Published By: Simon & Schuster Children
Pages: 240
Released On: 22/10/2025
Reading Age: 8+
Every year, six local schools compete to win the Christmas Cup. Last year, the rival school to Brooke Parkin’s school won for the most crackers pulled in a minute!
This year, the cup will be judged and awarded to the school with the perfect mince pie. But when a series of murders seemed to be linked to the very mince pies (each with a clue from a letter from the alphabet imprinted in the pastry) the five neuro-divergent children must turn detective and combine their skill sets to find the killer. Can they prevent another death and save their out-of-school club from being shut down forever . . .?
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Children for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
Oh I love Alexandra’s books. I have read her previous adult festival murder mystery books and have her next one on pre-order. She is an absolute go-to for crime novels – and for me, Christmas is 365 days of the year, so the fact that this is a festive thriller is instantly a five star for me.
She always has little puzzles in her books, finding song titles in the story or things like that. That works well in this first book because it’s for children. There are three puzzles in this; you don’t have to do them, they won’t affect the reading of the story, but they’re a bit of fun, especially for younger readers who don’t normally enjoy reading. (And on a side note, I figured out the puzzle that involved some mince pies).
I love the representation of neurodiversity in this book, and anxiety. It can be hard to get mental health or neurodiversity into a book without making it OTT or unrealistic or stereotypical. Alexandra has been very sensitive about it and hopefully it’ll relate to any young readers also going through difficult times.
It’s so quick and easy to read. I mean I know I’m 3x the recommended reading age, but I read it in a couple of hours, it’s so much fun. I think it would be a good book to read to children at bedtime, maybe one chapter a night in the runup to Christmas.
Obviously it is very different to her other festive thrillers because this one is for children, but you can still very clearly hear her voice in it. It’s still very much her book.
Books By Your Bedside 