Murder by Death

Slightly better than average read with some embarrassing editing errors.

Sophie's trying to get ready for Christmas when she finds a dead body.

The author's trying to juggle a lot of balls in this book and mostly she succeeds but as is the way of these things, nothing really stands out and grabs the reader.  Natalie is still a absurd pain-in-the-ass, Mars is still spending an inappropriate amount of time with Sophie (his ex-wife) – although there is a brief hint in this book that there might actually be a reason behind it.  Sophie's trying to get to know a new man, Alex, and her ex-boyfriend Wolf shows back up in her life (although no explanation of his status is given - is he still taken?). 

On top of all of this is the murder mystery which is overly complicated with a mystery inside the mystery.  We have a victim by page 4, but that victim is sort of a red herring - there's a body yet to be found.  The murderer was very well hidden in plain sight - I didn't have a clue until the very end but I don't know how much of that is clever plotting and how much is just a result of obfuscation.

Something like this can end up being a hot mess but mostly the story worked.  It didn't shine, but it worked.  I enjoyed the read and the back of the book has a heap of christmas cookie recipes - some of them interesting enough that I might give them a go.