The Twelve Days of Murder: The perfect festive whodunnit to gift this Christmas
£0.90
Find the truth. Solve the murder. Never reveal your secret.
Twelve years ago, eight friends ran an exclusive group at university: The Murder Masquerade Society. The mysteries they solved may have been grisly, but they were always fictional – until their final Christmas puzzle, when one of the group disappeared, never to be seen again.
Now, the remaining members receive an invitation to a reunion masquerade, to be held in a beautiful and remote country house in Scotland. The game begins, and it feels just like old times.
Until the next morning, when Lady Partridge is found hanging from a pear tree.
It quickly becomes clear that in this game, the murder will be all too real, and the story is bringing long-hidden secrets to the surface. If they hope to survive the festive season then they will need to face the truth about what happened on that fateful night twelve years ago.
PRAISE FOR THE TWELVE DAYS OF MURDER:
‘(An) entertaining thriller’ Good Housekeeping
‘A devious holiday whodunnit’ Publishers Weekly
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Additional information
| Publisher | Zaffre (26 Oct. 2023) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| File size | 1983 KB |
| Text-to-Speech | Enabled |
| Screen Reader | Supported |
| Enhanced typesetting | Enabled |
| X-Ray | Not Enabled |
| Word Wise | Enabled |
| Sticky notes | On Kindle Scribe |
| Print length | 315 pages |
by Julia
It’s never too early to say I love a good Christmas murder mystery! And this year The Twelve Days of Murder is my first of the season.
The story begins twelve years ago with the missing person’s report for Karl Boniface, a member of The Masquerade Murder Society, then moves right up to date to introduce the remaining members of the Society. The book moves smoothly between the then and the now allowing us to see the events of twelve years ago through multiple characters’ flashbacks. Our narrator for the up to date chapters is Charley, the ‘poor relation’ of the Society and a more sympathetic and relatable character than the other privileged, largely unpleasant members.
The book has everything a good Christmas whodunit needs: an atmospheric setting, plenty of snow, no contact with the outside world, a cast of snarky, bickering, back-stabbers and at least one dead body. The beautiful setting and the brutal weather are described very vividly, bringing them both to life. The cast of characters is well drawn and realistic and I’m glad I don’t know any of them personally! Using the framework of the Twelve Days of Christmas, Andreina Cordani weaves an original, compelling and complex storyline and I definitely wanted to know whodunit.
The resolutions to both the old and the new mysteries are actually quite dark and creepy, each bringing forth disturbing revelations. The ending is satisfactory and fits well. I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Twelve Days of Murder and would recommend this to anyone who likes a Christmassy whodunit.
by RB1983
If I was to sum up my perfect book, it would be a murder mystery against a snowy backdrop and this is exactly what The Twelve Days of Murder delivers: a snowstorm isolates individuals from the outside world, who subsequently start getting bumped off one by one.
I really liked the way the novel was set into five parts – Introductions, Discovery, Investigation, Accusations and The Truth. This added to the sense of a traditional murder mystery, and the witty writing and cliffhanger chapters meant that I read it in a single day.
Cordani has a wicked sense of humour and the black comedy provided light relief from the darker elements of the book.
I despised 99% of the characters, who were entitled, self-serving and generally wholly hideous. However, I don’t have to like characters to be invested in a book. I just have to care about them, and I did, despite not trusting any of them.
A real page-turner with echoes of And Then There Were None, which touches on classism and corruption, I’m certainly looking forward to reading more from this author in the future.
by loopyloulaura
A murder mystery society at university resulted in one student disappearing. Now twelve years on, the remaining members are invited to return for one last murder mystery over the Christmas holidays. Can they find out what happened to Karl and can they survive when a real killer attacks…?
The 12 Days of Murder is a mix of psychological and crime thriller, a real murder mystery within a murder mystery game. There are two timelines as we see scenes from the past that resulted in Karl’s disappearance as well as the developing real life murder mystery in the present day.
I admit that I found it a little hard to get into this book. The characters seemed to have no redeeming features so were difficult to like at first and the dual timeline slowed down the pace of developments. However, by a quarter of the way through I had warmed to Charley and a third of the way through I was hooked as the murders start!
Charley has always been on the edge of the group and was further rejected when she was accused of theft. I felt sorry for her as she deals with the cruelty of the others. All of the characters have unpleasant secrets and act suspiciously in the past and present plus there is uncertainty as to whether Karl vanished of his own volition or was killed by a so-called friend.
The group is cut off from the outside world by being at a remote location in Scotland and having no phone connection. There is a claustrophobic atmosphere at times which is intensified by the sinister deaths that then start to occur. The murders are clever and match the Christmas theme for the murder mystery party. I was kept guessing until the end although I did note a couple of relevant clues.
The 12 Days of Murder is an entertaining and intriguing murder mystery and I liked the Christmas theme.
by Kindle Customer
Thank you to NetGalley and Adreina Cordani for the ARC of The Twelve days of Murder.
Who doesn’t like a whodunit? 8 friends who made an exclusive Murder Masquerade mystery group. Run on two timelines, the present and 12 years previous. Tension slowly builds and the atmosphere is set. Who went missing? And how are these friends entwined in their deepest secrets and who is the murderer?
I really enjoyed this book. For me, it was like a nice cosy mystery with a psychological underline and it worked really well.
The narrative and the two timelines were clear. The past setting the scene up and building characteristic development for the present. Some fairly complex characters and although they may seem the same, I really enjoyed the diversity.
The plot twist was good, it has me forming a few theories during the story which I enjoy whether I was on the right lines. The story itself is fairly medium paced with it all rolling into a faster climax.
by K. R. Ellis
This was such a brilliantly written mystery! I loved the prickly group of friends, the flashbacks to Christmas in years previous where bad blood and betrayals are revealed, and the way the whole story came together was excellent. A must-read for any murder mystery fan in the run up to the festive season!