The Twelve Days of Murder

Tremendous..
The Murder Masquerade Society ended on a sour note, in fact possibly a fatal note, at the Christmas Masquerade. Twelve years later, at Christmastime in the highlands of Scotland, the tradition is to be revived - but why and at what cost? So begins the masquerade themed around the Twelve Days Of Christmas and murder is most definitely on the menu. Quite simply a tremendously entertaining and enjoyable murder mystery with a host of credible, eclectic and delicious characters in a perfect atmospheric setting and a plot peppered liberally with red herrings and twists and turns aplenty. This reader did not want this to end and devoured it greedily in one sitting - how they wished that they themselves had kept this for a perfect Christmas treat.

If I could give this book ten stars I would. I thought it a clever and thrilling book and so easy to suddenly realise you’ve gone hours over when you should be asleep as it’s very addictive.

The Masquerade Murder Society, formed by a niche group formed at university, was famed for their dramatic murder mysteries - and the unsolved disappearance of one of their founder members. Our storyline opens on the night of this disappearance, and throughout the novel, we will revisit the events of that day, through the memories of various society members.
Twelve years later, the seven surviving members are meeting again for one more Christmas masquerade event. This reunion will take place in a remote house in Scotland on Christmas eve. And so, the stage is set for 12 nights of mystery, murder and utter mayhem.
The group can be divided up as follows:
- the doctor
- the journalist/ would be politician
- the influencer
- the spoiled heiress
And finally, our protagonist Charley, who narrates the tale and colours our view of events. We soon learn that every member of the group has secrets - ones that they may be willing to kill to keep - along with the mysterious disappearance of 12 years earlier.
There are definite echoes of Agatha Christie here - the setting and assigned persona (as per the Masquerade instructions), are reminiscent of the upperclass world that we have seen with Christie's characters and the building menace as the characters cannot escape the killer that is stalking them.
The author builds up the fear throughout the novel, using the setting to the best advantage. And the Masquerade element, adds a layer of complexity as we wonder which character is acting and who is being themselves. And of course, setting this series of horror filled events at Christmas is ideal, with a contrast between the expected joy and actual fear of the characters, ensuring that the pact doesn't drop and holds our interest.

A good book which kept me guessing. I will recommend this book to others.
Thanks for the opportunity to read & review it.

I'd say this was more of a light, fun murder story if such things exist lol! It's obviously based around the 12 days of Christmas and it's really well plotted out and executed to stay on theme. I dont think I've ever come across a Xmas themed murder story before so it was certainly ly original. The characters were well written, if horrible people. The plot moved at a good pace. Overall I had no complaints and really enjoyed it

A Christmas themed murder mystery based around the “12 days of Christmas”?! Yes please!

12 friends during university ran a club called “Masquerade Murder Society” it was all fun and games until one of them disappeared. Years later the remaining friends get together for a reunion in Scotland. Another game is played where one of them dies! Will they the culprit before they all die?

I love it in films and books when a fictional game results in real deaths because it makes for higher stakes and literally playing for your life. It always make for a good time.

I’ve preordered myself a physical copy!

Santa's not coming to town this year.. someone with murderous intentions is. Can they survive this final game of The Masquerade Murder Society?

'Find the truth. Solve the murder. Never reveal your secret'.

Synopsis
The Masquerade Murder Society started back at University: dress up, play the roles and discover who's the killer. Everyone who was part of this club had very privileged upbringings, apart from Charley.. which made her an easy target to blame when a members necklace disappears.

When the Society were meant to find the founder, Karl, 'dead' during their last game, they found him nowhere. 12 years later, they still don't know what happened to him.. but someone does.

Reunited for a Christmas Masquerade, they're assigned new identities to play, but these identities have some realism to them - their secrets, well hidden, are now in their character profiles.

But when Lady Partridge is found hanging in a pear tree, they know this isn't just any Masquerade. Someone knows their secrets, and is killing them one by one for revenge.

'Until the next morning, when Lady Partridge is found hanging from a pear tree. It quickly becomes clear that in this game, the murder will be all too real, and the story is bringing long-hidden secrets to the surface'.

Thoughts
I love a murder mystery and this one you could definitely play along to see if you could figure it out. Everyone had reasons for wanting Karl gone - with the story jumping from past to present, you got to put a detective hat on to see who had the most motive! P.s I got it wrong!

Really enjoyable read, the setting, the characters, the plot and the mystery - lots of red herrings to keep you on your toes!

It’s Christmas Time… and there’s every reason to be afraid.
Twelve years ago, a university group, The Murder Masquerade Society, acted out fictional murder mysteries. But it all ended one Christmas when Karl, their de facto leader, disappeared without trace from inside a locked study. The group drift apart, in particular Charley, who was having a secret relationship with Karl – and was the victim of an attempted murder that very night.
But twelve years later, the group is invited by Ali, Karl’s sister, for a reunion at an isolated Scottish country house. Each have their assigned roles to play in one last game. From the beginning, something seems amiss – Ali, their hostess, is missing and the backgrounds to their assigned characters seem awfully close to reality, including secrets that nobody wanted revealed.
And then the woman assigned the role of Lady Partridge is found hanging from a pear tree…
Well, well, well, I wasn’t expecting that.
I tinker with plots for mystery novels occasionally – they never get very far – but one that I do occasionally come back to is a set of murder based around the Twelve Days Of Christmas carol. Of course, there are only so many serial killer plots you can do, and it’s awfully hard to structure a death around “Eight Maids A-Milking”. Even in a spoof, it’d be pretty dumb.
Anyway, that idea’s off the table now, as Andreina Cordani has done exactly that and done it absolutely brilliantly.
To be fair, she has wisely not gone for all twelve – no maids in sight – and the theme doesn’t dominate proceedings. The narrative is split between present day, with Charley as the point of view, and the events of twelve years ago, giving the reader an insight into each of the other characters, and what they were up to – although never giving the game away. The members of the Masquerade Society, along with two or three extras give a nice array of suspects/cannon fodder and the book does end with a commendably high body count. The rationale behind the killings – and there is one – is a nice slow reveal (although the rationale behind the theme is a little less well defined beyond the killer being what is probably politically incorrect to refer to as “a bit of a nutter”)
All of the tropes are on display here of what is often erroneously referred to as a “locked-room” mystery = snow trapping the party in an isolated house, etc – but I’ve not read one that is this well done that I recall. There’s a clear love of classic mysteries on display here – And Then There Were None, a clear influence, does get a title-check near the end, but it’s by no means the same book.
And I don’t think I’ve read a mystery for a while that is as exciting as this one for a good while either. A real page-turner that I just couldn’t put down, an absolute Christmas cracker of a read, with the Christmas spirit just dripping off the page. A stunning debut adult mystery from Andreina Cordani and I hope there will be many more.

A group of friends who met at university were members of The Masquerade Murder Society where they played immersive murder mystery games. The last Christmas Masquerade ended on a low when the 'victim' played by Karl, disappeared from a locked room & was never seen again. The group disbanded but twelve years later, Karl's sister, Ani invites them all on a Christmas getaway to a remote Scottish hunting lodge. When the guests arrive, Ani has not yet arrived, but the Christmas murder mystery is to go ahead & this time is it based around the song 'Twelve Days of Christmas', i.e. Lady Partridge, Lord Leapworth, & Miss Colly. As the game begins, past secrets are revealed & friendships are strained until on Christmas morning, Lady Partridge is found hanging from a pear tree. It soon becomes clear that one of the group is a killer & the rest are now sitting ducks.

The present narrative is told from the point of view of Charley, the outsider in the group of friends. Charley came from a working class background whilst all the others were from rich families & she was treated rather badly by most of the group. Even in the Christmas Masquerade she is playing 'Miss Colly', the only servant in the game & her costumes are dull & boring. The reader gets some background from chapters set twelve years ago one from each of the friend group & as their secrets are gradually revealed you see that none of them are particularly nice people . I did actually guess the guilty party but not the whole reason. I thought it was a diverting, entertaining read & if you like 'locked room' murder mysteries I would recommend this one.

My thanks to NetGalley & publisher, Bonnier Books/Zaffre, for the opportunity to read an ARC.

This was such a clever, macabre take on the 12 Days of Christmas that it quickly became addictive reading where I just had to keep going to find out who and why!
There were many more secrets and red herrings included in this masterpiece of misdirection than there were 'friends' and I guess this may be why you should keep your enemies closer than your friends, with friends like the ones in this story .......
I had so many theories about what might have been going on and as each one was dashed by the author it was replaced by another 'but what if' thought, right up until the final reveal when everything was connected and it all made sense!
The answer was there, staring me in the face if only I had noticed the right clues and run with them instead of being dazzled by the flashier, more obvious reasons that this might be happening!
This was a fabulous read with a great surprise ending after the end ... the last scene really did make me giggle! It's really worth reading it for that moment alone but to understand it's significance, you need to read the whole thing first!

Loved this book , a really good old style who done it with modern characters and a fantastic story with lots of twists and turns that kept you on the edge of your seat right to the very end with things you really did not see coming. With also a Christmas theme. Would highly recommend this book.

If I had to summarize this book in one sentence, I’d say: The Secret History meets And Then There Were None. The group of students who form the Murder Masquerade Society are all rich and confident. All of them, that is, except for Charley. As a result, Charley always felt like an outsider, although that never stopped her from participating.

The last time the Society got together twelve years ago, one of them, Karl, disappeared without a trace. He was the organiser of their murder games. He was also the appointed victim for that particular game. While the locked room in which his body should have been found did contain the (fake) blood smears and other clues, no sign of Karl could be found. And after more than a decade it is still unclear what happened to him.

For twelve years the society has been dormant but now Karl’s twin sister Ali has invited all the participants to take part in another mystery game in a remote location. For reasons best known to those individual members, the remaining seven all return with one of them bringing an uninvited eight guest.

From the start, things are a bit off. For starters, there’s no sign of Ali, who is supposed to be in charge of proceedings. But matters don’t get really worrying until the appointed victim in the game, Lady Partridge, is found hanging in a pear tree. Her death being anything but pretend.

With a snowstorm isolating them from the outside world, the landline down, and their venue having no telephone reception or Wi-Fi, the survivors are on their own. But what is going on? Can they trust each other? And does enjoying fake mysteries mean they are also able to solve a real case?

The above made for a fascinating and fast-paced mystery, especially since Lady Partridge wasn’t the only victim. There is always something delicious about the friction between reasonable mistrust between the characters and the need to work together in order to survive. The fact that it isn’t immediately clear whether what is happening is in some way related to Karl’s disappearance or a new ordeal adds to the tension. And there’s some wonderful character development in this book, especially where Charley is concerned.

For obvious reasons, I can’t say a whole lot more about the story. I will therefore limit myself to stating that I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The mysteries were truly mystifying, and the solutions were mostly satisfactory. I’m just not sure the reader was given entirely enough information to work out (part of) the solution along with Charley. With that in mind, I still highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys an original murder mystery that will have them scratching their heads for the longest time.

The 12 Days of Murder by Andreina Cordani. I think her first adult novel after writing YA crime novels. Due for publishing on 26th Oct.
I know it's a good book if I'm thinking about it while doing other things. A homage to And Then There Were None ( and my favourite Christie novel) , the story follows a group of university friends who formed a Murder Mystery club until one went missing. 12 years later they've reunited at a remote Scottish Highlands estate over Christmas. It all seems like old times until Lady Partridge is found hanging in a Pear Tree. Then the body count rises.... it is a page turner with twists and turns in the present and looking back 12 years to the original disappearance. A great thriller. 5 ⭐️ from me 😍

Thank you to NetGalley and Adreina Cordani for the ARC of The Twelve days of Murder.

Who doesn’t like a whodunit? 8 friends who made an exclusive Murder Masquerade mystery group. Run on two timelines, the present and 12 years previous. Tension slowly builds and the atmosphere is set. Who went missing? And how are these friends entwined in their deepest secrets and who is the murderer?

I really enjoyed this book. For me, it was like a nice cosy mystery with a psychological underline and it worked really well.
The narrative and the two timelines were clear. The past setting the scene up and building characteristic development for the present. Some fairly complex characters and although they may seem the same, I really enjoyed the diversity.

The plot twist was good, it has me forming a few theories during the story which I enjoy whether I was on the right lines. The story itself is fairly medium paced with it all rolling into a faster climax.

4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Enjoyable and well-written murder mystery that mixes 'Golden Age' tropes with some more modern psychological thriller elements. A great Xmas present for the Whodunnit fan in your life.

8 "friends", who all last got together 12 years ago at a murder mystery weekend at university, where one of their number disappeared, spend Christmas at a remote Scottish castle with a new mystery to solve. This was well written, with flashbacks to the past adding to the rising tension.

A group of friends at University set up a society themed around murder mysteries. Just a bit of fun really. Except that it all goes pear shaped when one of its founders disappears.

Nevertheless, over decade later, the decision is taken to resuscitate this is initiated, with plans for a masquerade party. And the seven survivors - clearly having learned nothing from past experience! - gather once again for the 12 days of Christmas theme.

The problem is, they are all hiding things from each other - not least what they know about the initial disappearance of one of the members 12 years ago. And of course, in the hothouse environment that they are currently trapped in, there is plenty of room for (all the wrong kinds of) manoeuvres...

The writer maintains a strong sense of suspense throughout, and even though you suspect that things about to go horribly wrong yet again you are gripped. The characters are well-drawn, though not all of them are likeable, and the way that the plot unfolds is intriguing. Recommended for mystery lovers.

I started reading this with a slightly sceptical attitude: yet another looked room mystery with a touch of 'And Then There Were None' but I was very pleasantly surprised. Although the plot has elements of these devices, it is still an amazingly good mystery thriller that keeps you reading and guessing to the very end. The Masqueraders got together at university and formed a group that created and acted out their own murder mysteries. All except one of their members come from wealthy, privileged backgrounds and she is partly ostracised by the group after being accused of theft . Ten years later they get together for another murder game but their former leader is not with them, having disappeared from a locked room at their last event. To add to the suspects, they are hosted my a mysterious caterer and one of the actors is accompanied by his girlfriend and when the masqueraders start being murdered, no one feels safe. There are no end of suspects in this novel and, although I partially guessed the outcome, I read late into the night to read the denouement which contained significant twists. I would highly recommend this novel which would make a great Christmas present for anyone who enjoys crime thrillers.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this new novel. I loved it.....such a refreshing take on an old wheeze and it kept me guessing right to the end.
I totally recommend this book especially as the festive season approaches....that and a hot chocolate alongside !

Thanks to Netgalley and the Publishers, Bonnier Books UK & Zaffre for this Arc. I absolutely LOVED this book. As a child who wanted to grow up and be Jessica Fletcher or Poirot, this read just like the Golden age mysteries I loved so much. I would recommend this for anyone who likes whodunits. I hope that everyone who reviews this book early, remembers that thrillers are NOT the same as mystery novels. Anybody can write a thriller (which is why the market is overran with wannabe Gone Girls, unreliable narrators, women with 'secrets'), but it takes actual skill to write a mystery that makes sense. I hope this author continues to write these types of novels. She is definitely a name I'm going to be looking for!

Bonus: Christmas murders. Hohoho.

My Mum once said that she wanted to read a book that had detectives, murder and Christmas. Guess what book she’s getting in her stocking this year!

This book follows a group of university murder mystery club members who are reuniting 10 years after their last mystery and facing into an exaggerated version of the awkwardness we all know seeing friends we haven’t seen for so long.

Did I guess the culprit? Absolutely not. Did I try? Of course!

It was an unputdownable page-turner with all the elements of a murder mystery beautifully laid out one after the other in exactly the right order. The pacing was perfection.

This is one of those books you wish you could read again for the first time.