Reviews

Murder at Christmas: Ten Classic Crime Stories for the Festive Season by Cecily Gayford

malongorose's review

mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

assassinsreader's review

mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

2.0

This sucks. Definitely the worst one I've read, I have read this before, but compared to the other two I've read this month this ones is the worst.
Boring has to skip a few, the rest was slow and boring, a couple are okay but... nope.

misskatz's review

dark lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

mike_brough's review

4.0

A reasonable selection of stories with the standouts being the Holmes, Rumpole and Twixt the Cup and the Lip.

Not much Christmas cheer, more Christmas fear.

stagasaurus's review

lighthearted mysterious relaxing fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Enjoyable Christmas read of short crime stories set around Christmas. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder

chelseamayxxx's review

adventurous emotional mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Such great little story’s I really enjoyed 8 out of the 10 stories. It’s such a quick read. But it’s not very Christmassy in my opinion xx

niamhsewell's review

3.25

🎅🏼 The Snapdragon and the C.I.D by Margery Allingham - 2 stars

🎅🏼 Let Nothing You Dismay by Ellis Peters - 3 stars

🎅🏼 The Lion’s Tooth by Edmund Crispin - 4 stars

🎅🏼 Rumpole and the Spirt of Christmas by John Mortimer - 3 stars

🎅🏼 The Asassin’s Club by Nicholas Blake - 3 stars

🎅🏼 The Ascham by Michael Innes - 2 stars

🎅🏼 A Scandal in Winter by Gillian Linscott - 5 stars

🎅🏼 Waxworks by Ethel Lina White - 5 stars

🎅🏼 Twixt the Cup and the Lip by Julian Symons - 3 stars

🎅🏼 Nebuchadnezzar by Dorothy L. Sayers - 4 stars

verityw's review

2.0

Not my favourite Christmas collection. A bit patchy and it struggled to hold my attention at times. Never mind. Short story collections can be a bit like that sometimes.

yasminsarah's review

2.0

I don’t know why I still bother with these kind of books. I never like short stories.

sandman_1961's review

3.0

A bit of a mixed bag in both the story content and the link to Christmas.

As others have sais some of the links to Christmas are very tenuous. The stories could be set in any time of the year as they are really just 'cosy' crime stories.

I enjoyed 'Twixt the Cup and Lip (Julian Symons) particularly and the Christmas element here was reasonably strong.

I'm sorry to say that Dorothy L. Sayers' Nebuchadnezzar was my least favourite. I just didn't get the point of it at all.

The other eight stories there were enjoyable tales, mainly winter, rather than Christmas specifically.

A nice little Holmes and Watson tale that is a sequel of sorts to 'A Scandal in Bohemia' by Gillian Linscott.

Overall a pleasant, light, read for the festive season, but not 'Christmassy'. All the tales are of the kind of the 'golden age' of crime fiction writing.