This was such a good book. I loved the story and the writing so much. The characters were great and the story flowed smoothly. Will definitely read more books by this author in the future

Thank you Netgalley and One More Chapter for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

If “Knives Out” and “Home Alone” had a murderous, British love child set in a snowy Shropshire mansion, it would be Natasha Bache’s “12 Ways to Kill Your Family at Christmas.” Equal parts whodunnit, dark comedy, and delicious family satire, this book is as sharply plotted as it is wickedly funny. It’s a twisted holiday treat you’ll devour with a grin on your face and a tally sheet in your hand.

At the center of this blood-splattered Christmas cracker is Olivia (Liv), a wry, working-class Londoner trapped with her insufferable in-laws for one final festive gathering before emigrating to Australia. What should have been a countdown to freedom quickly becomes a countdown to survival when family members start dying in increasingly creative and Christmassy ways, such as from poisoned figgy pudding to a corpse hidden inside a snowman.

It’s a locked-room mystery with a body count to rival a Shakespearean tragedy and a cast of characters so vile, you’ll be rooting for the killer. The Weiss clan is dripping with old money, casual cruelty, and deeply buried secrets. Each one is a contender for both victim and suspect, making it a joy to play detective while they drop like flies. Olivia’s dry wit and relatable inner monologue provide a perfect counterbalance to the madness, grounding the chaos with genuine heart and sharp observational humor.

The story alternates between Liv’s point of view and chilling diary entries from the unnamed murderer, offering insight into their twisted motivations and breadcrumb clues to their identity. Bache uses this dual perspective masterfully, heightening the tension while delivering a steady drip of sardonic commentary on family dysfunction, toxic wealth, and class prejudice.

What elevates “12 Ways” beyond mere festive carnage is its clever structure and sly social commentary. Between laughs and gasps, there are biting insights into classism, performative grief, online culture, and even the publishing world, all of which are seamlessly woven into the plot. The characters may border on caricatures, but they never feel flat. Their exaggerated personalities only amplify the fun, making the inevitable deaths feel like poetic justice.

While a few deaths rely a bit heavily on poisoning, the inventive methods and snowballing body count keep the momentum brisk and the tone gleefully unhinged. And just when you think you’ve figured it all out, Bache pulls off a final twist; one that recontextualizes everything you thought you knew and leaves you grinning with appreciation.

Overall, “12 Ways to Kill Your Family at Christmas” is a darkly hilarious, smartly plotted holiday murder mystery that’s equal parts satire and suspense. With its razor-sharp dialogue, inventive kills, and page-turning pace, it’s the perfect read for anyone who loves dysfunctional families, locked-room thrillers, or just needs a cathartic escape from holiday obligations. A bloody good time from start to finish.

The comparison to Knives Out is spot on with this book. It is a dark, quirky crime thriller with eccentric characters. There were lots of different twists that I didn't see coming. This is a perfect cosy Christmas crime which I highly recommend.

While this book wasn’t new or unique, it was still a fun ride with great Christmas vibes and entertaining characters, I would definitely recommend this around the holiday season, especially if your family provokes some… strong feelings.

12 Ways to Kill Your Family at Christmas by Natasha Bache is a brilliantly dark and twisted holiday read that had me laughing, cringing, and completely hooked from start to finish. The title alone sets the tone for a sharp, unpredictable, and hilarious journey through a dysfunctional family gathering like no other.

Bache has a knack for combining dark humor with genuinely intriguing suspense. The characters are delightfully flawed, and the family dynamics are relatable and hilariously exaggerated. The writing is witty and full of sharp commentary on the chaos of family life, with just the right amount of holiday madness thrown in. The humor is dry and biting, making it a fun and sinister read.

What I loved most was how Bache expertly builds suspense amidst the comedy. While the book had me laughing out loud, genuine moments of tension and unexpected twists kept me on my toes. It’s the perfect balance of satire and thriller, and a refreshing take on the typical holiday read.

A must-read for fans of dark comedy, family drama, and anyone looking for a nontraditional Christmas story that is as clever as it is entertaining!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was fun and wild. Literally every time I thought I knew what was happening I got whiplash and questioned everything I knew. My only gripe is that I think this is only being published as an ebook, and I want a physical copy!

With an incredibly catchy title, 12 WAYS TO KILL YOUR FAMILY AT CHRISTMAS starts quickly out of the gate, with a police interrogation related to the deaths of ten family members during Christmas. Then the plot moves back two weeks, before the murders occurred. I’m interested already!

Olivia and Miles are moving from their home in the UK to Australia with their teenagers, Martha and Callum. Before that, however, they decide to stop for a last visit with Miles’s wealthy family over the Christmas holiday.

It is easy to dislike this family—they are an admittedly nasty bunch. And then the deaths started….

The pacing was absolutely speedy, and the plot was very compelling. While I usually don’t enjoy books with unlikable characters, the plot and characters were just so cleverly done. As the suspects were whittled down, I still had trouble guessing the killer.

The comparison to KNIVES OUT was spot on. This is a Christmas satire at its best, and would be a great movie or choice for book club. I’ll definitely read more from this author!

🌟Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.🌟

I liked the book and the way that the book was laid out. I do recommend a character guide as I struggled to remember who had died and who they were in relation to the main POV.

RATING: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Expected publishing date: October 9, 2025

If you are looking for an entertaining festive murder mystery, or if you have ever wanted to strangle someone over Christmas dinner, this is the PERFECT read for you!

All Olivia wanted was one last miserable Christmas with her husband’s absolutely awful family before moving to Australia.
Now the snow has cut them off from leaving and she’s stuck with her husband’s awful family in a country house, with someone who has been murdered- and they are slowly being picked off one by one.
The bodies continue to pile up, the festivities start to crack, and all Olivia wants to do is survive and get out of there.

WOW!! This book was SO fun!! I have never read a book like this, it was so unique! Definitely twisted, definitely mysterious, humorous in the darkest way, and highly entertaining. Each character we meet is a different variety of self-centered, egotistical, hateful, greedy, and just plain bat sh-t crazy. They are the kind of family that care more about their name and image rather than their family members. Poor Olivia and her family are the only ones that aren’t crazy.
This is one of those books that doesn’t feel like you are reading, it just feels like a movie being played out in your head. I could have read this book in one sitting if life would have let me.
This book is so well written and just absolutely fun, and I’ll definitely be rereading this around the holidays.

HUGE thank you to NetGalley, HarperCollins UK and One More Chapter Publishing for the E-Arc! And thank you to Natasha Bache for writing such an awesome book!
I will highly recommend this to anyone and everyone!

This book is the perfect festive cozy mystery for this holiday season. This was such a fun read both a little satire and suspenseful at times, the family dynamic is relatable between the drama and gossip. This was easily a 5 star read Natasha really out did herself with this book.

A dark holiday read that does not take itself too seriously

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

“12 Ways to Kill Your Family at Christmas” by Natasha Bache is a sharp, and darkly humorous holiday read. Lots festive mayhem, and a perfect mix of satire and suspense. Bache cleverly skewers family dysfunction and seasonal pressure in a way that’s both wildly entertaining and relatable.
I enjoyed the characters and all their flaws, a fun festive mystery experience!

4 - 5 stars

To Olivia‘s relief, this will be the last Christmas she and her children Martha and Callum, will have to endure of her husband Miles utterly ghastly family before they emigrate to Australia. That’s probably to get away from that lot especially Miles’s mother Jeannie and who can blame them? However, now she’s stuck in the country mansion, it’s snowing heavily and as if that’s not bad enough, someone is picking the family off one by one. Who will be next, I wonder? So, welcome to Weiss Manor to festivities to end all festivities, to a toxic gathering and a puzzle. Who will be the last man/woman standing and who may additionally lay claim to the multimillion fortune of the Weiss family?

Well, this is one of the most entertaining and fun festive novels I’ve read, albeit in sunny July. The time of year actually doesn’t matter because this fast paced, twisty read can easily be consumed at any time. Initially, there seems to be a lot of characters but as they’re all varying shades of mad, inebriated, self-centred, egotistical, greedy or just plain nasty I don’t have any trouble distinguishing them. The prize goes to Jeannie for being the most manipulative and bat **** crazy of the lot. I wish I could say they don’t deserve it as they drop like flies in the run-up to Christmas. With one or two (ok, most of them) I feel like cheering 😂

The plot is rip roaringly (like the fires to keep out the cold) chilling (like the weather), bonkers (take your pick), barking mad (all except Liv’s family), tense and suspenseful (look over your shoulder, you might be next), competitive (who can stay alive to get the dosh), dramatic (again, several candidates for that award) and clever (not you Fergus, Miles‘s uncle). It’s engrossing, amusing and well written with witty chapter headings. I have two candidates for the perpetrator and yay, I got one right!! Well played Natasha Bache – this is huge fun.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to HarperCollins, One More Chapter for the much appreciated early copy in return for an honest review.

This book is one of the biggest surprises of the year for me. A book I didn’t know about before I was offered this review copy but that has now made its way to my favourites list. The comparison with “Knives Out” is so spot on. I loved that movie and I love this book for almost the same reasons. The tone is similar and it also focuses a lot on the family drama. It’s hilarious too, which I really needed after reading so many dark thrillers lately. Really, the perfect book read at the perfect time. It can be a great Christmas read too, given that’s when the story takes place.

As I said, the book features that soap opera-ish family drama, which I adore. I grew up watching telenovelas and I love messy characters who show no remorse. Those are the most entertaining to read about. Most of their unhinged comments were highlighted on my e-reader.
From the very beginning, we know ten family members will die and that became a game for me. I wrote down the names of all the people staying in the house to keep track of who died. Saying things like “3 down, 7 to go” with a smile on my face, which is something only fans of this genre can understand. I was actually more interested in finding out who the next victim would be than knowing who the murderer was. But that mystery was also good because everyone had a motive to do it. Or two. Or several. Every single character. I didn’t guess who the mastermind (or masterminds) behind the killing spree was, because I never do, but I claimed everyone was a suspect at some point. Still, the person whom I thought was guilty first and who was my biggest suspect for the longest time was innocent. And that’s how mysteries are written. We have to doubt everyone’s actions because what do they hide? Everyone hid things. So messy, so good. And I don’t love guessing the mystery or the twists anyway. It’s more fun when I’m surprised by even the smallest details of the story.

Same as with “Knives Out”, there is classism in this story. The Weisses are a rich family that cares more about the family name than the people in the family. Reputation over people and that bites them in their not so classy behinds. And so they make sure to let Olivia, our first person POV, know what they think about her working-class background. It’s obviously not nice to read some of the things they say but it’s the context of who they are as people. They are also homophobic but using some expressions I had never heard about so points for originality? They really made it easy not to feel bad about them being killed…
Through Olivia, we get some meta commentary about the book industry too, which I enjoyed. I don’t know if it’s fully meta and the author also had to deal with trolls writing hate comments about her books but we all know these people exist so…I’m happy with any kind of content that shames people like that. One can write negative reviews while still being respectful. The fact that it played a big part in the story too made it also useful to develop the plot. Very smart use of that little storyline.
Through two characters, we also get some commentary about how social media will take a tragedy and just turn something awful into something viral. How that’s not treated like it’s real people suffering but just as something to chat about on TikTok. As a fan of social commentary, I approve of these additions.

The way the story is told just makes the reader feel so invested in what’s happening. I found it so easy to imagine these scenes in my head and I didn’t want the movie that was playing in my head to end. I’m currently imagining what happens after and how the surviving characters go on with their lives.
But also…this book is so funny. I laughed out loud multiple times and I really needed that. The humour worked for me 100% but that’s obviously subjective so not everyone has to like the jokes. Some are a bit darker but in a very British way and that’s my kind of humour. The darkest joke was the one that made me laugh the hardest, to be honest.

In stories like this one, sometimes the characters feel a bit cartoonish. Like they are very stereotypical and it makes sense and it works. If it’s well done, obviously. With this book, we did have the stereotypical characters one would expect for this type of book but…they also felt like real people. So not cartoonish. And that made them way more interesting to follow.

I want to say more positives and spend longer gushing about the book but I’ll have plenty of time to do that in the future. I’m already pestering my friends so they read it and will do the same again once the book is out. What a great surprise this book was!

What a brilliant read this was.
A good old murder mystery.
An awful family being picked off one by one, who on earth is the murderer?
I continually changed my mind.
The ending was a real WOW moment.
My thanks to netgalley and the publisher for my copy.
One not to be missed.

HOLY SMOKES! What the heck did I just read? This book is every level of crazy in all the right ways! What I loved about this book? Everything it was fantastic! There were many laugh out loud moments throughout!

I want to take this book and scream from the rooftops and make everyone I know read a copy. This book was enthralling, fast-paced and twisty. I read this one into the night, if you want a hair-raising thriller, then look no further.

This book sank its teeth into me and would not let go until I was done. It was one of the most thrilling books I have ever read! A MASSIVE 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 stars!

I thoroughly enjoyed reading 12 Ways to Kill Your Family at Christmas by Natasha Bache.

Olivia (Liv) travels with her husband Miles and her two teenage children Callum and Martha from London to spend the Christmas period with her in-laws in Weiss Manor, a large country house in rural Shropshire. This will be their last Christmas for some time with the in-laws and extended family before they emigrate to Australia.

The Weiss family is incredibly wealthy, and the family are quite awful toward Liv, her children and even Miles - all of whom they feel haven’t succeeded in life. It’s no surprise that they dread spending time with the Weiss Family. Their plan is to keep their heads down and just get through the ordeal.

Their plan however goes out the window when family members start dying. Are they accidents? Was it just old age? As the body count rises, it’s no longer can the deaths be explained away or is something more sinister going on. To top it all off, they get snowed in and emergency services can’t reach them.

It’s a pacy fun festive whodunnit. The story unfolds from the perspective of Olivia (Liv) and also from the unnamed murderer. I loved Liv’s ‘voice’ and her inner thoughts. I’ve had to endure some truly horribly Christmas events at in-laws and I could relate! I was confident I’d guessed the murderer, but when that family member wound up dead I returned to the drawing board. I didn’t guess the murderer and was suitably stunned at the reveal. It’s an absolute page-turner and I can’t wait to read more books by Natasha Bache.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter, for making this e-ARC

This was so good I read it in less than a day! A festive, cosy murder mystery with real Agatha Christie vibes, a definte must read for all cozy murder mystery lovers. The story is incredibly well written, the characters have the perfect amount of depth and personality, it really was an enjoyable read.

📚I was able to read an advanced copy of title thanks to NetGalley, Natasha Bache and HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter 📚
📚All reviews and opinions are entirely my own📚