A country house murder, set over the Christmas holiday. What could be better? It’s written in a style similar to PG Wodehouse! An absolute delight of a book. Not action packed, but the dialogue is wonderful. Such an extensive vocabulary! I will certainly look out foe more books by Ada Moncrieff.

I'm afraid I couldn't finish this book. Written in a very mannered and overly flowery style, which was clearly supposed to ape that of the Golden Age crime writers such as Agatha Christie but without success (as any fan of Christie would be able to tell you, her narrative style was deceptively simple).

Situated in Christmas of 1938, we join a group of high-class characters in the luxurious Westbury Manor with Lord and Lady Westbury hosting this extravagant celebration. But, on Christmas morning, Lord Westbury’s oldest friend, David Campbell-Scott is discovered with crimson tarnishing the fresh-winter snow. They all know that something is amiss with the circumstances surrounding his demise, but can they discover the truth before all depart from their hosts home?
This had me sold just from the time-setting. I just love reading of this era in our history and imagining the absolute lux that came with high-status.
The writing style was excellent, using the language that was very reminiscent of the time and the social interactions between each of the characters. Ada Moncrieff didn’t shy away from the obvious divide between men and women and the sexism that very much happened throughout our history and the changes that began to occur after the first world-war.
The plot had a air of similarity to Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan-Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes and can’t deny that throughout reading it I pictured the estate and characters of Downton Abbey… Need I say, I wasn’t mad about it! It added more adoration of this tale for me.
Throughout the book, we are from a third-person perspective, giving insight into all the key-players thoughts and characteristics. It lent itself to a real feel of detective work where you are, just as much as the characters, trying to unravel the mystery. At the books climax, I was also in disbelief at the reveal and found myself eagerly reading on to find out why and how!
For Ada Moncrieff’s debut novel, she really did an amazing job. Having a setting during Christmas, as we know, leads to countless cheesy movies being played on Channel 4 from the end of November, and some very typical ‘Christmas Miracle’ tales… But this had none of that. It had enough festivity for it to feel like it was the big day but it didn’t take away anything of the drama and intrigue.
Needless to say, I’ll be keeping my eyes open for more publications by this author.

Christmas 1938, The Westbury family are gathering to spend Christmas together with their closest friends and a special guest invite. Christmas with the Westbury’s is always a fun affair and they hope it will be no different this year. However, things will be out of their control come Christmas morning when they find the body of their dear friend David Campbell Scott alone in the snow, surrounded by blood, crimson staining the snow. A hunting rifle is lying beside him and there’s only one set of footprints but something doesn’t seem right to amateur sleuth Hugh Gaveston, long time friend of the Westbury’s having grown up with their children. Campbell-Scott had just returned from the East with untold wealth – why would he kill himself? Hugh sets out to investigate…
What a perfect cosy winter crime story to read. I wasn’t too sure what to expect going in but I loved this. Filled with some fun characters and easy to read, throwing out some Downton Abbey and Knives Out vibes, I managed to read it in a couple of days.
Murder Most Festive has a great storyline with some nice little twists in it. As usual, I always try to guess who the murderer could be but I couldn't narrow down the suspect! It was a surprise to find out who the murderer was and also the reason why. I liked how it was written where the narration takes the tone as if it is from an outsider's point of view which was a nice touch when involving all of the characters and also makes you feel like you are a part of the story.
Hugh was possibly my favourite character. You could see he very much loves the family who has practically adopted him as their own and wanted to do what he could to solve the mystery.
Overall, it was a wonderfully cosy crime read, brilliant characters and I’d love to see more of Hugh and Lydia solving crimes together.
4/5
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

‘If anyone was going to turn out to be a murderer, my money was on you’
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Too early for a Christmas read!? NOOO NEVER! And what a wonderfully Christmassy whodunnit to start me off!
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The story begins on a Christmas Eve night in Westbury Manor, the inhabitants are preparing for their guests and a few days of merriment ahead... little do they know that they will wake up with a dead body on their snowy lawn! The race is in for our amateur detective ‘Hugh’ to solve this murder and restore festivity to this Christmas celebration 🎄
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I absolutely adored this book and implore everyone to pickup a copy and tuck yourself under a blanket with a hot chocolate and read it! I particularly enjoyed our protagonist Hugh, a very charming character whose developing story I very much enjoyed reading. I also loved that the author every so often spoke to you as a reader by saying what an ‘onlooker’ may see when looking upon the day, I really enjoyed this and made me feel part of the story!
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Thank you so much to @netgalley and @vintage for the ARC!

At face value this book seemed to have everything to make it my perfect read, particularly as a voracious reader of Golden Age crime and not being averse to modern day interpretations. The era, the plot description, the vintage style Christmas book jacket - all held immense appeal. Sadly, it just didn’t deliver. On any level.. The writing was poor and disjointed, the characters flat and underdeveloped and there was little in the way of plot. Atmosphere of the age and of the country house situation simply wasn’t there. Fans of Agatha Christie, as the blurb refers, will surely be most disappointed.

The market for festive murder mysteries, especially for the modern take on GAD tropes, is especially competitive, and success depends on finding that "something" which catches the reader's attention in a special way. It could be a plot twist or an unusual detective or a different setting.For me, this Christmas murder just lacked that original and special ingredient.

Many readers, however, will find the 30s setting and the traditional snowbound English country house-party sufficient. What cannot be ignored is the clunky writing, a creaky and all-too-obvious plot and the occasional infelicities of language.

It is easy-reading, but Yuletide trappings do not make this the modern equivalent of "a Christie for Christmas".

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Vintage for the digital review copy.

In the end I had to give up on this. The overblown writing style and arch descriptions of the action and characters were just too much for me. I read about halfway through, hoping against hope that it would improve but I found the characters to be extremes and I realised that the only one I had any time for was Hugh. I'm not sure if the author was parodying the genre or if the book is to be taken at face value. Whichever is the case, sadly it didn't work for me.

A Christmas Murder is packed full of characters and references one may expect from a novel based in 1938. Large house, Christmas party preparations, servants and an upper class family. Daughter Lydia a vegetarian in her 30's but unmarried ready to bite off anyone's head. Son Stephen arrogant, privileged and always ready to find something to wind up his siblings, and Edward a little different from the others, going against his family and class looking and hoping for equality in the world. There is also Hugh, orphaned young and best friends with Lydia since childhood, always welcomed into the Westbury family and treated almost like another son .
As family and friends gather to celebrate the festivities, Christmas morning finds the body of David Campbell-Scott lying shot dead in the freshly fallen white snow. Old family friend, god farther to Lydia and recently returned wealthy businessman what possibly could have made him kill himself? Hugh, amateur detective decides to find out!
Unfortunately I couldn't get on with this read, I didn't warm to the characters and felt the dialogue very jumpy. A lot of attention, at the beginning of the book, seemed to be given to the siblings arguing with each other and therefore didn't grab my attention. That's just my personal view and there are clearly others that enjoyed it very much.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Random House UK for an advance copy of Murder Most Festive, a country house murder mystery set in Sussex in 1938.

Lady Westbury has invited her family and friends to spend Christmas at Westbury Manor but the festivities are interrupted on Christmas morning by the discovery of David Campbell-Scott’s body beside a gun. Everyone accepts the verdict of suicide except Hugh Gaveston who thinks it might not be and decides to investigate.

Murder Most Festive has a well known format, incompetent police officers, an amateur detective and a limited number of suspects, all with potential motives. Where it differs is the narration which, at times, seems to be told by an outside observer in a rather arch tone. I liked that as it offers something more than the banal plot can. The plot runs through all the suspects, offering different motives and opportunities of varying credibility but I guessed both the killer and motive almost immediately due to a massive hint in the opening chapters and nothing was going to change my mind. It is, however, a light hearted novel so this didn’t overly spoil my enjoyment of the gradual unspooling of events. I think the humorous dialogue helped.

Murder Most Festive is a light read with a captivating tone.

Ada Moncrieff writes a charming festive historical murder mystery set in 1938 amidst the ominous clouds of turbulence in Europe and the background of the upcoming WW2. In the village of Little Bourton in Sussex is the country house of Westbury Manor, the seat of the Westbury family. Lord and Lady Westbury are planning their legendary Christmas festivities, inviting a houseful of guests and friends. They have three children, the unpleasant, manipulative, troublemaker with his strong sense of privilege, Stephen, working in banking, often at loggerheads with his sister, Lydia, a vegetarian with no plans to ever get married, having already turned down marriage proposals, and the young idealist, Eddy, intent on bringing about equality and fighting the unfairness of the class system. The staff have been working overtime to get the Manor ready, cooking and cleaning, and making all the necessary preparations for the guests.

David Campbell-Scott is an old family friend and Lydia's godfather, she will inherit his huge fortune on his death, he has returned to Britain after spending years in Malaya for business reasons. Lady Westbury's star guest, delighted to have wangled his presence for Christmas, is MP Anthony de Havilland, a famous war hero. Hugh Gaveston has known the Westburys, almost his whole life, close to Lydia, he has a penchant for reading detective fiction and dabbles in taxidermy. Rosalind and William appear to be a mismatched married couple, William is a humourless stuffed shirt, supposedly an upright and honourable man, while Rosalind has slowly lost her sense of joy in her suffocating marriage. With various conflicts playing out in the house, the traumatised footman, Jim, interrupts Christmas day breakfast with news of a body in the pristine snow outside. David is initially deemed to have committed suicide with a handgun, but Hugh turns amateur detective, convinced David has been murdered and at the behest of a Lydia worried one of her brothers might be a murderer.

Moncrieff's murder mystery set in a country house with a diverse houseful of suspects certainly echoes many of the tropes associated with the golden age of crime. Gaveston is the dogged and determined amateur sleuth, investigating a killing that uncovers romantic betrayal, fraud, and blackmail, and there is an announcement of an imminent divorce. This is an entertaining and engaging historical crime read that I enjoyed although I was not so sure of the practice of readers attention being drawn to various observations of the characters throughout the novel. Many thanks to Random House Vintage for an ARC.

A Christmas house party is interrupted by an unexpected death. A clever book full of atmosphere and very well developed characters. The book effectively captures an extravagant lifestyle from a bygone age.
Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy.

It’s Christmas Eve 1938 and the Westbury family are preparing for some festive guests. Their celebrations are the stuff of legend and even if Britain is on the brink of war, for a few days, the family and its friends will party together. Until a very close family friend, David Campbell-Scott, is found dead in the snow. The decision on his death is made swiftly, too swiftly for Hugh Gaveston, would-be adopted son of the family. He undertakes an amateur investigation, questioning guests and the family he adores, to discover what really happened. I thought this was great, a charming, jolly read that raced along.