8th February 2025

I made some bad assumptions picking up this book - that it would be a cosy crime, and that it would be a bit simple and cheesy. It’s not.

This is a surprisingly dark story - fitting the locked room mystery trope, and yet feeling a lot darker than some, particularly as we learn more of the backstory and more of this story develops. There’s a lot of introspection from the characters and the main character feels deeply real and properly traumatised.

And yet that’s contrasted with the silliness of a Christmas game that the story isn’t structured around. It weaves a complex balance that’s really interesting to see play out.

I was also pleasantly surprised by some of the demographics portrayed. There’s a decent set of representation of sexualities, which isn’t what I’d have expected from the genre and was refreshing.

A really interesting, clever, and engaging book. I’ll definitely be looking out for other similar works from Benedict.

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