Welcome to Day 9 of #12booksofchristmas. During December I am sharing 12 festive reads. The idea came from the wonderful Icelandic tradition of Jolabokaflod where a book is given on Christmas Eve and read together. This is my 5th year doing this and you can check out a whole host of books on my books for Christmas page at the bottom of this post. In case you’ve missed any titles below is a list of #12books so far this year….

• Day One - Countdown to Christmas by Jo Thomas
• Day Two - Who KIlled Father Christmas Edited by Martin Edwards
• Day Three - This Christmas in Paris by Sophie Claire
• Day Four - Tied up in Tinsel by Ngaio Marsh
• Day Five - Winter in New York by Josie Silver
• Day Six - A Shirley Hughes Christmas by Shirley Hughes
• Day Seven - How To Survive Christmas by Jilly Cooper
• Day Eight - The Christmas Book Club by Sarah Morgan

When it comes to compiling Christmas wish lists, I can pretty much guarantee that a jigsaw or two will be on my list. I love doing them especially over winter when I usually pop an audio book on as well. I find it very relaxing and meditative. I am officially a grandma! In today's book, the plot centres round a rather fiendish jigsaw which holds the clues to a set of murder victims. It is ingenious.

The Plot

On 19th December, renowned puzzle setter, loner and Christmas sceptic Edie O’Sullivan finds a hand-delivered present on her doorstep. Unwrapping it, she finds a jigsaw box and, inside, six jigsaw pieces. When fitted together, the pieces show part of a crime scene blood-spattered black and white tiles and part of an outlined body. Included in the parcel is a message: ‘Four, Maybe more, people will be dead by midnight on Christmas Eve, unless you can put all the pieces together and stop me’ It’s signed rest in Pieces.

Edie contacts her nephew, DI Sean Brand O’Sullivan, and together they work to solve the clues. But when a man is found near death with a jigsaw piece in his hand, Sean fears that Edie might be in danger and shuts her out of the investigation. As the body count rises, however, Edie knows that only she has the knowledge to put together the killer’s murderous puzzle.

Only by fitting all the pieces together will Edie be able to stop a killer - and finally lay her past to rest.

My Thoughts

Last year, I fell in love with Murder on the Christmas Express and this year I am delighted to be sharing with you another Alexandra Benedict crime novel, fiendishly tricky to solve and with some ingenious quizzes within the book. This is also a homage to The Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, with grumpy Edie, a woman with a difficult past, refusing to celebrate Christmas. (One of the quizzes is identifying the many references to this great book.)

I had echoes of the Marlow Murder Club with The Christmas Jigsaw Murders, I could almost imagine Edie and Judith being friends, although they would probably annoy each other given that both are pre-disposed to being slightly grumpy. Edie creates crossword puzzles and is shocked to receive a parcel with six jigsaw messages contained within and a blood-curdling message. At the same time, a jogger is attacked in a park by a seemingly reluctant killer. Edie, loving a good puzzle starts solving the pieces, putting together the cryptic clues. We even get an insight into how to solve a cryptic crossword clue or two!

There is a cheerful nephew, who invites Edie to Christmas every year, do we think this year she may change her mind and go? My favourite character though was Riga, Edie’s neighbour. When these two get together they almost reminded me of Eddie and Patsy from Absolutely Fabulous, there is Bolly and at the end, a Christmas jumper with a very rude message on it.

The murder as always is quite ingenious, and I did not guess until right at the very end. This was a delight of a book to read and I’m even happier to share it with you today.