Reviews with content warning for Pregnancy - A cena con l'assassino

I loved the characters, the creepy house and its rich history, and the extra puzzles dotted around the book (even though I didn't solve a single one). Liliana's Christmas game and the way it changes with her death is so clever and I was utterly intrigued how things would resolve.

I have to say the whole thing was a bit of a bloodbath. No one was safe, and while that added to the mystery and fun, it was bordering on the ridiculous. Liliana's clues were insanely complex, to the point I didn't really take them in and enjoy them. And I'm still undecided if the reveal was rushed, far-fetched, disappointing or actually quite pleasing!

It's certainly a clever, festive mystery. Not as cosy and a little more gruesome than those classics Benedict so loves, but it was a fun read for the Christmas period.

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beckyyreadss's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book was gifted to me by a family member as I was feeling festive this year. I was hoping to feel more festive reads and I was excited going into this and I love a mystery and I love Christmas so it was a perfect mix.

This book is based on Lily Armitage. She never intended to return to Endgame House, the grand family home where her mother died twenty-one Christmases ago. Until she receives a letter from her aunt, asking her to return to take part in an annual tradition: the Christmas Game. The challenge? Solve twelve clues, to find twelve keys. The prize? The deed to the house. Lily has no desire to win the house, but her aunt makes one more promise: the clues will also be revealed who really killed her mother all those years ago. So, for the twelve days of Christmas, Lily must stay at Endgame House with her estranged cousins and unravel the riddles that hold the key not just the family home, but to the family’s darkest secrets. However, it soon becomes clear that her cousins all have their own reasons for wanting to win the house and not all of them are playing fair. As a snowstorm cuts them off from the village, the game turns deadly. Soon Lily realises that she is no longer fighting for an inheritance, but for her life. This Christmas is to die for . . . let the game begins.

I love a good mystery and the build-up and the twists and turns. I loved Lily and Isabelle and the aspect of the Christmas Game every year. I always love reading or hearing about people’s traditions. I loved the games that Alexandra has within the book though I could only do the wordsearch because I'm too stupid for anagrams. I loved reading Lily’s story and getting to know her even though it was mainly focused on Lily’s grief which can affect a lot of people are Christmas plus she was going through a lot of life changes during these twelve days. I loved Mrs Castle and Isabelle and was hoping they were popping in more, but they weren’t family, so they only showed up during the end. I love the LGBT relationships in these, and I wanted to hug them all.

I would have loved for this book to be bigger to get the full back story on some of these members, I was forgetting some of them because they were forgettable. I managed to guess the killer quickly but I'm putting that down to me reading a lot of thriller and mystery books. I would have loved this book to be multiple POV to see what everyone else was thinking. I wasn’t thrilled with the pregnancy aspect either, but I just don’t like pregnancy in books.

Overall this was an intense Christmas mystery and would recommend it to anyone who likes the game Clue or Knives Out.

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