ben and david have been invited to david's parents house for christmas, and they are very....thespian! david is a theatre kid and as he and ben begin their car journey they begin to fight, at the same time so do his parents and Lydia is worried her husband is slowly losing his memory.
the book opens with a scene of two twins bric and brac as they are going around a house disabling the CCTV and security. so we know that this book will become a domestic thriller at some point, but most importantly, the whole book is just off. there's an uncomfortable dread throughout and you're just waiting for something to happen, but unfortunately, it just never did. there was no pay off. i'm just glad that it wasn't a very long book and therefore i didn't feel like i had wasted too much of my time reading it. I just thought it was all pointless family drama.
maybe this would work better as a short film?

At the beginning of Marshmallows the reader meets a pair of brawny identical twins disabling security cameras; also Ben, who is sitting at the kitchen table making Christmas crackers. His partner, David has just got up; he has a hangover and is making coffee. It’s Xmas eve and they will soon be travelling to David’s parents, Charles and Lydia Cunningham's house. Ben makes sets props for a living and is creative. David, a bit of a party animal, and Ben have been together for a year. They are having the turkey, cranberry sauce and Brussels sprouts on Christmas Eve as Charles and Lydia are heading off to Greece as a late birthday present for Lydia...

A family drama/ crime read, I thoroughly enjoyed this. Nothing is predictible, including the ending.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Betimes Books via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

Ben and David are partners getting ready to do the meet the parents thing. It’s Christmas Eve, full of good cheer, yet something is off. A very different novel from what I was expecting and I’m better off for it, I think.

On Christmas Eve in London, David Cunningham is taking his boyfriend home to meet his parents. They set out in the car for the journey to his parents how but things are tense in the car. Ben is preoccupied by a plan that he has for vengeance on someone that inflicted damage on him years ago. At his parents house, his mother is worried that her husband is suffering some memory loss with age. Her husband is preoccupied with the Christmas tree as he thinks it is crooked. The evening starts out well once they arrive but then the arrival of some unexpected individuals changes everything. This is an unusual Christmas story.

Giving this one ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
It is Christmas Eve in London.

Ben Morrigan is in his boyfriend David’s kitchen making Christmas crackers. The pair is invited to dinner at David’s childhood home, the stylish abode of theatre – and sometimes TV – star Charles Cunningham. For David, that should be the perfect occasion to introduce Ben to the family for the first time.

The couple set out on a car journey, and all is clearly not well. They bicker and argue, and something is preoccupying the dark mind of swarthy Ben, this young man who makes his living from making film/theatre props and constructing sets. The scene he has on his mind on this day is one of vengeance for wrongs inflicted a long time ago.

Charles Cunningham and his wife Lydia wait nervously for the arrival of the guests and are ensconced in their own squabbling. Lydia worries about the state of mind of her aging husband – he has begun to forget things and, when pushed on certain topics, it becomes evident that they have escaped him altogether. But how much of his past will he be allowed to evade?

The Christmas tree Charles gazes upon looks lopsided as if it hasn’t been set up properly and will tumble down at any minute: this central metaphor becomes an apt appraisal for the life he has lived and the truths he will be made face, as apt a metaphor as that of the marshmallows he sometimes indulges in: things that are soft, sweet, delicate and effortlessly consumed, but are now back to haunt like spectres from Christmases past.

The scene is set for a fraught encounter as hunter and hunted face off on a dark winter night. Memories are summoned or are practically wrenched back into play, many of which would perhaps be better off left locked away in a dusty old prop chest with the other Waiting for Godot accoutrements, the bowler hats, the stinging whip; and on a bare theatre stage an intense interrogation and crippling castigation is about to take place, which will frazzle nerves, break relationships and go as far as to upend the very notion of family.

Will anyone come out of it unscathed, or is it just that, as Ben’s favourite Christmas song has it, “the Christmas you get… you deserve

Colin O'Sullivan stories are always somewhat idiosyncratic and this one is no exception. The two main protagonists are from theatrical backgrounds and this is underscored by the structure of the plot, which is Pinteresque with echoes of Beckett, and the style of the presentation, which is rather script like with Director’s notes inserted.
Ben a meticulous, almost obsessive, set and prop designer is preparing to meet the parents of his boyfriend, David, by assembling personalised Christmas crackers. Charles, David’s father, is a formerly famous stage actor now showing signs of Alzheimer's or other form of dementia. David is essentially a cypher in the plot and his mother, Lydia, is a lush, mainly included for comic relief. The four will meet for Christmas dinner on the Eve rather than the Day because the parents are leaving for a holiday in Greece.
Interspersed between the scenes of preparation and dining we are given flashbacks to rehearsals for a production of Waiting for Godot, which are clearly going to be relevant to the rationale of the plot. Though not directly stated, it is easy for the reader to identify which of the characters feature in these interludes and to deduce their relevance. For initially unknown reasons Ben, with the aid of ex-con twin brothers, is engaged on a criminal enterprise against the family.
And so the stage is set for tragedy.
The plot unfolds in an inevitable manner, but that is often the way with stage plays – theatre has its conventions!
I rather enjoyed the book, but I can appreciate that many readers of mystery novels may find it irritating – because these two have their conventions!
I usually only review books pre-publication but got this through a misunderstanding. However, I'm glad I read it. I would like to thank NetGalley, the author and the publishers for the opportunity.

I am so disappointed in this book. There is such a good premise but at no point does it get fleshed out. It has the potential to be a great new genre mixing family drama and crime but it just doesn't shoot it's shot.

I was provided a free copy of this book by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This was a disappointing read. It had a good premise, but O'Sullivan never fleshes it out. Please revise it before publishing!

Marhsmallow is a family drama. And a crime drama. A family crime drama? The story has promise. It has potential. I feel like I was read a draft of a final story. It read more like a play or a screenplay with character background thrown in for the benefit of the actors bringing it to life than for a reader. The difference? An actor could take the information on one character given and bring it to life. Instead, we are kind of expected to do that for all of the characters. I wish it had been a little better fleshed out.