The Christmas Crimes in Puzzle Manor [Paperback]

Simon Brett (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Dell (November 2, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440504694
• ISBN-13: 978-0440504696
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,214,508 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Ultimate Christmas Mystery, June 22, 2009

By 

V. Anderson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Christmas Crimes in Puzzle Manor (Paperback)

This book is the most fun you can ever read at Christmas. Give it to a friend and read it together pausing at the end of each chapter to figure out the puzzle IF you can. There's no other book like it and it should be on everybody's list. I loved matching wits with the clever author, and I loved the end unsolved, a super fun read for the holidays: English country manor with a twist.

5.0 out of 5 stars Merry Christmas for Puzzle Lovers, January 1, 2012

By 

Tracy Christenson "dictionary enchantress" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Christmas Crimes in Puzzle Manor (Paperback)

If you like word games and mysteries, you'll love this book.

When the story begins, Jack Tarrant, a Scotland Yard detective, is recovering from a bullet wound sustained while he was chasing a serial killer known as the Executive Exterminator. This killer targets beautiful and successful business women and leaves messages taunting the police. Jack's injuries have left him confined to a wheelchair with further operations and therapy ahead of him. Naturally, he isn't in much of a mood to celebrate Christmas this year, but his girlfriend, Maria Lethbury, convinces him to accept an offer from a society for helping injured policemen for an all-expenses-paid stay at a quaint manor house turned into a hotel with a special holiday program. She hopes that the holiday will lift his spirits, but soon after their arrival, it becomes obvious that someone is using the festivities for their own purposes. Jack's enemy is also staying at the hotel, leaving a trail of bodies and puzzles, taunting Jack to discover his identity. Snowed in and with no way of getting outside help, Jack and Maria struggle to solve the puzzles left by the killer and stop his reign of terror once and for all.

Although murder seems like a dark theme for Christmas, the story contains enough humor to keep it from being too dark, and the focus is mostly on the puzzles. Part of the story is based on an old English tradition of telling ghost stories at Christmas (Ever wonder about that one line from the song "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" that talks about ghost stories?). Each chapter ends with a new puzzle for the readers (as well as the characters) to solve as part of the villain's message. The solutions to the puzzles are given at the end of the following chapter, giving readers time to think it over and solve it themselves (I admit, I had to give up on a couple of them). The very last puzzle doesn't come with a solution, which I think was an annoying thing to do. It's not a difficult puzzle to solve, but since the solution is the name of the main villain's accomplice, it would be nice to have confirmation on the solution. If anyone wants a spoiler, let me know, and I'll put the solution in a comment below this review. Other than that, it's a fun mystery. I just wouldn't recommend it for anyone who doesn't really care for puzzles and word games.

1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The ending is a big Cheat and Worse !, May 1, 2008

By 

Reg Forsyth "believer_in_soul" (Concord, NC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Christmas Crimes in Puzzle Manor (Paperback)

Unfortunately the ending is a big cheat. If you intend to sell your book as a mystery, I would suggest playing fair with the reader.

But in my opinion, the biggest problem is that I was so disengaged by the lack of character development that when the disappointing denouement finally occurred, I realized that I did not care who the criminal was.

It will be a long time before I pick up another Brett book.