The Murder Game: A gripping murder mystery from the author of A Fatal Crossing

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My chief problem with the book is that it’s all so entirely predictable. There were lots of strangely abrupt endings to chapters that made me think “eh?” before realising that this was meant to be ‘a revelation’ der-der-derrrr! There just were no surprises, the whole plot and all of the ‘twists’ were signposted so early on that there was no reason to keep reading. Poor plot with a most uninteresting twist. Weak characters with no depth left me not caring what happened to any of them. Terrible prose and narrative. I'm still getting over 'the smile slipped off his face like grease' and 'she felt panic skirting across her face'. This was SO dull. Honestly I contemplated DNF several times and I've just thrown the book aside at the epilogue as I just couldn't be bothered to read on. It's like a GCSE student read an Agathie Christie novel once and thought they'd have a rough go at it. My hope is that Tom's novels will improve as he acquires greater experience and a more robust style of writing. The characters were mostly unlikeable apart from Theo, one of the actors hired for the party, and Lily, the victim’s daughter. I would have quite liked to see them team up and try and solve the mystery together.

The Murder Game: A gripping murder mystery from the author of

Overall it’s a good read and it was an entertaining few hours but it just didn’t have the depth and complexity I was hoping for. I loved everything about this. The setting, the history and the characters - the perfect mix. The way the history of the area and the characters blended with the evening was cleverly done - little snippets of conversation adding to the mystery but never revealing too much.A really interesting storyline peppered with characters who interlink in ways that the reader becomes aware of mainly at the end reveal. Well written and tense, another hugely enjoyable book. But it seems that someone wants to play a different game. There is going to be a real victim and a real murderer with a very real motive.

The Murder Game - Penguin Books UK The Murder Game - Penguin Books UK

At tonight's 1920s-themed murder mystery party in the crumbling Hamlet Hall, everyone has their own part to play. I love a good closed circle murder mystery so this was right up my street and so well done. There's a small(ish) cast of not especially likeable characters, some secrets from the past, a few grudges and a lot of twists and turns.

Tom Hindle hails from Leeds and lives in Oxfordshire with his wife, a cat and two surprisingly cunning tortoises. He is the author of A Fatal Crossing and now The Murder Game - which have both been inspired by masters of the crime genre such as Agatha Christie and Anthony Horowitz. The story is told from multiple povs, each with a very different and distinctive voice. I will admit that I struggled a little at the start to get the cast of characters straight and remember the relationships between them but I think that's mostly a me issue. I have a terrible memory for names and generally prefer a book to only have one or two povs. Once I got into the story I had absolutely no problems and found myself enjoying the different perspectives. Finally, we are left with a satisfying ending, all loose ends are tied up neatly. Whilst I had figured out who the murderer was it did not take away the enjoyment of seeing this Cluedo story play out. Book Genre: Boarding School, Contemporary, Crime, Fiction, Horror, Mystery, Mystery Thriller, School Stories, Teen, Thriller, Young Adult