The Christmas Clue

 

Clue Dilligence 

The Christmas Clue
by Nicola Upson
Faber
ISBN: 9780571395026 

 Warning: Very mild spoilers.

Well this was a nice surprise. 

The Christmas Clue is a new novel by Nicola Upson (not one from her regular series of mystery novels, apparently) and the second of my December Christmas reads of 2025. 

I discovered this one by accident on an Amazon recommendation and, with a tag line like “A Christmas murder mystery featuring the real life couple who invented Cluedo.”, there was no way I was going to miss out on this one. We’ve played Cluedo in my family for years (my mum is a big fan) but I never really consciously registered it as being invented in the UK. I just assumed the US release of the game, the drably named Clue, was the original but, no, this was invented by a sweet couple, Anthony and Elva Pratt, during the Second World War and based on a murder mystery party they attended, one of many, at a hotel where Anthony used to play piano and, along with Elva, make up murder mystery games for the guests. 

The game was finally released for the general public in December 1949, under the name Cluedo (an early title used for the board game was Murder At Tudor Close, relating to the incident which inspired it) as a play on words on using clues in a game which was a twist on Ludo. Apparently Ludo wasn’t a thing in the US so, when it was released there shortly after, it was changed to Clue. 

The book starts off at the home of Anthony and Elva on Christmas Day in 1949 and got into my good books straight away by having Anthony whistling The Harry Lime Theme, from The Third Man which came out in UK cinemas a few months before the opening of this story. The Pratts unwrap their complementary copy of a Cluedo set and start to play and, from there, the story flashes back fictionally to the events that inspired it, staying in the Christmas of 1943 for the rest of the novel… when the Pratt’s were invited to reconnect with the Tudor Hotel for Christmas and provide more piano and another murder game.

However, on their way, the Pratt’s stop in the local village to pick up a box of cigars from Miss Silver’s sweet shop and, it’s there that they discover Miss Silver’s body in the back room with her head caved in. After talking with two members of the local police, the two go on to their engagement where more murder shenanigans are afoot, forcing them to first come up with an impromptu murder game idea that would later evolve into Cluedo… and also go into sleuth mode themselves to find out what really is going on here.

It’s a wonderful book and a joyful Christmas comfort read, I would say. Also, there’s an impressive twist half way through which, although I did consider this possibility from early on in the narrative, did actually take me by surprise when the writer went through with it so, yeah, it ticked all the good boxes for me. The central protagonists are well portrayed and are such a nice couple that you will be rooting for them from the start. And, of course, there are a number of characters who you can see might easily translate into ‘playing pieces’ later on. Such as Colonel Coleman who might translate into Colonel Mustard in the game (is it a British thing to relate the name Coleman to mustard?). Or, for example, Reverend Teal.

All in all, although it’s a quick read (the book just whizzes by) I really enjoyed this one and especially Upson’s skill at sketching out the character’s reactions to the war into which Britain has been plunged and the way in which it clouds the lives of the characters who, in turn, muster up the strength to just get on with it. So, yeah, another recommendation from me is The Christmas Clue… I might have to try some of Miss Upson’s other novels on for size now.