Published By: Simon & Schuster
Pages: 400
Released On: 06/11/2025
When Edie O’Sullivan wins a two-day Christmas break in a hotel on a remote Scottish island, she’s looking forward to a picture-perfect Christmas full of winter walks, roaring fires, good books and even better whisky.
But when a guest dies in mysterious circumstances, Edie realises that they have a killer amongst them. As more guests begin to die, it is up to Edie to solve the strange riddles found in the victims’ Christmas crackers if she is to stop the murderer’s killing spree. But as she gets closer to the truth, she puts herself in the way of a devious and clever killer.
Can Edie solve these Christmas killings before she becomes the next victim?
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
I have read all of Alexandra’s festive thrillers and she is an author I get really excited about and so I jumped at the chance to read her new one.
Once again, she has set a few quizzes for the reader, things like working out anagrams, finding song titles in the story etc. things you don’t have to do to enjoy the book, but just a little bit of added fun.
I loved Edie in the first book – The Christmas Jigsaw Murders – and whilst at the time I didn’t necessarily think a sequel was coming, I am glad she brought the character back as she was so memorable and just fabulous.
It takes a little while before the tension rises, about a third, and then it’s a little bit more before the first death hits, and at first that may seem like a long time but I think it’s perfect. It isn’t a slow opening, even without the deaths, it’s still fast paced and exciting. We get to refresh ourselves with the old characters and get to know the new. And so by the time the stakes start to rise, we’re invested and we really get involved with the whodunnit aspect.
This is slightly darker than her previous books. Less of a cosy crime novel and more of a proper thriller, but it still had the elements I’ve come to expect from her. But it definitely felt like a new angle and I’m intrigued to see what direction she goes in next.
To me, her books feel very Agatha Christie, particularly Murder on the Christmas Express.
I loved the ending – I won’t spoil it, but if you’re used to the likes of Agatha Christie and Miss Marple or Poirot, you always get that big final reveal at the very end, which I love, as it’s just so dramatic, and would never work in real life but works perfectly in fiction.
And it doesn’t matter how many of these books I read, I never see the reveal coming, and this was no different.
I read this in one day, when it was hammering down with rain outside and I was curled up under a fleeced blanket, with the lamp on and the darkness seeping in, it was just glorious.
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