectly and to great effect and is obviously a master clue-solver herself!
Lily is a great heroine, very intelligent, quite introverted, and very likeable. There are a couple of other characters I really liked but there were also some thoroughly unpleasant ones too. There were some unexpected events at Endgame House and not everybody is what they seem. I'm left feeling very glad I'm not a part of the Armitage family.
The Christmas Murder Game puts a new spin on the country house whodunnit, an atmospheric locked room style mystery with a frantic dash to collect the keys and win the game. It felt a bit like being in a game of Cluedo and I thought it made a nice change to the usual Christmas reading fare.
Show More
where her beloved mother died. The game itself, set by Lily's aunt, takes place over the twelve days of Christmas and centres around solving cryptic clues and finding keys. The victor wins Endgame House. This is a book that sounds like it ought to be cosy crime set in the past but it's most definitely contemporary and a serious crime thriller. There are clues throughout the book that were way too clever for me to solve but which I enjoyed watching the characters try to work out. The author plotted the story perfectly and to great effect and is obviously a master clue-solver herself!
Lily is a great heroine, very intelligent, quite introverted, and very likeable. There are a couple of other characters I really liked but there were also some thoroughly unpleasant ones too. There were some unexpected events at Endgame House and not everybody is what they seem. I'm left feeling very glad I'm not a part of the Armitage family.
The Christmas Murder Game puts a new spin on the country house whodunnit, an atmospheric locked room style mystery with a frantic dash to collect the keys and win the game. It felt a bit like being in a game of Cluedo and I thought it made a nice change to the usual Christmas reading fare.
Show Less
LibraryThing member jetangen4571
anagrams, country-house, mystery, snow-season, contemporary, closed-circle-mystery, secrets, treasure-hunt, greed, family-drama, friction, murder, inheritance, riddles****
Who will be the next to die?
The plan is good, but there is just something missing in the execution and some of the characters
I requested and received a free e-book copy from Poisoned Pen Press via NetGalley. Thank you
Who will be the next to die?
The plan is good, but there is just something missing in the execution and some of the characters
Show More
seemed to lack depth. The word games were just my thing, however! The publisher's blurb is a fine hook.I requested and received a free e-book copy from Poisoned Pen Press via NetGalley. Thank you
Show Less
LibraryThing member lindapanzo
An enjoyable Christmastime mystery in which family members try to solve riddles at the annual family Christmas Games. The prize is ownership of the family home and our sleuth, Lily, has always done well at the Christmas Games. While she doesn't want to win the house, she does want to find out more
This is a nice puzzler with a Christmas atmosphere. I didn't like many of the characters, though I liked this book well enough to pick up the upcoming Christmas mystery from this author.
(I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via Net Galley, in exchange for a fair and honest review.)
Show More
about her mother's death.This is a nice puzzler with a Christmas atmosphere. I didn't like many of the characters, though I liked this book well enough to pick up the upcoming Christmas mystery from this author.
(I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via Net Galley, in exchange for a fair and honest review.)
Show Less
LibraryThing member lostinalibrary
Lily has been invited back to Endgame, the rambling manor that had been her home before her mother committed suicide when she was a child. Her Aunt Liliana who had taken her in wants her to take part in the Christmas games, a family tradition since she was a child. This year, however, the game will
Lily doesn’t want to go back to Endgame and she certainly doesn’t want to own it. But her aunt has promised her something much more important to her to entice her to return.- to learn what really happened the night her mother died.
When I saw The Christmas Murder by Alexandra Benedict on Netgalley, I had to request it. Reading Christmas cozy mysteries are my favourite Christmas tradition and I look forward every year to them. This book fits into that tradition nicely. It’s well-written with plenty of twists and turns. The game itself was interesting and the mystery kept me guessing throughout. My one criticism - there were a lot of characters, some of whom seemed to be there just to add suspects without really adding much to the story. But that aside, I really enjoyed The Christmas Murder and hope to see more by this author especially around future Christmases.
Show More
last for the entire twelve days of Christmas and there is a special prize. Whoever wins wins Endgame. Lily doesn’t want to go back to Endgame and she certainly doesn’t want to own it. But her aunt has promised her something much more important to her to entice her to return.- to learn what really happened the night her mother died.
When I saw The Christmas Murder by Alexandra Benedict on Netgalley, I had to request it. Reading Christmas cozy mysteries are my favourite Christmas tradition and I look forward every year to them. This book fits into that tradition nicely. It’s well-written with plenty of twists and turns. The game itself was interesting and the mystery kept me guessing throughout. My one criticism - there were a lot of characters, some of whom seemed to be there just to add suspects without really adding much to the story. But that aside, I really enjoyed The Christmas Murder and hope to see more by this author especially around future Christmases.
Show Less
LibraryThing member BrianEWilliams
This is a contemporary country house murder mystery, done in the style of Christie's "And Then There Were None". It's got a twisty plot with a complex backstory that doesn't get fully explained. The characters are there to support the narrator's role as a victim, but never seem to take on a life of
Show More
their own. The setting of the family home, converted into a convention centre, suits the plot although it never seems to come into its own to support the story. The storytelling is complicated with riddles and word puzzles, which requires real engagement on the part of the reader. Some may like the challenge of solving them. It's not an easy read, although the author has put plenty of thought and creativity into her work and deserves credit for that. Show Less
LibraryThing member AdonisGuilfoyle
A last minute Instagram recommendation - the Christmas theme pulled me in! I'm not generally a reader of Agatha Christie and her ilk and most of the hidden and not so hidden nods to the golden age of detective fiction in this novel went over my head, but I enjoyed the clues in sonnet form. The
After the sudden death of her aunt, Lily Armitage reluctantly gives up her self-contained existence in London to return to the family home, Endgame, in Yorkshire. In a last letter, Aunt Liliana has promised that the truth behind the alleged suicide of her mother, Mariana, in the maze at Endgame some twenty years earlier will be revealed - but first Lily has to play the Christmas game, a family tradition which used to promise extra presents after a cryptic treasure hunt but will now decide who inherits the house. Lily wants nothing to do with the family estate and is only seeking answers and closure at a significant time in her life. Her cousins - Liliana's children Sara and Gray, her uncle Edward's sons Tom and Ronnie, along with Ronnie's wife Philippa - are serious about the game, however. Deadly serious. When the housekeeper, Mrs Castle, begins to set the clues, following the instructions in Liliana's will, dark secrets are threatened with exposure and someone will go to any lengths to claim their inheritance, even killing the competition.
I'm sure this is a classic detective trope - And Then There Were None springs to mind - but the plot reminded me more of a Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) episode titled 'It's Supposed to be Thicker Than Water', where distant cousins are invited to a country pile and then nobbled one by one because they stand to inherit a fortune already earmarked by a faithful retainer. Of course, that made me suspect the wrong people in this story! I'm never very good at picking out the killer and rarely try to anticipate the unravelling of the story but I had two suspects and both were wrong - like Lily, I suppose I'm just a terrible judge of character!
Apart from suffering from a near fatal case of 'final girl' syndrome, constantly walking into danger and confiding in the wrong people, I didn't wholly object to Lily like some reviewers. The author's writing style and woke asides - a random Twittering about how she finds 'A Fairytale of New York' and 'Baby It's Cold Outside' objectionable is shoehorned in - can make Lily's introspective nature seem rather overbearing but she's a worthy protagonist in the end, quiz smart if not always street smart. Could have done without the 'dark blue eyes shot through with skeins of green', though. This is not a romance novel. (Guess what colour cousin Gray's eyes are?)
The themes are a little heavy-handed - Endgame House? Mrs Castle the housekeeper? - and I doubt anyone would be as cavalier about violent death outside of a murder mystery novel with fancy clues driving the plot, but I was entertained and intrigued enough to keep reading.
Show More
characters not so much. Also the author's devotion to similes and metaphors drove me to distraction in the first few chapters - 'She tuts like a pissed-off clock'? What?After the sudden death of her aunt, Lily Armitage reluctantly gives up her self-contained existence in London to return to the family home, Endgame, in Yorkshire. In a last letter, Aunt Liliana has promised that the truth behind the alleged suicide of her mother, Mariana, in the maze at Endgame some twenty years earlier will be revealed - but first Lily has to play the Christmas game, a family tradition which used to promise extra presents after a cryptic treasure hunt but will now decide who inherits the house. Lily wants nothing to do with the family estate and is only seeking answers and closure at a significant time in her life. Her cousins - Liliana's children Sara and Gray, her uncle Edward's sons Tom and Ronnie, along with Ronnie's wife Philippa - are serious about the game, however. Deadly serious. When the housekeeper, Mrs Castle, begins to set the clues, following the instructions in Liliana's will, dark secrets are threatened with exposure and someone will go to any lengths to claim their inheritance, even killing the competition.
I'm sure this is a classic detective trope - And Then There Were None springs to mind - but the plot reminded me more of a Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) episode titled 'It's Supposed to be Thicker Than Water', where distant cousins are invited to a country pile and then nobbled one by one because they stand to inherit a fortune already earmarked by a faithful retainer. Of course, that made me suspect the wrong people in this story! I'm never very good at picking out the killer and rarely try to anticipate the unravelling of the story but I had two suspects and both were wrong - like Lily, I suppose I'm just a terrible judge of character!
Apart from suffering from a near fatal case of 'final girl' syndrome, constantly walking into danger and confiding in the wrong people, I didn't wholly object to Lily like some reviewers. The author's writing style and woke asides - a random Twittering about how she finds 'A Fairytale of New York' and 'Baby It's Cold Outside' objectionable is shoehorned in - can make Lily's introspective nature seem rather overbearing but she's a worthy protagonist in the end, quiz smart if not always street smart. Could have done without the 'dark blue eyes shot through with skeins of green', though. This is not a romance novel. (Guess what colour cousin Gray's eyes are?)
The themes are a little heavy-handed - Endgame House? Mrs Castle the housekeeper? - and I doubt anyone would be as cavalier about violent death outside of a murder mystery novel with fancy clues driving the plot, but I was entertained and intrigued enough to keep reading.
Show Less
LibraryThing member jenn88
The premise sounded like this would be a good book - a big ol' house where estranged cousins come together over Christmas to follow clues and solve mysteries. But sadly the writing was awful. So many similes and metaphors and just awfulness.
"He leans into her like a greyhound putting its weight on
"Like a snake whose teeth have been removed but still smiles."
I have so many things highlighted that just grated on my nerves and made absolutely no contribution to the story. I wish I had've skipped this one.
"He leans into her like a greyhound putting its weight on
Show More
someone visiting a dogs’ home.""Like a snake whose teeth have been removed but still smiles."
I have so many things highlighted that just grated on my nerves and made absolutely no contribution to the story. I wish I had've skipped this one.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Andy5185
Intriguing, twisty classic mystery set up with family members all competing in a game for the inheritance. I couldn’t put it down until the end. Awesome for the holidays!
LibraryThing member Amzzz
So. Many. Similes.
LibraryThing member ethel55
Lily Armitage isn't surprised her grandmother finally passes away, but she isn't sure how she feels about returning to the family estate, Endgame House and playing one last Christmas Game with her cousins for the deed to the house. Lily's mother died there, so puzzles abound, both in the past and
Show More
in the present day of the game. Of course, they are snowed in almost immediately and the game takes dark turns as people struggle to learn who to trust. Show Less
Language
Original publication date
2021