I have received an ARC through NetGalley for review purposes.
Murder Most Actual is a contemporary, Agatha Christie-esque mystery about a murder occurring in a small group of people snowed in at an exclusive hotel in the Scottish Highlands. The book pays homage to the genre, while also commenting and subverting some of the tropes on the genre.
Any in-depth discussion of the book is sure to spoil some of the twists and turns of the story, so suffice it to say that I, who am not usually very keen on crime novels, finished the book in one sitting, staying up until 2AM to do so.

Absolutely loved this! Reminded my of clue or Agatha’s Christie’s novels but with such great representation & fun modern spins! The characters were interesting and well developed, the plot was engaging, and it was just another fabulous read by Alexis Hall.

Alexis Hall succeeds in every genre they try, and is quickly becoming one of my all time favourite authors !

Thank you to netgalley for an e-ARC of this book

Source: NetGally; ARC provided by Kobo Rakuten for an honest review



Alexis Hall writing a cozy mystery? Sign me up! Murder Most Actual is delightful mystery that pays homage to Clue and the current obsession with true crime mystery shows.

When Liza and Hanna check into their hotel they weren't to know that their getaway, which is an attempt to repair their strained marriage, would be hijacked by multiple murders and a snow storm. The hotel is filled with the quintessential quirky characters including a Poirot-like detective who refers to himself in third person. The first murder when it occurs naturally unsettles all the guests, but Liza's inquisitive mind is drawn to the intrigue. As much as Hanna wants her wife to keep away from danger, she knows that this falls squarely into Liza's area of interest. As the bodies pile up, Liza gets deeper into the mystery potentially risking her own safety and that of Hanna's.

I truly enjoyed this book! It felt old-timey in a way and I absolutely go for that stuff being that I grew up on Agatha Christie's Miss Marple and Poirot series. I never got into the true crime frenzy, however, I did enjoy reading Liza's process and getting a bit of an idea of it.

Aside from the mystery, I was incredibly taken with the subplot of Liza and Hanna's relationship. The reason for their holiday is that their marriage has felt a little off recently. Hanna distracted by work, Liza who spends the bulk of her time researching and working on her podcast with her co-host means a lot of time has been spent apart and losing touch with one another. Hanna booked their getaway hoping that would be a kind of refresh button for them. It's not easy closing a gap that's been steadily widening. I think Hall did spectacularly at capturing the nuances of a long-term relationship that has stalled, of a couple who feel so distanced from each other that where the little things they used to like about the other become the things that irritate. All the subtle changes that steadily occur over a period of time that end up gaining momentum and that eventually change the face of the relationship. I understood that so well.

I've read a few Alexis Hall books and I've become used to his style of writing and the self-deprecating ways most of his characters have. So I was impressed by how easily he switched to mystery-mode and by how it felt different. He's still excellent with the eccentric characters, but the way he wrote Liza and Hanna as more serious-minded and steady individuals with their humor intact was what felt different for me. I've already said I enjoyed it and yes, I'd recommend Murder Most Actual to any mystery fan or any Alexis Hall fan.

True crime podcaster Liza and her wife Hanna spend the weekend in a luxourous hotel in remote scotland. With them are a few dubious and excentric other guests. And then people begin to die.
"Murder Most Actual" consists of two main story lines. One is the actual mystery and the other is the marriage crisis of Liza and Hanna.

This book is really hard for me to review. Alexis Hall is one of my very favorite authors. And up to this one I loved every single book by him. So I expected this to be at least a 4 star read for me, probably even a 5 star read. But Murder Most Actual did not really work for me. I will try to explain, but it could just be a typical case of "it's not the book, it's me".

What a liked:
- Alexis' writing style is immaculate and whitty as always. He could write a phone book and it would be amazing to read.
- The depiction of the relationship between Liza and Hanna was emotional yet suttle. It felt very real and I could easily relate to both women. I liked how Alexis managed to show all the many problems in their relationship while still not giving up on the loved between the women.

What I didn't like as much:
- It tool me about 80% into the book until I finally was interested in who actually did it. If this book was written by someone else I would have DNF'ed it long before.
- I found most side characters a little overdone. I would have prefered people that I could imagine meeting in real life. That might actually be the reason why I was so not interested in who was the murderer - I did not case about any of the suspects at all so for me it did not really make any difference who is the bad guy.

However I do encourage you to try this one out. If you like the first few chapters I am positive you will enjoy the book.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

Murder Most Actual by Alexis Hall (3.5 stars) True crime podcaster Liza and her financier wife Hanna escape to the Scottish Highlands to try and rekindle their marriage. Though, they find themselves in an Agatha Christie-esque murder mystery after the guests end up getting snowed in at the hotel.

During this modern cozy mystery, Liza ends up trying to lead the investigation despite the other guests thinking she is a media hack. Despite the murder aspects and a few funny scenes with this cast of obscure hotel guests, we also get scenes of Liza and Hanna. Though Liza and Hanna are still in love, they've slipped into not spending time together, not having good communication and letting little irritations build until they become big fights. Hall writes delicate, beautifully drawn scenes showing the struggles between a couple who have been together for a decade. The representation of a sapphic, married couple was a nice change of pace as I feel they are underrepresented in literature.

One thing that really distracted me during reading was that the dialogue was clunky. The quirky characters felt like they were from different eras in time, so their conversations didn't flow nicely. I did enjoy the Poirot-like character and all of the humour around his silly personality. Hall's humour in this book was kind of accidental, it reminded me of the Naked Gun movies. Though entertaining, I prefer dry, sarcastic humour. Since Hall wrote in third person, I wish she would have taken advantage and wrote from another POV, preferably her wife Hanna. Alternatively, I wish it was written from a first person POV through Liza. Either way, I struggled to connect with Liza and Hanna as characters.

To believe the mystery itself, you have to suspend disbelief and just go along for the ride as it's pretty over-the-top. This book is perfect for people who like playing Clue, fans of the film Knives Out or of the television series Only Murders in the Building (or all three, like me!).

Thank you to the Kobo Originals and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wanna play Clue??

With just a glance at the titles of the chapters, I was falling in love with this book. Once I read the book, I knew that love would last forever.

The characters are diverse and interesting. The setting of an old hotel in the Scottish Highlands is at once creepy and intimate, giving the story a sense of nostalgia and suspense. The story is so well written and the plot is a twisty-turny delight. Once you figure out who did it, you're wrong.

If you love the movie Clue, the game Clue, or really good mystery books - this one's for you!

Thanks to Netgalley for the copy of this book in exchange for a review. Even though it's going to be enthusiastic, it's 100% honest.

Alexis Hall can write anything, and Alexis Hall can write it so damn well.
Alexis has been around long enough to write about 20 novels, but I just found his work at the start of the pandemic when Boyfriend Material got some hype on social media. That romcom was such perfection that I started devouring everything he has written.

With any Alexis Hall book, you will enjoy 1. the best damn repartee out there 2. queer main characters amid a cast so realized that you think of them as actual people 3. lovely little Lit Geek Easter egg references (He throws Edgar Allan Poe's sleuth C. Auguste Dupin in this one. I may have squealed) 4. sharp psycho-social critique wrapped up in a genre that you don't typically expect to have sharp psycho-social critique. 5. a wrenching balance of the beautiful and joyous emerging from pain and cruelty.

Yet with all these consistent elements, Alexis continues to surprise me. I first read a modern rom com, and since then, I've gone with him through stories with kink, trauma, mental illness, the Regency Period, Bake Off parodies, fantasy world-building, supernatural vampire stuff, narrators identifying male, narrators identifying female,... I mean, come on.

Then I got to this gem, which I read shortly after watching the remake of Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile.
It celebrates Christie and our love of true crime, while also satirizing it. Main character Liza is a true-crime podcaster whose marriage to Hanna has gone a bit rocky, in no small part because Hanna finds the moral aspect of true crime fascination rather uncomfortable. Attempting to save their marriage, Hanna books them into a weekend at a luxurious hotel in the remote Scottish highlands. She... probably should've checked with her wife on that first though, yeah? Anyway, they find themselves trapped in a snowstorm with a colorful cast of potential criminals and a rapidly rising body count. There's even a Hercule Poirot PI who just happens to be on the scene (for a while...) As the podcaster and her wife find themselves experiencing true crime in real-time and close quarters, they learn- as we do with them- about the inherent classicism and sexism in this popular genre; about the difficulties of balancing our natural curiosity with moral responsibility; about how difficult yet vital it is to evolve as a couple; about why Americans really need to take a hard look at the practicality of loose gun control. Yup, he packed in all that, and still, he created an effective parody with laugh-out-loud cathartic moments and a big reveal that actually surprised me.

Did I mention Alexis Hall is also ridiculously productive? This is one of several books released over the next 18 months. Plus, Alexis has a blog/newsletter and is very accessible and generous with his readers. Any new work by Alexis Hall is a gift that is both an escape from the difficulties of life and a tool for learning to understand it. Now, go read this book. Then go read ALL the Alexis Hall books.

eARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

3.25/5 ⭐️

While I can confidently say I am an Alexis Hall fangirl and will read pretty much anything he writes, this book did not particularly stick out to me. Although I generally do not gravitate towards mysteries, I found the premise of this book highly intriguing: a Cluedo-style murder mystery with a sapphic main couple.....YES PLEASE! Plus, as I said, I am a massive Alexis Hall fan. I was so excited to get into this book.

Right off the bat, this is not a bad book. It's super cozy and offers a very humorous murder mystery story (more on that later) which made it a very unique read in my eyes. I would venture to say that this is amongst the funnier books I've read from Hall, since it was obvious it did not take itself too seriously. I thought the setting was also wonderful: an isolated castle in the Scottish highlands, so perfect! It was a great spooky balance to the humour of the book. Unlike many other reviews, I really liked the characters. They were unlikeable, but I felt that perfectly fit with the themes and tone of the book. I particularly liked Hanna and Liza; they were really fun to read and I appreciated how they were flashed out characters. Plus I did enjoy that their relationship in the book is struggling; it made a nice change of pace.

That being said, while the main couple popped, the side characters did remain somewhat one dimensional. This is not inherently a bad thing but, in this case, by the end I was still getting who was who confused with each other. Especially considering this was a murder-mystery, I would have liked more dimension from the characters rather than them being reduced to stereotypes for comedic purposes. However, the biggest issue I had with this book was the pacing: I can tell that Hall likes to write dialogue a lot more than action-like scenes, and while that works great for a contemporary romance, it does not really apply that well for mysteries. I felt that this book was trying very hard to be funny that it missed out on the suspenseful feeling you are supposed to have when reading a murder-mystery. I felt this made the ending incredibly rushed and very anti-climatic. The big reveal at the end about who was the killer definitely could have been better executed: it very much felt like a Scoobydoo criminal reveal (which again, I do feel this is what Hall was going for, but it just left me very underwhelmed).

I do think this was a good book and I would definitely recommend it to people looking for a more relaxed mystery, but I just wanted more from it.

Ok, listen up, this book was such a treat!
Among thrillers, detective and police procedural type books, murder mysteries are my jam! I love a good mystery and I love a good murder. Uhm, let's rephrase that. I don't love murder, but I do enjoy reading about it. Nope, still not better. Let's move on.

I've been a big fan of Columbo, Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes ever since I was a kid, so this book was just up my alley.
Murder mystery + a bit of domestic drama + Alexis Hall's writing = a fabulous time.

I loved the structure of the book, even the chapter names were brilliant. The pacing is quite perfect, the characters are a bunch of ridiculous individuals, and those things combined made the entire experience so much fun.

However, murderous aspect aside, what I liked most was the portrayal of Liza and Hanna's relationship. Ah, that got to me on a very personal level because, you know, married life really is hard. Life in general is hard. I don't know, I got extremely emotional reading those parts because I could see myself in so many of them.

Thank you so much NetGalley and Rakuten Kobo for giving me a copy of this book. I am extremely grateful.

Liza and Hanna are having a rough patch after ten years of marriage, so Hanna books them a romantic getaway in the Scottish Highlands. The first night they’re there, one of the other guests falls to his death from a balcony. Was he pushed? Did he slip? Liza just can’t help but investigate, since she hosts a mildly successful murder podcast, while Hanna protests, especially as more guests begin to mysteriously die…

This book was adorable. Can I say that about a murder mystery? Well, I am. The banter is snappy, the characters are fun, and you just can’t help but wish you were snowed in with them. A dash of Agatha Christie, a heaping helping of Clue (I love the chapter titles!), mixed together with Hall’s quirky characters makes this a fun, fast read guaranteed to make you giggle.

I really enjoyed this contemporary cozy mystery. The pacing was a bit off here and there, but it came together in the end. What I read was fun and lighthearted sprinkled with an actual realistic romance. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and would recommend to lovers of quirky murder mystery movies/shows.

This is my first Alexis Hall book and I will definitely be looking into reading more.

I want to thank NetGalley, Alexis Hall and Rakuten Kobo, Kobo Originals for the e-ARC of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are honest, my own and left voluntarily.

Alexis Hall's Murder Most Actual is a disappointing murder mystery made difficult to read by its slow pace and unlikable main characters.
The only other book I've read by Hall is Boyfriend Material, which was delightful--the characters were complicated but likable, each with their own good qualities and foibles. That is not the case in Murder Most Actual--the protagonists are unlikable, and the early chapters full of their sniping at each other made the book almost impossible to get through.
Add to that the slow pace (for heaven's sake, the first chapter has them driving, stop driving, talk about a mpa, walk, get back in the car, drive) and the novel was a distressing disappointment.
Recommended for Alexis Hall devotees who don't mind a slow pace and unlikable main characters.

I was looking forward to reading this, but it came to me in a format I can't open on my Kindle, so I didn't get to read it.

This contemporary cozy mystery is a lot of fun. Liza, a true-crime podcaster, and Hanna, a financial analyst, are ten years married and experiencing a rough patch of reduced communication and intimacy in said marriage. Hanna, without consulting Liza, books the couple into a getaway at a secluded, off-the-grid Scottish manor house/hotel. A surprise snow storm strands Liza and Hanna and a full cast of characters out of a game of Clue (or Cluedo, since our author is British). As the snow piles up, so do the bodies. Will Liza identify the killer(s) before the couple fall victim? Will they or their marriage survive this holiday? I enjoyed the humor and heart that Alexis Hall invariably weaves into his stories. This mystery was entertaining and kept me guessing to the end.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Liza and Hanna have been married for 10 years, but in the last few they've been drifting apart. In a somewhat misguided attempt at rekindling their romance, Hanna books them a fancy hotel vacation at a remote hotel up in the Scottish highlands. A blizzard hits, they loose all contact with the outside world, and one of the guests turns up dead.

I really wanted to like this book, I swear I really did. I was so excited. I generally enjoy mysteries, and the fact it was about a couple in a struggling marriage seemed like a really interesting premise!

BUT.

Oh man.

First, the probably the biggest overarching problem with this was the pacing. Sometimes it was fun and lighthearted, and I will admit there was a line or two that had me laughing. And other times, it ground to an absolute halt. (I'm not even going to mention the last third because I was just skimming through to just finish the book by then) I don't know how many times over the last week I pick it up and put it back down to go wonder off and do something else, but because I got kind of bored (that feels so harsh to say)? If I wasn't reading this on my phone (and thus had access to it pretty much all the time) there's a fair chance I may have not finished it.

Second, the characters. The side characters were generally fun in the way that they were pretty much all mysterious murder in a Scottish mansion hotel tropes - which when told well is something that can be a lot of fun! But unfortunately, they just kind of were...meh. They also had some fun lines and scenes, but yeah. As for the two mains... I wanted to like them, and at times I did! But quite frankly, my issues with them kind of tie into another broader issue with the plot: it felt like the author was trying to say something, without really meaning it.

It's kind of hard to explain what I mean, so let me give an example: the true crime podcast (y'know a core part of the story). I will totally say this up front, I'm not a fan of true crime stuff. I knew that going in, and I am usually totally able to get past that and love it when authors can change my opinions on stuff like this (hey, I just read a romance that really made me appreciate contemporary art way more! Fun!). But quite frankly it took everything I don't like about it, and kind of threw it in my face (the trivialization and of death and tragedy, the disrespect of family members, I could go on but this isn't the place for it). It was especially really hard to ignore with Hanna kind of just putting it out there on the page like every chapter. And this pretty core part of the tension between the two, didn't really seem resolved??? There really seemed to be less of a discussion about it, and more of "oh my wife is super hot when she's solving crimes" which like fair. But not so much from a reader perspective. Maybe, it's just a personal complaint, but still.

(Also, I cannot explain how much the random added thing at the end about the hotel staff being ignored annoyed me so so much. Because those staff were SO VALID. And the mains just kind of brushed them off. Sorry, again, maybe just my own opinions on it bleeding through as someone of the working class, but still it just felt like a tactless throw away criticism of the genre.)

OKAY. LASTLY. I don't want to end this review on a low note, so want to say that I actually really liked the romance in this. It's rare I read about a marriage in trouble or other kinds of dynamics, and I was a little worried about how it was going to be handled quite frankly, especially when you're trying to juggle a mystery on top of it. But I liked it. It wasn't an easy fix, and I really appreciated that. You got a sense of their relationship before the book, and it was so lovely to see them remembering why they fell in love in the first place.

This was such a fun read! This is my first delve into the cozy mystery genre and I feel like this was a great start. I had previously read Boyfriend Material so I was so excited to be given the opportunity to read this one from Hall!

The way I've been describing this book has been 'campy and british'. Since the book is set in Scotland you really do get that air of English humor and phrasing, which I think just makes more fun. I think it's genius how Hall made this horrific experience a way for our main couple, Liza and Hannah, to see how much they really mean to each other, and it was fun to watch them fall in love (again).

My two main issues with this book was that I thought it was a tad repetitive (murder, Liza follows clues, Liza and Hannah fight, they compromise, repeat) and that some of the characters, specifically the male ones, were hard to differentiate from each other. Overall I really enjoyed reading this and it was a fun delve into a different genre! Thank you for the opportunity!

A campy, cozy mystery a la Clue/Cluedo with a side of realistic romance, as in the couple is married and in trouble.

I enjoyed the book, but I have to say I was expecting more from Alexis Hall, something funnier and a more cleverly designed murder plot. I'm even torn about the relationship sub-plot; not enough time was given to their personal strife to feel invested in the outcome, yet it was needed to balance the crazy caricatures lurking in the hotel's halls. Ultimately I never connected with the characters or plot and finished it disappointed.

This will in no was deter me from reading anything else Hall produces.

I loved this !! Was such a fun twist on the mystery genre and the main relationship was so lovely !
I'm SO into cosy chilled mysteries and this was brilliant, ticked all the boxes for me!

DNF at 50% I tried, but I've tried other books by this author and while I found this one less off the walls and easier to follow, to be frank I want to read a mystery not by trapped in the middle of someone elses bad marriage if I wanted to be sucked into a boring fight that drags on and on where no ones right I'd pick a fight with my husband. If it was just the mystery I think I could have enjoyed it, but I don't know these characters outside of their whiney misunderstandings. I stuck it out for too long and now I'm just mad about the amount of time I wasted on a boring mystery cloaked in a bad marriage

Faced with some problems in their marriage, Hanna decides to whisk her wife, Liza, off for a weekend away. Unfortunately, with an eclectic guest list and a blizzard, all does not go to plan: not least because one guest ends up dead.

Murder Most Actual is a golden-age-style murder mystery that balances humor and intriguing characters without becoming bogged down in detail or a Sayers-Christie-pastiche. Hall is brilliant in his pacing and dialogue.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story and would recommend it.