Follow the clues. Find the fortune. Solve the Mystery. This Christmas is to die for. Let the game begin...
'Endgame has kept our secrets for half a century, now it's time for it, and its secrets, to have a new owner.'
When Lily returns home to her aunt's manor house, she discovers that in order to inherit, she and her estranged cousins must stay together over the Christmas week and take part in a family tradition: the annual treasure hunt.
But as they are drawn deeper into the game, the clues seem to point not to the deeds to the manor house, but to the key to a twenty-year-old mystery: what really happened to Lily's mother?
As a snowstorm cuts them off from the village, it becomes apparent that the game has turned deadly and that Lily is fighting for more than just an inheritance: she is now fighting for her life. Does she have what it takes to survive?
12 clues, 12 keys and 12 days of Christmas for the heirs of Endgame House to find their inheritance, but how many will die before Twelfth Night? (Goodreads synopsis)
This is Alexandra Benedict’s debut novel, and I was intrigued by it. The mystery and the plot are almost an ode to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. Obviously, there is differences, but the undertone is still very present. One similarity was in Christie’s novel, we follow Vera’s thoughts as she reflects on the death of the little boy Cyril. Benedict has us follow Lily and her thoughts/grief about her mother.
I also found myself wanting to know why the inheritance was set up as a “Christmas Game.” From what I understood, Lily’s mother, aunts, and uncle all had to play at their time, too. But, and I could have missed it, I didn’t see any explanation as to why this was set up that way. It would have saved some confusion if maybe this “history” had been stressed, and not “the maze was where my mum died.”
Because I compared this to Agatha Christie, I had guessed some of the plot. However, I did not solve any of the clues to the Christmas Game, and found them to be very interesting and unique.
Benedict also added her own “christmas games” to the novel. I admit that I did not look for any of these, because I found them to be distracting from the novel itself. I might, however, re-read this later, and at that time I will focus on those games.
Overall I rate this novel 4 out of 5 stars.
Comments
Post a Comment