A Christmas Murder by Mary Grand had all the ingredients of a perfect cozy Christmas murder mystery including an absolutely stunning cover picture and although the mystery was good I somehow found the main characters to be quite bland.

I received an e-ARC of the book from the publisher Boldwood Books and the author via NetGalley.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐💫

This cozy wasn’t bad, it had a good storyline, it was Susan, who irritated me. She placed herself in these situations and stood in her shoes and wondered, what do you expect, no one had to tell you snooping can be dangerous for your health. It was an intriguing, engaging, and mildly exciting cozy mystery, although, Susan’s style of sleuthing was sloppy.

A lovely story with a little romance, murder and classic characters. A quick read with lots of red herrings and an interesting story line where you will be in Susan's shoes trying to solve the case.

This can be read as a stand alone or as part of the series. I loved the attention to detail when the author described the various dishes which were cooked and served to the guests, I wonder if she would part with some of the recipes. There is a nice flow to the story, the scenes are well thought out and the main characters, Susan and Alice, are very entertaining.

"A Christmas Murder" captivated me with its charming cosy mystery, compelling me to keep turning the pages. The plot was intriguing, and it featured an excellent main character, Susan.

Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for my ARC.

Mary Grand’s A Christmas Murder is a delightful holiday whodunnit that immerses readers in the cozy yet suspenseful Christmas setting on the Isle of Wight. Set at the luxurious Bishopstone Manor, this third instalment in the Isle of Wight Killings series follows amateur sleuth Susan as she reluctantly steps in to help her friend Meera host a Christmas gathering. But when a snowstorm traps everyone on the island and a dead body is discovered the next morning, Susan’s plans for a peaceful Christmas take a dark turn.

With a nod to classic locked-room mysteries, A Christmas Murder offers all the elements of an ideal holiday cozy. Grand’s Bishopstone Manor is richly detailed, from lavish Christmas decor to mouthwatering festive meals. The manor itself—alongside the storm outside—adds to the book’s atmosphere, creating an idyllic yet chilling backdrop for a murder. Susan, alongside her loyal dogs Rocco and Libs, must navigate a web of lies and unravel family secrets among the guests, including the arrogant press mogul Duncan Fern, his new wife Kirsten, and a bitter newspaper editor, Antoine.

Susan is a thoroughly enjoyable protagonist, blending warmth with a quiet resilience as she pieces together clues. Though she can be a bit headstrong, especially when threats emerge, her persistence and insight keep the mystery moving. Her complex relationship with her old friend Robert adds a touch of personal depth, and returning readers will enjoy watching Susan grow in her role as an accidental sleuth. Even newcomers to the series will find themselves rooting for her as she faces both danger and the challenges of her evolving community ties.

The murder mystery is satisfyingly complex, with red herrings, surprising reveals, and a cast of characters that all seem to have something to hide. The interplay of family feuds, professional rivalries, and personal ambitions creates a compelling dynamic that makes each character a potential suspect. Grand masterfully weaves in clues and foreshadowing, keeping readers on edge and ensuring the final reveal is both surprising and well-earned. With its snowy setting, layered mystery, and vibrant characters, A Christmas Murder is the perfect cozy read for the holiday season.

📚 BOOK REVIEW 📚

A Christmas Murder
By Mary Grand
Publication Date: September 5, 2024
Publisher: Boldwood Books

📚MY RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

📚MY REVIEW:

With its thriller-esque whodunnit plotline, A Christmas Murder is sure to be your favorite holiday cozy mystery! Set in the fictional cozy Bishopstone Manor on the Isle of Wight off England's coast, amidst a rare snowstorm at Christmas, this book is the epitome of what you crave from a cozy mystery.

Cozy mysteries have quickly become one of my favorite genres! This was my first read from Mary Grand, and I am so excited to start devouring her backlist. A Christmas Murder is the third installment in her Isle of Wight Killings series, but this can easily be a standalone read. Of course, now that I've gotten to know the book's female protagonist, Susan, I can't wait to go back and learn more about how she unwittingly became the village's amateur sleuth!

Susan gives off such a heart-warming Jessica Fletcher vibe from Murder, She Wrote. And as I'm pondering that thought now, I realize the book's fictional village of Bishopstone also gives a nostalgic vibe similar to Cabot Cove. My one grumble about the story - so minimal really - was Susan's minimizing of the threats coming her way and continuing to put herself in harm's way for the sake of solving the mystery. There were times I wanted to shake some sense into her (Again, Jessica Fletcher vibes). A brilliant lady, at times a not-so-smart risk-taking, making choices in the name of solving a whodunnit mystery. If somebody tries to assault me - more than once - you can bet I'm out that door. 😉

The whodunnit mystery in this book was SO well-done! Secrets were revealed at every turn and foreshadowing clues were entangled with mysterious red herrings to continue the mystery throughout the pages. I was kept in the dark and on the edge of my seat waiting to learn who the mastermind was behind all the nefarious happenings at the manor. The cast of characters was richly developed and the storyline was told with warm details -- I truly felt as if I was there in the pages - watching everything unfold around me in a blanket of freshly-fallen snow.

I'm so, so happy there are more Isle of Wight and Mary Grand cozy mysteries awaiting me! When you're looking for a cozy mystery this holiday season, with a brilliant whodunnit storyline you'll love, look no further than A Christmas Murder! A big thank you to NetGalley, Boldwood Books, and the author herself for the gifted advanced e-copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

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Full review to come on Goodreads and Amazon. Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for a review copy

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of this book. This is a cozy. One that you can read in a couple of afternoons. With a cup of tea and a roaring fire. Susan has been asked to help out at the manor house that is now a hotel. She is to see to it that the guests are comfortable and play a recorder during dinners. On the first night of a family gathering, the patriarch is killed. Of course Duncan had a heart problem. Of course he took meds. Of course it’s not as it seems. Is it the second wife? Is it the son who is soon to be on a quiz show after writing best selling books. Or is it the sister, who is the ghost writer for those best sellers? Is it the sister’s boyfriend who wants to open a gym? Is it the son’s wife who is a restaurant critic? Is it the he head of The Flame, a newspaper? Susan does a wonderful job of solving the case. Working on her self and being happy. This would make a really good book club selection. Read it and thank me later!

Overall, I enjoyed the writing style and the ambiance. It was reminiscent of Agatha Christie's vibes. Unfortunately, I didn't relate to the characters and it kinda spoiled my reading experience.

In Mary Grand’s latest Isle of Wight mystery novel, local amateur sleuth Susan is hoping for a quiet Christmas when a local businesswoman named Meera needs some help hosting infamous press mogul Duncan Fern, his wife, the editor of his paper, and his family at Bishopstone Manor for Christmas. Following in the footsteps of Agatha Christie, a snowstorm traps everyone on the island; the next morning, one of the guests is dead. With the killer among the guests and staff, Susan’s quiet Christmas is gone, and she needs to solve the mystery before the murderer chooses a new victim. A classic locked-house mystery, readers will love solving the case alongside Susan; the new cast of suspects and their motives make this a challenge for readers to solve. With a fascinating premise and another case with Susan, readers new to Grand’s mysteries and readers familiar with Susan’s other cases will be able to jump right into this novel and series and seamlessly follow her detective adventures. With so much at stake and a lot of confusing and complicated plot twists, Grand has crafted a fantastically complex and exciting mystery and new challenges for Susan that readers will love devouring this holiday season.

Such an awesome read. It's one of those that once you start reading you just can't stop. A proper page turner. Get you pencil and paper at the ready to write down all your suspects and clues, you'll kick yourself at the end. It's a brilliant read brilliantly written xx

Susan has gone off to help Meera run the hotel for the holiday. Meera took a fall and hurt both her wrist as well as her ankle
There's going to be 7 guests there.
Duncan, who has money, his wife, and 2 kids with their spouses will be there. And his assistant
Everyone has made it safely. In the morning, there is a snowstorm trapping the island shut. In the morning, Duncan is found dead as well. Everyone has reasons to want him dead. His son feels he always has to please his father. His daughter is strange and is found in the library by the fire in the wee hrs of the night. His daughter in law was seen walking outside in the wee hrs of the night and she didn't agree with the things Duncan published in his paper. His son in law is perceived as a gold digger. Duncan and his assistant have already had a round of words, and finally, there's his wife. They sleep in separate rooms, but she was seen coming out of Duncan's room in the wee hrs of the night
Who killed Duncan? They all had motives for doing so. Now they are all trapped in this hotel and snowstorm. Trapped amongst a killer and a dead body

“A Christmas Murder” by Mary Grand is a nicely done murder mystery. With much of the action set at a Tudor Manor turned hotel, this is one of those novels set in the present day yet seems refreshingly old-fashioned. I love Susan, the main character, who is rebuilding her life after her husband of forty years left her. She is strong, resilient, intelligent, and a bit hesitant to jump into another romance. The Tudor Manor/hotel setting is also nicely done – especially with the Christmas setting and a snowstorm that traps them at the manor – at least for a while. The mystery focuses on the murder of the head of a family staying at the hotel - this offers plenty of suspects as the victim was not well liked or a particularly nice person. The book is filled with twists and turns and red herrings – very few people in the book can be trusted which leads to much misdirection. There were some things I figured out and other things I thought I figured out but was totally wrong. There is also a nicely doen sense of danger as Susan gets closer to figuring out who the killer is. All in all a very nicely done mystery.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley.

This wasn't as interesting as I'd hoped. It dragged along without getting anywhere and I began to loose interest. It's a shame as I know the Isle of Wight and the knew the places they were mentioning in the book. The story just didn't hold up. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

Susan is looking forward to a quiet Christmas, but that is certainly not what she is going to get!
She is asked if she can help out at a local hotel due to the owner having an accident , she’s a little apprehensive but decides to give it a go .
The group of people who are at the manor for Christmas are an odd bunch and there’s plenty of tension in the air .
The wealthy press mogul Duncan Fern has come to the hotel with his wife and family and a business associate and egos are aplenty .
The Isle of Wight suffers a snow storm and the next morning a body is found, therefore Susan’s Christmas is certainly not going to be the quiet one she had hoped for .
She soon begins sleuthing into the death which looks on the surface to be a death by natural causes .
The protagonist soon finds herself in danger .
Can she find the truth behind Duncan’s death before it’s too late?
A great winter read it’s a sit back in your favourite chair and a mug of hot chocolate kind of read!
The writing is excellent and the story moves on at a fair pace with plenty of twists and turns it kept me guessing!
A must read for lovers of the cosy mystery genre !
Highly recommended!
Thanks to NetGalley and Boldwood Books.

This is a murder mystery taking place at an isolated inn over Christmas, centering on a wealthy but dysfunctional family and Susan, temporary help at the inn who apparently likes solving murders.

I enjoy mysteries, particularly Agatha Christie’s and those that feature Miss. Marple, and I certainly see the vibes here with the amateur detective who’s a bit nosy and the setup with a cast of suspects at an isolated location, but I didn’t think this was well-crafted. The story was heavy on dialogue, but there was no subtext or things left unsaid or double meanings and characters like Susan tended to repeat things that were already mentioned or that she’d already thought, plus characters tended to sound the same. There was never much tension built up either, like there were moments of danger but not really consequences from it so it made me wonder what the point was. The cast of suspects were made to be distinct, so that was good. But I don’t think anyone was particularly interesting or compelling, and it was kind of unrealistic to me how these suspects just spilled all their secrets to Susan, who was essentially a maid they’d known for a few days. Susan was definitely a proactive character, but her shameless snooping was a little unbelievable. The mystery itself wasn’t crafted to be super complex either, not like Agatha Christie, and the writing was not the best. I grew a bit bored reading it, so by the end I wasn’t particularly interested in figuring out who’d done it.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC.

This was such a a fun and easy read. I enjoyed the fact that Susan was an older woman, most cozy mystery books seem to have women in their 20's as the main character so this was a nice change. I honestly didn't expect who the killer was. I was wrong at each turn. I hope to read more about Susan and her adventures now!

This is the first book I have read by this author and it turned out to be the third book in the series but I didn't feel like I was missing anything. For a perfect winter mystery you can't beat a manor house on an Island in a blizzard. It is the ultimate locked room type mystery trope. The characters are very well done and had their own secrets, agendas and mysteries which mad them unique, varied and memorable. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This is the first time I have read this author and I really enjoyed this cozy mystery. The amateur sleuth is Susan and she doesn't quit until she figures it out. She is helping out a friend, who had an accident and is expecting a newspaper mongrul and his family for Christmas at her newly opened inn.
Susan agrees to help her out for her friend Robert. Well, of course, on the first night Duncan is murdered. Who done it. You will have to read it and see.

For winter mysteries, nothing says "locked room" quite like a blizzard. And that is what happens here as well, in a fancy manor on an island. The third book in a series, I didn't feel like I was missing anything by not having read the first two.
Susan doesn't have her daughter this Christmas and is anticipating something very quiet. But then her friend (NOT her boyfriend) asks if she can com e help while a super rich man brings his family (his wife, his two kids, their significant others, and his business partner) back to the island to celebrate in a place where they spent so many pleasant summers. Well, at least until his first wife died.
There is some good character development in this book but I didn't love the end. And our protagonist is put into too much danger for my liking.

Three and a half stars
This book comes out September 5, 2024
ARC kindly provided by Boldwood Books and NetGalley
Opinions are my own