Oh the twists and games this books reveals! If you love anagrams, word games, riddles with a murder mystery read this book! Even if you are not into those word games this book still is very entertaining and walks through the clues and solves them. The author has added two extra games for you to play along with if you want more fun. In the various twelve days of Christmas she has included anagrams in those chapters.
This book was similar to the movie clue. Cousins and family return to the Endgame House for Christmas to play twelve days of Christmas to find secret hidden keys. Each day they have to find a new clue to figure out where the key is hidden. The winner at end who solves the riddles wins the house. Of course sounds pretty simple but the.man add family drama, greed, jealously and some family history you start to see this isn’t a normal scavenger hunt. This book was very entertaining and I loved the added anagram game! Many thanks to NetGalley for the eARC. All opinions expressed in this review are my own

A locked house mystery set in England is a long standing favorite of mystery lovers everywhere. This book brings that to the table and includes some games for the reader to play along with while they read. Which I thought was an interesting twist on the locked house mystery genre. While I didn’t play the games along with reading the book, I could see how these games would appeal to a mystery lover. This book takes place at Endgame House, a glorious British house in Yorkshire, England. When Lily’s aunt dies, she requests that all of the family’s children (now adults) return to the house to play one last Christmas game to determine who will win the deed to the house. While there is competition in the air, no one can trust anybody else and when the guests begin dying off one by one, everyone is a suspect and there is a killer on the loose while everyone is trapped inside the house.

This book started off a little slow for me; however, when it picked up, it was near to impossible to stop reading. I really enjoyed the characters and their back stories and the author does a good job of weaving everything together to make this a great mystery novel. Lily’s aunt has asked to her to come to the house to win a chance to own the house, however, she also wants her to solve the case of Lily’s mother’s mysterious death twenty-one years ago. Was it suicide as Lily has believed for all this time, or was she murdered? Lily has dual purposes in the game, and while she doesn’t care who wins, she is determined to resolve her mother’s death so she can move on with her life.

I found this book to be a good quick mystery read that kept my attention until the very last page. I really enjoyed Lily’s character and it was hard not to root for her throughout the book. With multiple characters who all have motive and opportunity, the reader is hard pressed to determine who the murderer is until the conclusion at the end. If you love the locked room mystery mystery genre, this book has a nice little twist on the genre sure to delight mystery readers everywhere. A fantastic read from Benedict, who is an author I will be keeping my eyes on in the future.

Overall Rating: 4 stars
Author: Alexandra Benedict

Series: N/A

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press

Publication Date: October 4, 2022

Pages: 322

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Get It: Amazon

Disclaimer: This book was given to me by the publisher, through NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review. I reviewed this book without compensation of any kind. All thoughts and opinions are solely mine.

Lily Armitage hasn't been back to Endgame House in twenty-one years, ever since her mother died. Each year the family participates in the annual Christmas Game, and this year's prize is the deed to Endgame House itself. At first Lily refuses to go back there but after getting a letter from her aunt which promises her the deed to the house as well as the identity of her mother's killer. She has to compete against her estranged cousins for the twelve days of Christmas. Meanwhile the phone lines are down, the snow is heavy, and no one can get in or out of there.
This was a great murder mystery with a Christmas theme. I liked how the book had puzzles within it for the reader to solve. Overall it was a great quick read. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy.

A great read by this author. I definitely recommend checking this one out!
Thank you NetGalley for providing a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Such a fun holiday read and we love a little LGBTQ romance! This book had all the holiday fun I’m looking for and would honestly be a great Hallmark movie in my opinion! Definitely predictable, but I can’t complain I enjoyed it.

ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed some aspects of this story. The plot was complex and revolves around the family matriarch passing away and holding a Christmas game that she had planned out prior to passing to see who would inherit her giant house. I liked the writing style but didn’t feel like I had enough of the characters backstories to really feel invested and care about what happened to them. The ending felt a little predictable to me but overall I liked the idea the author was going for with this book.

"The Christmas Murder Game" by: Alexandra Benedict was a fun and throilling holiday read. I greatly enjoyed the premise of this story and the mystery that engulfed nearly every page. The idea of having to travel to a place you have sworn off as part of the dying wish of someone you loved in their life was a relatable introduction to our MC and her journey through "The Christmas Murder Game." I greatly enjoyed the characters in this story and this is a book I could absolutely find myself going back and re-reading.

Locked door mysteries are all the rage lately and I'm here for it! I live for the suspense and thrills of following characters as they slowly realize that they're in a bad situation with no way out. This story combined the well-loved locked room trope with another of my favorite tropes, a "Clue" like game. Add in the fact that it takes place in a creepy old house at Christmas time and it seems like the perfect book for me.

Unfortunately, something about the execution of the story left me a little bit unsatisfied. The book was a lot of fun but just didn't grab me like I hoped that it would. I do appreciate that there are more Christmas books being released for us "anti-romance" readers. Overall, this was a decent story but not as good as I had hoped.

I received this book from the publisher to read and review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I have mixed feelings on this one. Sometimes, it was really fun, and at other times, it was really, really silly. Based on the small amount of Agatha Christie that I have read, I do highly recommend <i>The Christmas Murder Game</i> to fans of hers. If that's you, I think you'll really like it. It's also a very festive read. Those things aside, however, I would say you can go ahead and skip this one.

2 stars!

Unfortunately I had to DNF this book about 40% through. I thought this would be a fun premise, but overall it was just boring.

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

“This house is sick!”

Lily’s family has a tradition at Christmas. They play a game where they have clues they must solve in order to receive their gifts. The one that figures out where the gifts are receives an extra gift. Lily hasn’t been back to her family home for several years. The only reason she’s back this Christmas is to find out what really happened to her mother…She doesn’t really intend to participate in the family game. Especially when the prize is the house that she desperately wants to be rid of. But when people start dying, she needs to solve these puzzles and figure out who is killing her family members before she’s next.

This book has a slight Agatha Christie feel to it. I liked all the puzzles in the book. And that there were puzzles within the puzzle in order for lily to find out what happened to her mother. I felt like it had a slow start to it and it seemed to take awhile to get to the real meat of the book. But I did enjoy it. I will read more from this author in the future!

Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

Happy to include this title in “Cosy Reads for Christmas,” a cozies-themed gift list as part of the holiday books package in Zoomer magazine’s Zed Books section.

Isolated setting, snowy holiday and family secrets are wrapped up nicely in this Christmas telling of a family gathering during the holidays. Upon her Aunts death, Lilly and her family must return to their family’s estate to play the traditional Christmas game. The prize is ownership of the estate but for Lilly it will bring closure to a family secret. I enjoyed the book, settings and characters. The only element of the story that I lost interest in where the sonnets that were given as clues , they could have been somewhat shorter in length. Thanks to Netgalley for this early release.

Lily Armitage must return to house where her mother died and to put the clues to the game together to solve her mother's and aunts murder.

The beginning of the book was alittle slow but once Lily got to Endgame House the pace really picked up. I enjoyed this book alot it had the feel of And Then There Were None.

I thought the idea of solving riddles to win the inheritance as well as having the clues to her mother's murderer intertwined in the riddles was quite clever and intriguing. I would definitely recommend this book.

Thank you Netgallery and Poision Pen Press fir the ARC

This was a pretty good mystery. I loved all of the riddles and the fact that it was almost a mystery within a mystery. I found the ending was slightly predictable and I could guess fairly early on how things were going to turn out. Overall I enjoyed the book though and I would recommend it!

A cute little Christmas murder mystery? Sign me up. This book did not disappoint, and I’m sort of shocked that others are hyping this book up because it does deserve some hype. If you are looking for a Christmas storyline/murder/mystery.. look no further.

This book had a super interesting premise and was such a unique concept and I truly wanted to enjoy it as I love Christmas and love murder mysteries. The writing style seemed a bit amateur and read like a casual verbal conversation, which I found difficult to get into.

I received an advanced reader copy of the Christmas Murder Game by Alexandra Benedict in exchange for an honest review.

The Christmas Murder Game is a murder mystery that checks off a lot of the most popular trope boxes. It’s got a cozy vibe, set in winter, a countryside mansion, old money, closed-circle, family secrets. There is plenty in this book for people to love.

I felt this book was an enjoyable and straightforward mystery. I did get confused occasionally, but fortunately the book comes with a family tree to keep track of everybody. I wouldn’t say it’s extraordinary, but I don’t have anything to criticize it for either. Benedict knows the genre well and delivered a solid story.

The Christmas Murder Game also comes with a game within a game, with various words and phrases hidden throughout as anagrams. Personally, I didn’t participate in this game, because that wasn’t the kind of reading experience I was interested in. I would have gotten too focused on finding the scrambled words to pay attention to the plot. But that’s just me. If you’re into anagrams and world puzzles then I’m sure you would enjoy this element.

Thank you NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the advanced reader copy.

Things I liked about this book:
- The setting
- The classic British country house style mystery
- queer representation
- puzzles in puzzles

Things I did not like about this book:
- Flat characters
- Predictable ending and "twists" along the way
- not enough Christmas
- incest !

I held off on this eARC because I wanted it specifically for the holiday season. I'm glad that I did this because it was a fun read for the Christmas season. Essentially, the story is reminiscent of an Agatha Christie style, closed circle mystery. For those who are intrigued by these sorts of mystery stories and puzzles as well, this book is a great one. There are anagrams and other fun pieces of the mystery to engage the reader. The characters have all returned to the family manor for a tradition of the twelve days of Christmas, with a new puzzle daily. These are often based on classic writings, such as poems or other works of literature. In addition to the literature aspect, the protagonist also was able to apply her knowledge of the family member who designed the puzzles to devise the answers. Some of the intrigue is within the puzzles themselves and also the interaction between the family and deciding if anyone can trust anyone else.
If you are looking for a cozy mystery that is holiday themed (loosely), this is a good choice.
#TheChristmasMurderGame #NetGalley #PoisonedPenPress