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Six people who are connected to crime writing in some way have been invited to play a game at Christmastime in Midwinter, a tiny but lovely village in the northeast of England. It was built before World War <I> by a wealthy man who wanted to make the world a better place (in some way…). Since the death of that man’s son, it has been run by the Midwinter Trust, a small team about which little is actually known.
It’s all a bit strange, but the prize for solving the fictional murder mystery is a nice chunk of cash, and each of the contestants is highly motivated to win that money. The six contestants include a podcaster, a publicist, a literary agent, an editor, a social media influencer, and a murder mystery author. And all have experienced some professional setbacks.
As everyone arrives to the remote location, snow is falling heavily, and soon it’s clear they will be snowed in, cut off from the rest of the world. It’s the perfect setting for murder — just a game, right? Or … not?
Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife invites readers to solve the mystery the six contestants are given, providing all necessary clues. The book then provides not just the solution but a “cluefinder,” which author Martin Edwards explains: “some Golden Age novels contained Cluefinders, enabling readers to check whether they’d spotted all the clues picked up by the Great Detective.” It’s a fun way to look back and see if you noted those throughout the novel.
For my part, I found this story to be mildly entertaining but not greatly so. It seemed to list a lot of information, which bogged it down. I personally didn’t see the “reveal” of the bigger murder mystery coming, but not in a good “twist” way: it felt to me like it came out of nowhere. Sure, the explanations made sense, but it didn’t feel organic somehow.
A generally clever whodunit within a whodunit, but not a fantastic one.
Rated: Moderate. Profanity includes 1 use of strong language, a couple of instances of moderate profanity, 8 uses of mild language, 8 instances of the name of Deity in vain, and 5 uses of British (bl-) profanity. Violence includes deaths but just mild descriptions. Sexual content just alludes to people having relationships/“relations.”
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*I received an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
