★★★★★ 5
Murder and Christmas Cheer!!!
Format: Kindle
Christmas is a joyous time of year and not a holiday usually associated with murder, but Benedict Brown serves up a classic British mystery, set in the 1920’s, with seasonal warmth, cheer and numerous deaths. This is the sixth novel in the Marius Quin series and, at the beginning of the novel, the reader finds Marius in a good place – he’s finally accepted that the war is over, his new novel is at his publisher’s and Bella, the woman he loves, is back in his life. At a Christmas party at Bella’s parents’ manor house, he runs into a white-haired lady, talking to herself. Adele Leach, “Aunt Addie,” says that she’d been to the police because a friend was in danger and, if anything happened to her friend, that she knows who her killer is, and then Adele rushes off. Quite soon thereafter, Adele is found dead and the police attribute her death to natural causes: She was in her 80’s and had a weak heart. Marius and Bella know better and go to Holly Village, where Adele lived, to investigate. Of course, more murder follows and the duo satisfyingly reveal the culprit, and the end of the novel is filled with Christmas cheer, reminiscent of A Christmas Carol by Dickens. The plot keeps the reader guessing, but what really appealed to me was the setting. Holly Village is right out of Dickens and is a real village which was built during the Victorian time, with twelve-dwellings, each with turrets, towers and gargoyles, located in the heart of London, next to Highgate Cemetery (an appropriate setting for a murder mystery)! I totally recommend this new Christmas novel by Benedict Brown.
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Reviewed in the United States on November 11, 2025
