A Very Bookish Murder

Title: A Very Bookish Murder
Author: Dee MacDonald
Published: September 19, 2025 by Bookouture
Format: Paperback, 240 pages
Genre: Amateur Sleuth
Series: Ally McKinley Mystery #3

Blurb: When Ally McKinley hears that well-known novelist Jodi Jones is going to host a writers’ retreat at the hotel just down the road, she’s delighted to offer rooms at her little guesthouse for some of the attendees. Ally is thrilled to join the group for one of their first sessions – but the retreat has barely begun before she finds the famous writer strangled in the ladies' bathroom!

The cake tin and teapot come out at the little guesthouse in the Highlands as Ally begins to question her bookish guests. Accusations of plagiarism and infidelity start flying and it’s clear that more than one of the retreat attendees had a grudge against Jodi. But could any of them have resorted to murder?

When Ally discovers a diary in Jodi’s bedroom at the guesthouse with several pages ripped out of it, she thinks she’s close to cracking the case. But the plot thickens when another of the aspiring writers is found dead, only hours after she said she knew the identity of Jodi’s killer.

Not only is the murderer still in Locharran, they’re desperate to stop Ally getting to the truth. With her faithful puppy Flora by her side, can Ally unravel the clues and solve the mystery before she’s written out of the story for good?

My Opinion: This novel felt like a slog from the start. The writer’s retreat introduces so many women so quickly that they blend into one vague crowd, and by the time the murders happened, I struggled to care who died or who was being questioned.

The Scottish touches should have added charm, but the regional vocabulary often felt forced, almost like someone trying too hard to sound local. A few odd shifts where Ally suddenly refers to herself in third person didn’t help the flow either.

The familiar Locharran cast returns, and the new detective, DI Amir Kandahar, could bring some spark to future books. But here, the retreat storyline dominates. Accusations of plagiarism spiral into tales of affairs and grudges, and the repetition makes the plot feel stuck.

There’s also a lot of filler with clothing descriptions, redundant conversations, and long passages that don’t deepen the mystery. With such a large cast and so much unnecessary detail, staying engaged became a challenge.

Will I keep going with the series? Maybe, but I’m not rushing. It’s still surprising how much I loved the Kate Palmer books, because this series feels like it’s written by someone entirely different.

Sunsets, Sabbatical & Scandal

Title: Sunsets, Sabbatical & Scandal
Author: Tonya Kappes
Published: March 17, 2020, by Tonya Kappes
Format: Paperback, 204 Pages
Genre: Amateur Sleuth
Series: Camper & Criminals (#10)

Blurb: A beloved resident of Normal, Kentucky is found dead on the floor of the Normal Diner, leaving the entire town on high alert. Faster than the short order cook can say order up... the laundry ladies are in the scene.

News spreads fast about the murder and Detective Hank Sharp is hungry for answers.

Mae West along with the Laundry Club ladies come up with a list of suspects and the evidence is piling up faster than a juicy double cheeseburger.

Who murdered the beloved citizen?

Was it a hit to score some extra lunch money?

My Opinion: I’ll admit it. When I opened the book and saw hints of a wedding plot, I sighed. I thought we were headed straight into another overused storyline. Thankfully, that thread turned out to be a tiny blip in the larger picture.

What really caught my attention was learning the term “juice jacking.” I’d heard the warnings about public charging stations, but I had no idea there was an actual name for it. Leave it to Tonya Kappas to slip in something unexpectedly educational.

This installment takes a more serious turn than the usual breezy visit to Normal, Kentucky. Mae returns to her hometown and is hit with devastating news about her parents’ deaths. She’s carried guilt for years, believing she played a part in what happened. Now she’s forced to confront the possibility that she was wrong, and the emotional fallout is heavy. But she isn’t facing it alone. That’s the beauty of this series. The found family around Mae gives the story its warmth even when the subject matter darkens.

Of course, there’s still a murder to solve. Mae stays one step ahead of her detective boyfriend, and the laundry ladies continue to show up before anyone even has time to dial for help. It’s familiar, a little chaotic, and exactly the kind of comfort I reach for when I want a quiet afternoon with a book.

The ending genuinely surprised me. I usually spot the culprit early, but this time I didn’t see it coming. Maybe the clues were there and I missed them, or maybe Kappas simply outmaneuvered me.

Call it repetitive if you want, but I enjoy this series. Each mystery stands alone, so readers can jump in anywhere, yet the charm of Normal and its residents keeps me coming back. There’s just something about this community, and Mae’s journey through it, that makes the return trip worthwhile every time.

Sugar and Spite

Title: Sugar and Spite
Author: M.C. Beaton, R.W. Green
Published: October 14, 2025 by Minotaur Books
Format: Kindle, 256 Pages
Genre: Amateur Sleuth
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Agatha Raisin #36

Blurb: When a series of deaths within the small Cotswolds birdwatching community begins to unravel her village, Agatha and her team at Raisin Investigators are certain there has been foul play involved. Now, they must dig up decades' worth of tempestuous relationships and simmering secrets among the birdwatching enthusiasts of the village in order to prevent any further deaths.

But with Agatha's own relationship with John Glass on the rocks after he is called away on his job as a cruise ship dance instructor, and Sir Charles Fraith now attempting to step into John’s shoes as her lover, Agatha has her work cut out for her.

Agatha will have to break out her binoculars and embrace her bitter side to solve the murders and wrangle the sickly-sweet temptations in her own life. Will she be able to gather all the breadcrumbs and put together the clues before she becomes a sitting duck herself?

My Opinion: I wasn’t prepared for the way this ending landed. It snuck up on me and delivered every emotional beat I didn’t realize I’d been waiting for. Up until then, the book had been a bit uneven—twisty in places, sluggish in others—but that final stretch lifted it from an okay installment into something more satisfying.

I’ve been openly skeptical about R.W. Green continuing the series after M.C. Beaton’s passing. For a long time, it felt like he couldn’t quite capture the sharp, distinctly female perspective that makes Agatha Raisin who she is. But this book surprised me. For the first time, I felt that spark again, the one that makes Agatha both maddening and irresistible.

All the familiar faces are here, and their interactions feel comfortably in step with the long-running series. The new characters tied to the murder, though, were harder to keep straight. I’m not sure if it was the way they were introduced or simply that they blurred together, but I found myself pausing more than once to remember who was who.

As for Agatha’s future, I genuinely don’t know where she goes from here. Maybe we’re seeing the beginnings of a refreshed version of her. Then again, part of her charm is that she never really changes. She’s still the woman who barrels into trouble, emerges from mud puddles with perfect lipstick, and spots a liar from a mile away. That’s why readers keep coming back. No matter how twisty the mystery gets, Agatha remains Agatha, and that’s the real draw.

The Old Fire

Title: The Old Fire
Author: Elisa Shua Dusapin
Translator: Aneesa Abbas Higgins
Published: January 13, 2026, by S&S/Summit Books
Format: Kindle, 192 Pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.

Blurb: Agathe leaves New York and returns to her home in the French countryside, after fifteen years away.

She and her sister Véra have not seen each other in all those years, and they carry the weight of their own complicated lives. But now their father has died, and they must confront their childhood home on the outskirts of a country estate ravaged by a nearby fire before it is knocked down. They have nine days to empty it. As the pair clean and sift through a lifetime’s worth of belongings, old memories, and resentments surface.

Tender and tense, haunting and evocative, The Old Fire is Elisa Shua Dusapin’s most personal and moving novel yet. An exploration of time and memory, of family and belonging, it is also a graceful and profound look at the unsaid and the unanswered, the secrets that remain, and whether you can ever really go home again.

My Opinion: Every so often, a book sneaks up on me, and this novel did exactly that. At under 200 pages, it shouldn’t have hit as hard as it did, yet here I am full of feelings, full of questions, and already imagining the kind of conversations it would spark in a book club.

The novel follows two sisters, Agatha and Véra, who reunite after their father’s death to sort through the remnants of their childhood home. Agatha bolted the moment she was old enough, while Véra stayed behind to shoulder the responsibility she left her with. Their week together is a slow excavation of memory with humor tucked beside resentment, tenderness brushing up against old wounds, and a kind of honesty that only siblings can manage. Even so, plenty remains unspoken.

Dusapin threads in the girls’ earlier years with a light but deliberate hand with Véra’s sudden muteness, Agatha’s fierce instinct to protect her, and the mother who walked away without much care for what she left behind. These pieces don’t form a tidy puzzle, but they deepen the emotional terrain the sisters must navigate.

By the end, Dusapin resists the urge to explain everything. Instead, she leaves space for the reader to sit with the unknowns and stitch together meaning on their own. It’s unsettling in the best way. Not everyone will call this a perfect book, but it blindsided me, and now I’m left turning it over in my mind, accepting that some stories aren’t meant to be tied up neatly.

The Hidden City

Title: The Hidden City
Author: Charles Finch
Published: September 6, 2025, by Minotaur Books
Format: Kindle, 288 pages
Genre: Historical Mystery
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Charles Lenox Mysteries #12

Blurb: It's 1879, and Lenox is convalescing from the violent events of his last investigation. But a desperate letter from an old servant forces him to pick up the trail of a cold case: the murder of an apothecary seven years before, whose only clue is an odd emblem carved into the doorway of the building where the man was killed. When Lenox finds a similar mark at the site of another murder, he begins to piece together a hidden pattern which leads him into the corridors of Parliament, the slums of East London, and ultimately the very heart of the British upper class.

At the same time, Lenox must contend with the complexities of his personal life: a surprising tension with his steadfast wife, Lady Jane, over her public support of the early movement for women's suffrage; the arrival of Angela Lenox, a mysterious young cousin from India, with an unexpected companion; the dizzying ascent of his brother, Sir Edmund Lenox, to one of the highest political posts in the land; the growing family of his young partners in detection, Polly and Dallington; and the return of the problems that have long bedeviled one of his closest friends, the dashing Scottish physician Thomas McConnell.

My Opinion: One of the things that I enjoy about a Charles Lenox novel is how it teaches the reader something while telling a good story. Every book offers a bit of history, a touch of vocabulary, a lot of mystery, and a handful of plot threads that resolve at their own pace. This novel may be short in page count, but it does not skimp on the details.

Because there’s been a long gap since the previous book, it takes a moment to settle back in. Once you do, the familiar rhythm returns, and the promise of another installment later this year makes the adjustment easier. The series has never bored me, and with Jane protesting for the right to vote and two new charges now in Lennox’s care, the emotional stakes feel richer than before.

What surprised me most was finding myself sympathizing with a villain. I can’t recall another Lenox novel that pulled that off quite this strongly. The middle section may feel slow for some readers, but the story regains its footing with its well drawn cast and engaging dialogue.

Where Finch will take us next is anyone’s guess, but that uncertainty is part of the fun.

Imposter Syndrome

Title: Imposter Syndrome
Author: Andrew Mayne
Published: October 21, 2025 by Thomas & Mercer
Format: Kindle, 288 Pages
Genre: Thriller
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: The Specialists #2

Blurb: The FBI calls on former agent Jessica Blackwood to look at a puzzling crime. A wildlife officer has found the body of a popular YouTuber encased in an obelisk made of salt in a remote refuge. When the agency is tipped off to a second body, that of a TikTok star chained to the bottom of Nevada’s Pyramid Lake—her hands clasped in prayer—Jessica recruits a trusted colleague of her Floridian underwater investigator Sloan McPherson.

It appears to be the work of a ritualistic serial killer preying on influencers. That tracks when a third victim—a fantasy-game live streamer—barely survives a pipe bomb attack. But in navigating the social media world of instafame, manipulation, and deception, Jessica and Sloan know how illusory appearances can be. As the threats multiply across the country, they fear they’re playing with something more extreme than they a killer’s endgame that could be nothing less than apocalyptic.

My Opinion: I’ve realized that when it comes to Andrew Mayne’s ensemble, I gravitate far more toward Theo Cray and Brad Trasker than Jessica Blackwood and Sloan McPherson. His male characters consistently feel sharper, with richer depth and banter that sparks. The women, unfortunately, don’t get the same treatment; Jessica and Sloan’s interactions often read like a mother lecturing a teenage daughter, bogged down in repetitive exchanges that sap the energy from the page. That said, if Mayne ever spun off a series around Trasker’s mother, I’d be first in line.

This book sits as a companion to his other series, pulling together familiar faces from across his backlist. It’s the kind of convergence that works best if you’ve already read the individual series in order. With that foundation, you know who each character is, what they bring to the table, and the crossover feels like a reward rather than a puzzle. Readers new to Mayne might miss some of the nuance, but for those invested, the interplay adds texture.

The plot itself is a cocktail of modern intrigue: AI technology, social media influencers, and secretive Mormon fundamentalists. It’s eclectic enough that nearly every reader will find a hook. At times, though, the narrative gets convoluted, leaving gaps that aren’t fully explained. Still, Jessica’s magician upbringing and the literal tunnels she navigates lend an additional depth to the confusion.

What really landed was the final twist. I didn’t see it coming, and it was one of the rare moments that made me stop, reread, and appreciate the cleverness. That spark reminded me why I keep picking up Mayne’s books, even when some installments don’t hit the same high notes.

No author can deliver edge-of-your-seat suspense every single time, and this doesn’t quite reach the intensity of Mayne’s best. But it sets the stage for what’s next: Chaos Man, arriving soon, with the full band—Cray, Blackwood, Trasker, and McPherson—back together. And that reunion alone is enough to keep me curious.

Murder in Miniature

Title: Murder in Miniature
Author: Katie Tietjen
Published: September 23, 2025, by Crooked Lane Books
Format: Kindle, 288 Pages
Genre: Amateur Sleuth
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Maple Bishop #2

Blurb: Maple Bishop has a thriving dollhouse business and a new career as a crime scene consultant for the local sheriff's office. On the surface, she seems to be doing well, but deep down Maple is still reeling from the death of her husband. When the body of an aspiring firefighter–who was close childhood friends with Kenny, the sheriff’s deputy and Maple’s confidante–is discovered in the charred remains of a burned cabin, Maple is called in to help determine whether the fire was an accident or a case of murder by arson.

Realizing there’s more to the crime than meets the eye, she sets out to unearth the discrepancies from the scene by re-creating the cabin in miniature. The investigation leads them to Maple’s old Boston neighborhood, forcing her to confront the past she’s desperately trying to forget.

As Maple and Kenny sift through clues, they uncover dark secrets that hit close to home, unravelling in unexpected ways–and putting their lives in danger.

My Opinion: When the world feels like it’s spinning off its axis, I sometimes reach for a story that promises a gentler pace. This novel seemed like it might offer that: a small town with a late 1940s Mayberry vibe, a quirky cast, and a heroine who builds dollhouses for a living. But opening on a partially burned body wasn’t exactly the soft landing I had in mind.

Maple Bishop herself is an appealing anchor: a talented miniaturist who’s somehow added “crime scene consultant” to her résumé. The setup has charm, and the premise of early forensic work in a down-to-earth community could have been a fun contrast. However, the execution leans heavily on aw-shucks dialogue and a tone that feels more cutesy than cozy. After a while, the “gosh darn golly” pace wore thin.

The mystery has potential, yet some readers will likely piece things together early. The challenge is keeping track of the many names and moving parts, which sometimes muddle the motive rather than sharpen it. Add in frequent recaps of the first book, which are far more than a quick refresher, and the story starts to feel padded.

I wanted a comforting escape, and while the setting tries to deliver that, the pacing and repetition kept pulling me out. There’s a good idea here, but it gets a bit lost along the way.

Magic Uncorked

Title: Magic Uncorked
Author: Annabel Chase
Expected Publication: January 21, 2026 by Storm Publishing
Format: Kindle, 214 Pages
Genre: Paranormal
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Midlife Magic Cocktail Club #1

Blurb: For Libbie Stark, Friday night cocktail club is a lifeline. Whatever her problems, whether her stubborn boss, unruly teens or deadbeat boyfriend, time with the women of Lake Cloverleaf always feels like a tonic.

But when tragedy strikes on the Fourth of July, Libbie discovers a magical secret. Witches are real. Only they aren’t born – they’re created. When a witch dies, her powers pass from one generation to the next. And a local witch has chosen to pass her powers onto the ladies of the cocktail club.

With the help of a magical recipe book, Libbie must harness her new powers and use them to shake up the comfortable life she settled for. As Libbie learns to finally live on her own terms, sparks fly with handsome local lawyer Ethan Townsend, and she discovers it’s never too late to restore a little magic to your life.

My Opinion: I picked up this novel on a whim, drawn in by the cover without knowing much else. I expected witchy vibes, sure, but what I didn’t realize was that this is a reissue; the first book in the author’s Midlife Magic Cocktail Club series. And honestly, it caught me off guard in the best way.

The story has a kind of charm that sneaks up on you. The characters are warm and inviting, the kind of women you want to sit down with over a drink and hear more about. The writing style is subtle, but it works here, adding a playful energy to the narrative. The catering details are glossed over, but that’s not really the point of the book. What matters is the atmosphere, the friendships, and the sense of possibility that Inga brings to the ladies of Lake Cloverleaf.

Another pleasant surprise is that the romance thread doesn’t dominate the story. The “love interest” is present but not overwhelming, which makes space for the women’s lives and choices to take center stage. It’s not exactly quaint, but there’s something deeply appealing about watching these characters navigate midlife, magic, and new beginnings.

And then came the kicker. I glanced at Chase’s backlist and realized it’s prolific. I had never heard of her before, but now I suspect I’ve opened the door to a whole new reading adventure.

We Who Have No Gods

Title: We Who Have No Gods
Author: Liza Anderson
Expected Publication: January 27, 2026 by Ballantine Books
Format: Kindle, 384 Pages
Genre: Contemporary Fantasy
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: The Acheron Order #1

Blurb: Vic Wood knows her priorities: scrape by on her restaurant wages, take care of her younger brother Henry, and forget their mother ever existed. But Vic’s careful life crumbles when Henry reveals that their long-missing mother belonged to the Acheron Order—a secret society of witches tasked with keeping the dead at bay. What’s worse, Henry inherited their mother’s magical abilities while Vic did not, and Henry has been chosen as the Order's newest recruit.

Determined to keep him safe, Vic accompanies Henry to the isolated woods in upstate New York that play host to the sprawling and eerie Avalon Castle. When she joins the academy despite lacking powers of her own, she risks not only the Order’s wrath, but also her brother’s. And then there is Xan, the head Sentinel—imposing, ruthless, and frustrating—in charge of protecting Avalon. He makes no secret that he wants Vic to leave.

As she makes both enemies and allies in this mysterious realm, Vic becomes caught between the dark forces at play, with her mother at the heart of it all. What's stranger is that Vic begins to be affected by the academy—and Xan—in ways she can't quite understand. But with war between witches threatening the fabric of reality, Vic must decide whether to risk her heart and life for a world where power is everything.

My Opinion: This is one of those books that demands more patience than I was willing to give. From the start, the writing felt oddly uneven, as if two different authors were at work. Each chapter begins with a lengthy “quote” from the elders of The Acheron Order, and instead of setting the stage, they drag on with a level of complexity that doesn’t match the rest of the text. The main narrative, by contrast, reads like young adult fiction with a bit of spice, but not executed particularly well.

The style is overly descriptive, weighed down by sentences that stop and start instead of flowing. It’s the kind of choppiness that makes you want to skim, and eventually, that’s exactly what I did. And by skimmed, I found the usual suspects lined up neatly: dark academia, witches, a hidden magical society, the outsider girl, enemies-to-lovers. It all felt recycled, like a checklist of tropes rather than a fresh story.

I can see the intent of layering lofty philosophical musings over a YA-style fantasy, but the result is disjointed and exhausting. By the time I realized I was slogging instead of reading, I knew this wasn’t worth my time. I’ve decided this year I won’t force myself through books that don’t earn my attention early on, and this one simply didn’t.

The Correspondent

Title: The Correspondent
Author: Virginia Evans
Published: April 29, 2025, by Crown
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
Genre: Epistolary Fiction

Blurb: Sybil Van Antwerp has throughout her life used letters to make sense of the world and her place in it. Most mornings, around half past ten, Sybil sits down to write letters—to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to audit a class she desperately wants to take, to Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter.

Sybil expects her world to go on as it always has—a mother, grandmother, wife, divorcee, distinguished lawyer, she has lived a very full life. But when letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life, she realizes that the letter she has been writing over the years needs to be read and that she cannot move forward until she finds it in her heart to offer forgiveness.

Filled with knowledge that only comes from a life fully lived, The Correspondent is a gem of a novel about the power of finding solace in literature and connection with people we might never meet in person. It is about the hubris of youth and the wisdom of old age, and the mistakes and acts of kindness that occur during a lifetime. Sybil Van Antwerp’s life of letters might be “a very small thing,” but she also might be one of the most memorable characters you will ever find.

My Opinion: It took me longer than I expected to understand why this novel has been so widely praised and recommended. At first, the appeal seemed to rest solely on its epistolary format, and I wasn’t sure that was enough to carry the story. But then, somewhere along the way, the book revealed its true power, and I was completely drawn in.

Once the rhythm of the letters takes hold, the narrative becomes impossible to set aside. Sybil’s voice is at the center, and though she can be blunt, even hurtful at times, her words are deeply human. Those fortunate enough to receive her letters -- and we, as readers, are among them -- come to cherish the honesty and vulnerability she offers.

The structure demands attention. Because the letters do not arrive in a linear fashion, the reader must stay actively engaged while also piecing together the threads of Sybil’s life. These aren’t perfunctory notes of well wishes; they chart the evolution of a woman who continues to grow, reflect, and feel. In that way, the book becomes not just a portrait of a life well lived, but of a person still in motion, still becoming.

Sybil herself reminds us of something timeless: that a handwritten letter endures far beyond an email or text. Preserved, it becomes a holder of memory, carrying a voice across generations. That truth gives the novel a resonance that lingers long after the last page.

Then, Evans also layers in mystery. The shadow of DM, with hateful messages and threats, unsettles the correspondence and raises the stakes. And then there is Cole -- enigmatic, elusive, and heartbreaking once his identity is revealed. These threads weave together into a story that is both intimate and suspenseful, tender and devastating.

Virginia Evans manages to balance all of this without losing clarity. Each character has a distinct voice, each storyline its own weight, and together they form a novel that stays with you. This novel is not just about letters; it is about connection, memory, and the way words can shape a life.

Merry Murder Season

Title: Merry Murder Season
Author: Lynn Cahoon
Published: November 4, 2025 by Lyrical Press
Format: Kindle, 196 Pages
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Series: A Tourist Trap Mystery #18

Blurb: Jill’s store, Coffee, Books, and More, is co-sponsoring a charity dart tournament on Thanksgiving weekend with Chip’s Bar, where toys and cash will be collected. She and her new husband, Greg, will be competing as well—that is, if Greg’s brother and his girlfriend don’t ruin the evening. But the event leads to something much worse than a family squabble when the bar owner is found dead the next morning after being used as a human dartboard . . .

Jill and her police-detective hubby both aim to find the killer—but scoring a bullseye will be hard since the place was packed with a rowdy crowd of locals and a platoon of stuffed-animal-toting, very competitive motorcyclists. And with the night’s big haul of cash donations left untouched, what could possibly be the motive for this murder?

My Opinion: I’ve always had a soft spot for the town at the heart of the Tourist Trap series; it’s charming, familiar, and the kind of place you want to revisit. But with this, the 18th installment, I found myself questioning whether that is enough to keep me invested.

For anyone new to the series, this is a tough entry point. There are plenty of recurring characters, original and newer, and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. And honestly, if you’re just starting out, why jump in at book eighteen? By the time I reached page thirty, continuity issues were already cropping up. Maybe some readers can overlook those details, but I can’t help but think that’s exactly what editors and beta readers are supposed to catch.

The story itself feels stretched. At under 200 pages, it somehow drags, with ideas that read more like choppy, repetitive draft ideas than polished narrative. I understand Cahoon writes multiple series, and that’s no small feat, but the result here feels rushed and under-edited. After reading other reviews, I wondered if I’d picked up a different book entirely since what I experienced was far from the glowing praise.

By the halfway mark, I knew I was done. Between the uneven writing and lack of editorial care, this series no longer feels worth my time or money. If Cahoon and the publisher decide to deliver a cozy mystery that respects the reader’s investment, maybe I’ll return. For now, though, I’m stepping away.

The Christmas Cracker Killer

Title: The Christmas Cracker Killer
Author: Alexandra Benedict
Published: November 6, 2025, by Simon & Schuster UK
Format: Kindle, 400 Pages
Genre: Amateur Sleuth
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Edie O'Sullivan #2

Blurb: 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 under mysterious circumstances, Edie realises that there is a killer amongst them. As more guests begin to die, it's up to her to solve the strange riddles found in the victims’ Christmas crackers and stop the killing spree. But as she gets closer to the truth, she puts herself in the way of a devious and clever murderer.

My Opinion: I don’t quite know how it happened, but Alexandra Benedict’s Christmas mysteries have become part of my holiday routine. For the past two years, I’ve found myself reaching for them in December, almost as if they’ve become my own quirky tradition.

Now, let’s be honest: these books aren’t finely crafted. The prose can be clunky, with repetition and incomplete sentences that sometimes pull me out of the story. And yet, despite all that, I keep coming back. There’s something about the atmosphere -- the storm lashed Aster Castle Hotel on Holly Island in Scotland -- that feels tailor made for curling up with a blanket and a mug of cocoa.

This time around, the mystery itself had two threads that kept me guessing. One I managed to untangle early, but the other -- the identity of the killer -- caught me off guard. I’ll admit, it felt like the author bent the rules a little to pull off the surprise, but that’s part of the fun with these kinds of stories. You’re meant to be toyed with, even if you grumble about it afterward.

The book also includes interactive “games” woven into the reading experience. Personally, that element doesn’t appeal to me. I’d rather focus on the mystery itself without the extra distractions. Still, the core of the novel delivers what I want: a seasonal, atmospheric puzzle that fits perfectly with the mood of the year’s end.

Flawed as it is, The Christmas Cracker Killer manages to capture the spirit of the season. And maybe that’s why I’ll find myself picking up the next one when December rolls around again.