Publication Date: 30/09/2021 ISBN: 9781838775384 Category:

The Christmas Murder Game

Alexandra Benedict

Publisher: Zaffre
Publication Date: 30/09/2021 ISBN: 9781838775384 Category:
Hardback

£14.99

Quantity:

Description

‘A PERFECTLY PLOTTED FESTIVE MYSTERY’ SUSI HOLLIDAY, AUTHOR OF THE PARTY SEASON

‘A DELICIOUS LOCKED ROOM MYSTERY’ VAL MCDERMID

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

READERS LOVE THE CHRISTMAS MURDER GAME:

‘I could not be more in love with this book if I tried’
‘An absolute must read’
‘Poetic, immersive and imbued with heart as well as an icy bite’
‘the perfect read to snuggle up with in the bleak midwinter!’
‘A wonderful read on a cold snowy winters day, sit back and enjoy the ride’
‘Cluedo in a book!’
‘An absolutely brilliant read for this time of year!’
‘My favourite book of this year so far!’

Publisher Review

The perfect gift for quizzers and mystery addicts . . . A delicious locked room mystery crammed with cryptic clues, secrets in sonnets and a deadly game. But it's more than a series of puzzles, it's also an entertaining exploration of relationships and a riveting read * Val McDermid * A perfectly plotted festive mystery woven around a cleverly constructed game. It's all fun and games until someone gets killed! This book is beautifully unique, with an ending so incredibly well-done, I re-read it over and over. A clever, classic whodunnit that will see you through the bleak winter nights * Susi Holliday * Utterly original and breathtakingly intriguing, The Christmas Murder Game is a twisty-turny masterpiece. With captivatingly quirky characters, a spooky country house mansion, and clues and riddles galore this pacy mystery keeps you hooked to the very last page. A must read this Christmas. * Steph Broadribb * With The Christmas Murder Game, Alexandra Benedict has created the perfect updating of the classic Christmas Country House mystery, and in Lily has created a brilliant, brave and wonderfully human heroine. The traditionalists will love the sensual descriptions of Endgame, the amazing food served there and the crisp falling snow that traps the inhabitants therein, while those who love their Holiday reading a little more modern will find much to admire in the manners and mores of the wonderfully bickering family. Puzzle fans, meanwhile, will adore the games-within-games in this smart, sassy, sexy and brilliantly written Holiday mystery. If you love Christmas, corsets, mysteries, murders and puzzles, then your Holiday reading is sorted. The Christmas Murder Game is the perfect escape from the craziness of Christmas, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. Fabulous festive fun. Just read it, and thank me later * Derek Farrell * The perfect Christmas read, with a taut plot, a central character you will want to cheer on and puzzles galore for both readers and the players of the game * W.C. Ryan * Curl up by the fire (and lock all the doors) for this Christmas cracker of a book. Hugely entertaining * CS Green * Perfectly pitched for cold nights and warm fires. A lovely Golden Age tribute * Sinead Crowley * This book gripped me from start to last page and didn't let go even after I finished. This gripping, twisty, claustrophobic thriller is an atmospheric, tense, unrelenting brilliant read from Alexandra Benedict * Merilyn Davies * One for book lovers that can't get enough of mystery fiction - even during Christmas * The Sun * This Agatha Christie-esque murder mystery is superbly written and so cleverly plotted. Readers will enjoy the challenges set by the author to solve anagrams and spot the titles of her favourite country house festive mysteries hidden within the text. You'll be drawn in by the lavish, atmospheric setting and there's a definite sense of being trapped alongside the dysfunctional family. Like Lily, you'll have no idea who to trust . . . * My Weekly * This is the perfect Christmas book. Get it for yourself to read when the nights are cold and dark and give it as a present. To everyone! * Martyn Waites * As rich and satisfying as figgy pudding, this classic who's-doing-it find cousins competing in the annual family treasure hunt, and this year the winner will take all. So, who will live to see Twelfth Night? Anagrams are buried in the text for extra spice * Saga Magazine * Packed with riddles, anagrams and puzzles, this is an engaging murder mystery that will grip you until the end * Daily Mirror * If a classic festive murder mystery rings your jingle bells, then settle back in your armchair and enjoy a brilliant claustrophobic crime caper - complete with wicked word games - that will test both your pulse rate and your little grey cells. Award-winning writer Alexandra Benedict, who also pens critically-acclaimed gothic novels - bewitches and beguiles us with a locked-room, Agatha Christie-style whodunit dished up with a contemporary twist and a delicious side-serving of anagrams and puzzles . . . The Christmas Murder Game has all those much-loved trademarks of traditional crime mysteries and comes liberally sprinkled with snow, a thick layer of skulduggery, a scattering of intriguing clues and puzzles, and an entertaining cast of deeply dysfunctional characters. In Lily, Benedict gives us an inspirational heroine to shout for - brave, determined and intensely human - as she sets her sights firmly on digging out the truth even as the bodies mount and her chances of surviving the twelve days of Christmas seem to recede by the hour. Fast-paced, tension-packed, cleverly plotted, and set against the rugged backdrop of wintertime Yorkshire, this is a murder mystery just dying to be read! * Lancashire Evening Post * Clever and twisty * Crime Monthly * The Christmas Murder Game is an absolute delight. Alexandra Benedict's turns of phrase are *chef's kiss* and her plotting and characterisation are pitch perfect. It felt wonderfully traditional and yet so, so, SO now and relevant. An instant Christmas crime classic * Cavan Scott *

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