Twelve clues. Twelve keys. Twelve days of Christmas. But who will survive until Twelfth Night?

Lily Armitage never intended to return to Endgame House—the grand family home where her mother died twenty-one Christmases ago. Until she receives a letter from her aunt, asking her to return to take part in an annual tradition: the Christmas Game. The challenge? Solve twelve clues, to find twelve keys. The prize? The deeds to the manor house.

Lily has no desire to win the house. But her aunt makes one more promise: the clues will also reveal who really killed Lily’s mother all those years ago.

So, for the twelve days of Christmas, Lily must stay at Endgame House with her estranged cousins and unravel the riddles that hold the key not just to the family home, but to its darkest secrets. However, it soon becomes clear that her cousins all have their own reasons for wanting to win the house – and not all of them are playing fair.

As a snowstorm cuts them off from the village, the game turns deadly. Soon Lily realises that she is no longer fighting for an inheritance, but for her life.

This Christmas is to die for… Let the game begin.

I purchased a copy of this book for my own reading.

Following on with my trend of grisly Christmas murders to end 2024, I saw this book and was immediately intrigued. I love the idea of a game over the Christmas period that will inevitably lead to deception, in-fighting and double-crossing for material gain. Like a Christmas Day game of Monopoly with higher stakes.

With a fractured family brought together following the death of one of their own, The Christmas Murder Game is filled with dark secrets and more twists and turns than a mountain road. Cliques are formed and divides in the group lead to a fractious vibe. As guests begin to die at the hands of unknown assailants, things get darker. Yet the game must go on.

Given the range of festive mysteries I’ve read over the season, this one is by no means ground-breaking. It’s not a challenging or deep book to intellectually stimulate the reader, but it’s gritty entertainment.

I’ve seen a number of reviews that scored this book somewhat lowly for its lack of perceived depth, but I actually loved this. It wasn’t challenging, but it was filled with mysteries and twists and riddles that made for a fun festive read, if not in the conventional sense of the phrase so still scores a full five stars from me!

My rating: