Lily Armitage 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 deeds to the manor house. Sin medios ni miedos a una ácida caída, anidamos sin andamios. Animados e imanados. Una melodía demolía tus fronteras y fraternos parajes para parejas eran un escenario necesario para mi listado de latidos. I recently attended a book buzz event at a local bookstore and this book caught my interest, as it has all the ingredients for an intriguing mystery! Highly recommended by the publisher, I decided to give it a shot. If that's not enough of a reason, then let me give you one part of the puzzle. Your mother was wrongfully killed. There. I've said it. I know you will have so many questions, and the answers will come. They will be there, in every clue: the beginning and end of all that has haunted our family for so many years. This read like the adult version of The Inheritance Games, which is a YA thriller series with a similar premise, mixed with the beloved game of Cluedo, given the setting and dual mystery that is presented. I was immediately invested in guessing the answers to the riddles, anagrams, and clues that featured throughout this, as well as discovering who, amongst this large cast, could be trusted. Answers to both were definitely had fought for.

I feel like I could just copy and past my thoughts about The Christmas Killer for this one. The premise is there, a murderous Christmas game involving family secrets and riddles, but the execution just wasn't up to scratch. The plot is predictable, the characters flat and one dimensional, and the writing just isn't good. Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan. A family gathers, one of them will walk away with an inheritance but first they must solve the clues..then a killer strikes and the stakes are suddenly much higher. I liked the character of Lily but I didn’t really connect with any of the other family members and I certainly didn’t trust any of them either. Everyone seemed to have their own agenda. I partly guessed who was involved as the suspect list narrowed but there were also some great twists thrown in which turned everything on its head. Mis ciudades sin suciedad precisan de una princesa. Mi costilla por tu castillo. Pieles en elipse encrestaron al encontrarse.The idea of The Christmas Murder Game is great but the execution is horrendous. What should be a fun, Agatha Christie type book is serious and overly complicated (yet the 'who' of the whodunnit is obvious from about the 50% mark). The characters are weak, generally 1-dimensional. Until, that is, she receives a letter from her aunt promising that the game's riddles will give her the keys not only to Endgame, but to its darkest secrets, including the identity of her mother's murderer. As the guests converge at Endgame House on Christmas Eve, the weather outside grows more foreboding and Aunt Liliana's lawyer sets out the details of the task that awaits them. Everyone must surrender their phones and other communication devices, and agree that to leave the grounds of Endgame House at any time during the game will mean instant disqualification. They'll each be given a succession of twelve cryptic clues, one on each of the twelve days of Christmas, each clue leading to a key hidden somewhere on the property. Using the keys found along the way and considering all twelve clues together, they'll also need to find a secret room somewhere within Endgame House by 4.00pm on Twelfth Night (5 January), where the title deeds to the property await the winner. After Isabelle the lawyer leaves, their only company is taciturn cook-housekeeper Mrs. Castle, who is responsible for ensuring everyone plays by the rules and that the clues are handed out on schedule. On the whole, I found this to be an enjoyable read that is well-paced and holds the attention. Stylistically it is a little awkward at times and comes across as a bit clunky on occasion, though this is a result - at least in part - of incorporating the reader's challenge into the narrative. My review: I agree with the rating of a 3.4. This is definitely not a Christmas book. This is a mystery and a little suspense. Some reviewers say it's predictable but I didn't find it to be predictable at all. I honestly didn't know who the killer was. With that said, some things didn't make sense. I can't clairify without spoiling. I just don't know all that did happened could happen. It's a bit far stretched. I think the book was okay in general. It's not the best but not the worst. The mystery was good and the suspense but other than that, it kinda falls flat.

Me esperaba otro libro, al principio se me hizo un poco bola pero la segunda mitad se hace más amena. As the weather outside worsens, the various resentments, alliances and shared histories of the protagonists immediately become clear as the cousins reconnect and settle into Endgame. For our heroine, Lily Armitage the Christmas Game provides not only the opportunity to inherit Endgame, but also to solve her mother’s mysterious death 21 years previously. Firstly, I would like to point out that although this is entitled "The Christmas Murder Game" it could equally well be read at any time of year and I hope people do not dismiss is as purely a seasonal read. In this respect it shares something in common with Agatha Christie's "Hallowe'en Party". Her debut novel , The Beauty of Murder(Orion), was shortlisted for an eDunnit award and is in development for an 8-part TV series. Her second novel, Jonathan Dark or The Evidence of Ghosts(Orion), was published inFebruary 2016 and The Stone House, a tie-in novel for Doctor Whospin-off Class, was published by BBC Books in October. Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.It's generally completely ridiculous, which could have made it fun if it wasn't for the idiotic language (womb-like tomb will haunt me til my dying day), poor character development, and glaringly obvious resolution. Have I mentioned that Tom is a counsellor? The characters are varied and not all likeable. Lily, the main character, spends a long time agonising over life, the universe and where she is headed which can be a little tedious, the only thing she is sure about is that she doesn’t want to win the house, just to find out who killed her mother, if indeed anyone did. We spend a lot of time with lily memories which in some cases are wonderful and heart-warming, in others are a little boring. The other characters varied from the sarcastic and unlikeable to the truly loveable, but all are not who they seem to be at first glance (which is quite predictable) and there are a few twists I didn’t see coming. Reconozco que al principio no me enganchó mucho pero a partir del 30% más o menos empecé a meterme más y más en la historia y la verdad es que me ha gustado bastante. Luego tenemos los enigmas que tienen que ir resolviendo los participantes siguiendo el juego navideño familiar que ha organizado la dueña de la casa en la que se desarrolla todo: la casa Arcana. Dueña que es tía de un@s y madre de otr@s. Estos enigmas no pueden ser resueltos por el lector porque a pesar de que viene un planito de la casa en plan Cluedo, es necesario tener mucha más información de la que se tiene leyendo.

No soy mucho de leer novelas navideñas, pero en este caso siendo un libro de misterio no pude resistirme cuando me propusieron leerlo. BUONE FESTE e mi raccomando, non rimandate un ti voglio bene o un ti amo, perché non si sa mai con chi ci si ritrova a cena, magari è un assassino. Lily has no desire to win the house. But her aunt makes one more promise: The clues will also reveal who really killed Lily’s 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 to the family home, but to its 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. I hope you never have to read this letter, because if it now lies in your hands then I am dead. I've entrusted your old friend Isabelle Stirling with the task of making sure you get this if I die before the Christmas Game begins. I fear that I shall. I hope I'm utterly, shamefully askew on the subject. But I don't think I am.

Alteras mis alertas y desde los altares relatas letras sin lastre mientras cortas la costra de una herida que adherí en esmerados desamores. I loved the setting for the book, with secrets hidden in every corner of Endgame and when bodies start to drop, the atmosphere becomes even frostier when a snowstorm cuts them off from any means of help or escape.