A good Christmas whodunnit. I enjoyed the characters and didn’t work it out! A quick read for the Christmas period.

I love a good cozy mystery and this book absolutely fits the “cozy” vibes. I love the festive theme and it pairs perfectly with mystery and mayhem. Definitely worth the read this holiday season!

Great premise but largely disappointing, this books lacks a believable plot, sympathetic characters or really any redeeming qualities.

My thanks to NetGalley and Quercus publishers for a copy of “ The Christmas Eve Murders “ for an honest review.

I enjoyed the cosy setting of a Yorkshire pub , where the characters are snowed in on Christmas Eve , and was quickly drawn into the book .For me it lost a little something , and dragged a bit , but it picked up again towards the end .
I was not sold on the dialogue from Micky and his wife but ultimately I can say I found the book to be a good read for the festive season

A group gathered at a pub celebrating Christmas are surprised to see a stranger show up. The stranger announces the imminent arrival of a winter storm. As the pub finds themselves snowed in, power is cut and the festivities turn deadly.

I love mysteries and cozies, but this one felt forced in terms of writing. It didn't really draw me in even though it had a ton of elements that normally would. Maybe it was just the writing style, which others may enjoy more than me!

I read an eARC of this book on NetGalley so thank you to the author and the publisher.

I needed something to fill the void this Christmas as my favourite Christmas author isn’t publishing this year so I was intrigued and delighted to see this offering come along from, I believe, a debut author. This is exactly the kind of crunchy, Christmas crime novel I love to read in December. A mystery, a cast where you don’t know who to trust, secrets revealed and a fascinating puzzle to solve.

This book certainly delivers on Christmas vibes. It’s disappointing when a book is packaged as a Christmas crime novel and then it’s barely mentioned. Not at all the case here where we have our mystery taking place on Christmas Eve. A young woman, trying to drive back home to Scotland to see her parents, breaks down in a storm in the Yorkshire Dales. A kindly stranger guides her through the snow to the local pub where they become trapped in by the furious blizzard. However, the pub in question runs a Christmas Eve scavenger hunt for locals who don’t have anywhere else to be. A good meal, cheery company and the promise of an entertaining evening make being trapped in this pub for the night seem not so bad… and then the first body is found.

Setting and atmosphere for this one are great. The pub works really well and the small village setting increases the isolation and the sense of being trapped. It also helped to make sense of the plot, with all the characters except Maddie (our MC) knowing each other and having history stretching back decades. I loved the idea of a Christmas scavenger hunt, and though more could have been done with this. We didn’t really to see a huge amount of clues here before crime derailed the night and a few more puzzles would not have gone amiss.

I enjoyed the story and the mystery and I was really engaged. I did have one issue with this book which was the way the accent was written for certain characters. It was done so much that it was quite jarring and it didn’t feel necessary to have the first letter of nearly every word replaced with an apostrophe like it had been. I found this a great story but I kept being pulled out of it by this choice of spelling which was a tad frustrating. It also felt a bit strange that many of the characters are from the same village and part of the same family and yet this was only done for certain people in the family. I found this affected my ability to immerse myself in what was otherwise a very entertaining and enjoyable Christmas Crime story. Would I buy this for friends this Christmas? The answer is yes.

It’s Christmas Eve, Maddie is on her way to Edinburgh to spend Christmas with her parents. She is on the motorway but comes across an accident on the motorway. Her Sat Nav tells her to take an alternative route through the Yorkshire Dales. But by doing so she suddenly get car trouble and breaks down outside a small village in the middle of nowhere and there is no phone signal. But luckily a stranger knocks on the car window and tells her that she will find a phone working at the village pub The Merry Monarch and rooms to let as it will take awhile for someone to come but, it’s also starting to snow. So, she agrees to go with him.
So, when he gets there, she finds out that the phone is not working because of the weather and the locals at the pub have organised a Scavenger hunt. So, she joins in only to find a power cut and everywhere goes dark. So, when they manage to put the lights back on, they find out that one of them has been murdered. The rest of the locals especially Alex who happen to be a Police detective. Try and figure out who is the killer is from the locals that are also locked in the Merry Monarch.
If you are looking for a Christmassy locked room mystery. This book is for you. I enjoyed the premise and the Christmassy scenes. It did feel authentic and storyline and some great characters especially Maddie. The parts regarding the ghosts were a bit farfetched for me personally. It reminded me a bit of Scooby do. For entertainment value this is worth the read. 3.5 stars from me.

Maddie Marlowe is going home for Christmas to Edinburgh. However, her car breaks down in a small Yorkshire Dales village and there's no mobile signal plus there's a bad snow storm. She goes to The Merry Monarch pub to ask to use their phone to ring her car breakdown service. Maddie learns they are holding their annual scavenger hunt and she decides to join in with the locals. Shortly afterwards, there is a power cut and this brings someone out to play a dangerous game. This was a classic locked room mystery in a local pub with a cast of characters that you either loved or loathed! The story is full of twists and turns with a few red herrings to distract you from discovering the truth, which I never saw coming.

An enjoyable locked room whodunit or I should say snowbound whodunit. Maddie is diverted over the Yorkshire Moors on her way home to Edinburgh on Christmas Eve because of a road closure. Her car breaks down in the middle of nowhere during a snow storm. She ends up at a local inn joining it the Christmas Eve celebrations. The landline stops working, the power is cut supposedly because of the storm but one of the party is murdered. Maddie helps the local policeman, Alex to solve the murder but could it be him?
The plot is a little contrived but makes for an very enjoyable story.

This book had a great plot with intriguing characters. I’ll definitely be looking out for more from this author.

3.75 stars rounded up to 4

Release Date: 7th November 2024

Maddie is travelling back Scotland to spend Christmas with your parents on Christmas Eve, when a series of unfortunate events leads her to break down in a village in the Yorkshire Dales in the snow.

Maddie finds herself taking refuge in the local pub the Merry Monarch, after a local, Curtis and his dog Barkley find her stranded in her car with no mobile signal.

Once at the pub, Maddie's bad luck continues when she finds out the roads are impassable, so no road side rescue will be able to get to her, that night. With a room sorted at the pub, Maddie calls her parents to let them know, when the phone line goes dead.

Now Maddie truly is stranded on Christmas Eve, with a pub full of strangers: the landlord (Mickey) and lady (Sofia); Curtis and his dog; two off duty police officers: Alex (Mickey's son) and Don; Jeannie (Alex's Aunty); James (Alex's half-brother); Sita; Mrs Fazakerley; Mr & Mrs Kapoor and their daughter Zainab.

While taking part in the annual scavenger hunt with said locals, there is a power cut and a piercing scream leading to the death of one of the party and from there the night becomes a murder investigation, with a killer among them, who can they really trust.

I enjoyed this book and found the characters likeable and pleasant, but also was suspicious of them all at some point throughout the book.

It was a slow paced start that, built a bit of tension, but in a cosy mystery style, with plenty of humour and interesting characters, that I grew very fond of, which kept me reading and guessing at times.

A must for cosy mystery whodunnit fans who love a little sprinkle of Christmas.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC.

Will publish review on Amazon and Instagram on Release day

This is a fun festive cosy crime mystery, which was perfect for reading on a cold autumn weekend. The characters were well written and engaging, and the storyline was very good.

The blurb describes The Christmas Eve Murders as being hilarious. For me, that's overselling it somewhat. Noelle Albright's murder mystery was a perfectly pleasant way of spending an evening, but it made me smile (occasionally) rather than laugh.

It's not the book, it's me.
What I think was done right: the overall vibe, right from the beginning, there is a sense of foreboding and you can feel our heroine will not have a warm merry Christmas.
The characters are interesting and the story was as tense as anyone could want.
But the writing style felt too much like a Kindle freebee for me.

This was like reading about a game of Cluedo what with the secret passages and stereotyped characters also I really hate reading dialect as for me it totally interrupts the flow. The story picks up in the second half so I'm glad I persevered but I'm not altogether convinced that it was worth it.

Okay so we all know how I feel about a cosy crime novel, especially one set at Christmas time, it's just a winning combination for me. It's amazing how I can read so many and still enjoy them. This didn't quite live up to what I hoped but there are some positives.

For starters, her name is Noelle Albright, which just sounds so festive and perfect for a Christmas novel.

Noelle has created a real sense of space and atmosphere; claustrophobic in the sense of being stuck in one location, but also because they're closed off y the snow and from help.

It follows everything I expect from the cosy crime genre, and it has this great nostalgic feeling for the classic whodunnits.

It tells the story more through dialogue than prose, and I'm in two minds about that. I like characters and whatnot, but at times it doesn't feel very genuine to be having these conversations with their friends and neighbours, going over previous things tat everyone already knows about, just for the benefit of the reader. It made it seem a little false at times.

It is quite predictable. That's not always a deal breaker, especially in the cosy crime genre, but it was on the verge of too predictable, which means it's not quite got the same tension that hte setting gave it.

The pacing felt a bit off too. It took a long time to get going, introducing the characters and the village and history etc. and then it goes a bit too quickly for you to invest in, and the conclusion came around a bit quickly and I felt a bit short-changed considering how much I liked the opening.

It's an easy read, and is quick to read and is enjoyable. It's not the most tense book but I don't mind it too much, as for me the whodunnits of books such as Poirot and Miss Marple weren't that tense in my opinion, it was more about the journey and the atmosphere created.

I don't think it's suitable for those devotees of murder mysteries who want a hard-hitting story, but a definite win for lovers of the cosy crime novel. It has its flaws and its positives; it's an interesting premise that just fell a bit short.

Overall this is an enjoyable Christmas cozy read, but the pace is a bit odd to me. Read and see for yourself.

Thanks to Netgalley for this ARC. Due to be published 07/11/2024.

A little early for Christmas but it was a lovely, cosy mystery.

Maddie's Christmas eve just seems to be going wrong and instead of finding herself snuggled up at her parents waiting to see in Christmas she's stuck miles from home in a pub with a bunch of strangers.

The pub sounds like a nice traditional pub with the sort of regulars that knows everyone and their business. Despite this, there are a few characters that you can't help find endearing and Maddie does seem to end up with some new friends.
The murders pop up and a scavenger hunt turns into a whodunnit with the killer being revealed at the end. Not completely unpredictable but well written and an enjoyable story.

Love the sound of the pub and Sofia's hot chocolate!!

This was such a delight to read. It sucked me in right away and kept my interest through the entire story. I loved seeing everything through Maddi's POV as she was the outsider of the group and worked as the perfect conduit through which to explain all these characters and their connections without it being obvious that was what was going on. We also are in the same situation as her with regard to knowing who was trustworthy and who might have been capable of murder. There are lots of great twists and turns and red herrings here. I still don't know what to make of Mrs. Kapoor - she's clearly unhappy but her cavalier way of telling her daughter that the man showing interest in her was only doing so to get closer to her mother was a little heartless. I was also left with conflicting feelings about Sita and Mickey - their past behavior was pretty awful and because it's all so far back in the past it's difficult to know if they have ever really acknowledged the pain they caused to others. I did really enjoy the growing friendship (maybe more) between her and Alex - I would happily read more stories with these two as the mystery/crime solvers so if the author wanted to turn this into a series I would 100% be on board for that!

A fun, sinister and spooky, festive read.

It's Christmas Eve and Maddie finds herself stuck with a broken down car and terrible weather in the small town in the Yorkshire Dale's. Derailed from her trip home to Edinburgh for Christmas, she ends up holing up in the cosy and seemingly friendly Merry Monarch pub. Suddenly roped into a festive scavenger hunt, Maddie is introduced to a host of interesting characters... then the lights go out and a body is found.

This turned out to be a perfect read for spooky season, though it would be a fun Christmas read too!

Full of high tension, a spooky atmosphere and fascinating characters. The mystery of the murder is completely engrossing and the evolving history of the town and its residents keeps your turning the pages!

A classic snowed in isolated mystery. The Christmassy Merry Monarch creates the perfect setting for this whodunnit.