The Christmas Cracker Killer

 

Merry Fishmas 

The Christmas Cracker Killer 
by Alexandra Benedict 
Simon and Schuster
ISBN 9781398532212

The Christmas Cracker Killer is the newest and, by my reckoning, fourth of Alexandra Benedict’s Christmas murder mysteries. I was getting worried last year when no new Christmas tome was forthcoming from her but, here’s the latest installment and, with no shame at all, I’d have to say that, yes, it’s a bit of a cracker. 

Like the previous volumes by Benedict, it starts off with a section detailing the games of hidden things in the book. These include a ‘prize’ for the first person to find the anagram within the chapter heading letters, ten of the central character’s (and author’s) favourite punk songs hidden in the text, the anagrams of Christmas movies hidden in the wordage, the hidden favourite books set in hotels and, lastly, ten of the BBC ghost story titles from over the years. 

Also like the three previous tomes, which comprised The Christmas Murder Game (reviewed here), Murder On The Christmas Express (reviewed here) and The Christmas Jigsaw Murders (reviewed here), the book references back to at least one of the other novels in this shared universe. So in this case we have a call back to Murder On The Christmas Express fairly early on. Also, though, this is the first of her Christmas novels to bring back the main protagonist and a couple of accompanying characters from a previous book to fulfil the same function here. So we have the crossword puzzle setting, 80 plus year old Edie, star of The Christmas Jigsaw Murders, her 90 plus year old lesbian lover Riga and her nephew/adopted son, Sean, the police inspector. 

This is also the second novel I’ve read this year (which includes the Wild Cards mosaic novel House Rules, reviewed here) to be set in a large house with guests stranded on an island... in this case a newly opening hotel. Riga has won a prize of a Christmas holiday there, along with Edie and Sean, as part of a press/blog/publicity event to open the hotel. And. of course, once everyone is settled there and the various other characters are set up… that’s when the murders start happening. The time frame of the entire book, bar the epilogue, takes place on the 24th and 25th of December and, of course, inclement weather and other acts of sabotage scupper any way of getting off the island again. So it’s up to Edie, with the help of Sean (who seems to have mellowed to her crime solving machinations… as circumstances would require) to try and unmask the murderer by solving various clues and trying to find out just what makes said ‘envoy of death’ tick.

And, I have to say (and I always seem to say this every time I read a novel by this writer), this is my favourite of her Christmas novels yet. It’s so well written and it feels like a real progression over the others in the way its put together too. I mean, it takes over a hundred pages before the first murder is committed… because the various characters are being built up so well that the reader can just lose themselves in the scenario. But once the murders start happening…. well, like I said, it’s all compressed into a short time frame so they come thick and fast. As do some of the ‘almost murders’ but, yeah, I’m not spoiling that here. 

Like a good old giallo, there are so many valid suspects as the author whittles down the various guests and staff that it’s almost impossible to figure out the real identity of the killer (and Benedict’s pronoun game is once again strong and annoying but effective in this respect). I will only say I got it ‘half right’ and so, of course, I’m delighted that I didn’t see the full picture until the timely reveal. Even with joyful clues and hints such as… “No one was reliable these days. Not staff, not friends, not family and certainly not narrators.” The prose has a poetic bent to it which sits just right with the subject matter and flows into the consciousness without getting in the way of the intent of the novel. 

And it also has... fortune fishes!  

It’s funny, I haven’t had a fortune fish in a Christmas Cracker in a long time but this year... well, every year I design my own Christmas cards and this year I bought over a hundred fortune fish to stick onto the special section I put on the back of each card. But they’re also part of the killer’s modus operandi in this novel too so… that made me happy. I thought people had forgotten all about them. 

So that’s me done with The Christmas Cracker Killer, I think. Once again, the new Alexandra Benedict Christmas novel is also the best thing I’ve read from her… which is a pretty good batting average as far as I’m concerned. A wonderful read for the month of December and an absolute joy from cover to cover. A strong recommendation from me here.