I found this to be a compelling mystery and I was enthralled from the very beginning, I love mysteries and puzzles and this fit both perfectly,
Six book/crime people are invited to Midwinter to play the ultimate murder mystery game with a large cash prize as an incentive, It’s very cloak and dagger with an eclectic mix of staff and invited guests,
Twelve people in all stay at Midwinter and through various perspectives, the story unfolds, Each guest is down on their luck, with little to no family to spend Christmas with and were lured by the chance to get back on their feet.
When one guest is found dead within the first 24 hours, it is deemed an accident…but how many deaths can be ruled accidental with a short space of time?
It was like reading two mysteries as the reader got to play along with the guests the game set for them as wel, as determine whether there is murder afoot!
With plenty of clues towards both and the perspectives of the characters, I found it thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable!
Now that I have been introduced to this author, I will be on the look out for others from him too.

Six people are invited to play a cludoesq game in order to win a prize that will chnage their lives.

Each person is hard up and each desperastely want to win

This is a cunning read and I did not see the ending.. its a massive shock for the reader.

I loved how the author has included the reader in playing the game and I was immersed from the start.
It is an atmospheric read and set in Winter so I felt the coldness and as the game progressed I really did feel like I could be next..

This book was just so much fun! The mystery was really well crafted, with twists that didn’t come out of the blue but were surprising. I found that it did not fall into cliches while giving me a feeling of reading the Golden Age of Murder Mysteries books. This book is a Christmas one and it will be coming out around that time, so I definitely recommend this to anyone who wants a cosy holiday reading experience.

If you’re a crime fiction lover, who yearns for puzzles and brainteasers as you work out whodunnit, with what, where and why, you’ll know Martin’s latest novel. Six people with links with the world of crime writing are invited to spend Christmas in a snowy village, in surroundings that will soon have them cut off from everyone else… and where truly grim things happen. Only one crime expert has to solve the fictional murder to reap life-changing rewards, but there’s quite a lot of drama to get through before they can begin deciphering clues. Not everyone, however, is playing fair.

I had a great time with this book. Did I solve the mystery ?...No. I had an idea of who it was, but then I changed my mind and got totally sidetracked. I loved the puzzle elements to it, they gave the story more depth and interest. I will most definitely be buying a physical copy of this when it is released.

Delicious..
Having enjoyed the previous extract of this forthcoming title, the full reading copy was a delight. What will soon be a Christmas murder mystery with a difference where six people, all with links to the literary world of crime, have been invited to a play a game by the rather elusive Midwinter Trust in an idyllic Yorkshire village. The prize, they are told, will be potentially life changing. With six members of the Trust also in attendance and the village about to become cut off by a snow storm, what could possibly go wrong? Well, the game is truly afoot. Just tremendous, a fully formed murder mystery combined with true puzzles for the reader to solve alongside, both intriguing and entertaining, brimming with red herrings, clues and misdirection galore. Delicious.

I was lucky to receive this book to review via NetGalley. Getting to read the story and solve the puzzles contained within it felt like Christmas had come early. This is Martin Edwards' first Christmas murder mystery but it contains the ingredients of many of his other novels in that there are solvable clues throughout the story which lead the reader towards the correct solution. This is a very golden age approach which Martin has successfully applied to the modern idea of a puzzle book that is also a mystery. In this story, a group of people are invited to the extremely remote village of Midwinter to compete to solve a fictional murder. But, before long, the real bodies start piling up in the snow that generally accompanies Christmas mystery novels. Not only do Martin's readers get the opportunity to solve the 'real' murders but they are also given the clues provided to the contestants so they get to solve both sets of murders. I loved competing against the characters to solve the 'fake' crime and was successful at this but I missed the twist that Martin had so cleverly engineered that was the answer to the identity of the 'real' murderer in Midwinter. This book would make a fabulous Christmas present as it is highly entertaining and completely addictive.

An interesting meta mystery, with a puzzle within a puzzle. 6 players and 6 staff all confined in a snowbound village for Christmas. Enjoyed both puzzles and the gradual disclosure of the plot.