Book Review - Alexandra Benedict's The Christmas Murder Game
The Christmas Murder Game by Alexandra Benedict
Published by: Poisoned Pen Press
Publication Date: September 30th, 2021
Format: Kindle, 322 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)
When Lily Armitage was growing up the whole family would gather at Endgame House for Christmas and the annual Christmas Game. She and her cousins would solve elaborate riddles and clues to find their cache of Christmas presents. But since her mother died on the grounds twenty-one years ago Lily hasn't returned. She was raised by her Aunt Liliana so of course it's because of Liliana that she's returning. Liliana's dying wish was that Lily would return for the final Christmas Game. Over the twelve days of Christmas Lily and her cousins will vie with or against each other to find twelve keys with the prize being the deeds to Endgame House. Lily doesn't want Endgame House, what she wants is answers, and that's the reason she agrees to return. Liliana has promised that the clues will reveal who killed Lily's mother. Wearing her own designer couture that is concealing a secret Lily returns to Yorkshire. There she is reunited with relatives and retainers. Liliana's children, Sara and Gray are there, as are Uncle Edward's, Tom, Rachel, and Ronnie, with Rachel's spouse Holly, and Ronnie's spouse Phillipa. Housekeeper Mrs. Castle is on hand to take care of them and provide the daily clues while Liliana's solicitor and Lily's former crush, Isabelle Sterling, is on hand to dot the i's and cross the t's. While Lily is shocked how happy she is to see all these people the warning from her aunt is clear in her mind, don't trust anyone. Because it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye, or as happens here, Ronnie ends up dead. He might be the first but he won't be the last. Because when the first corpse appears they realize that they are trapped in Endgame House with a killer. The snow is piled high and there's a tree down across the drive. And then the car batteries go missing. Someone wants them to stay and play the game and Lily is ready to play. She came to find out who killed her mother and she is not about to die like she did.
A book claiming to be Clue at Christmas that happens to be loosely a golden age locked room mystery is a must read for me. The problem is that's not what this book is, this book is more Game of Thrones murder mystery though with even more animosity, hate, and incest. I truthfully can say not only did I dislike every single character in this book I hated them. They are all horrible horrible people who I would not like to spend one single second in the presence of. And that's not the main problem of this book! The main problem is there is no motive for the deaths. We are supposed to buy into the fact that obviously anyone would want to inherit a Manor House in Yorkshire. Yet Manor Houses aren't cash cows, this one was run as a business center for years that seemed to just barely be in the black, and everyone has horrible memories of the place, yet they want it? Even if their future plans are solid the horrible memories should make them rethink their plans. But then again, they are all either sociopaths or psychopaths, throw a dart and it's one or the other. So maybe the bad memories don't bother them? Whatever way you look at it the truth is that all these relatives go to Yorkshire to slaughter each other. And Liliana had to know what she was doing. After all her own brother killed her sister! This isn't generational trauma, this is generational homicide. The only answer I have is that they are evil. Evil evil evil. Yes, I love a Christmas murder mystery, I don't want Christmas slaughter. This book has literally one and only one thing going for it, it flips the script on the bury your gays trope. The whole idea that gay characters are expendable or deserve to die is so outdated it's shocking how many people still use it. The Christmas Murder Game was the exact opposite, and for that it should be cheered. Any character who was alive at the start of the book who identifies as queer, gay or bisexual, is alive at the end. And only they are alive at the end. All the straight characters are cleared from the board. So at least that was refreshing. About as refreshing as a snowball in your face, but you take what wins you can sometimes.
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