The Christmas Jigsaw Murders by Alexandra Benedict
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
**3.5-stars rounded up**
In The Christmas Jigsaw Murders we follow octogenarian crossword puzzle setter, Edie O’Sullivan, who on December 1st finds a hand-delivered Christmas gift on her doorstep.
Upon opening it, Edie is intrigued: a jigsaw box containing 6-puzzle pieces. Once she’s pieced them together they reveal a portion of a crime scene, with blood splattered across black and white tiles and the outline of body.
How odd. What could this mean?
The Sender knew Edie might need a little help, so included the following message: ‘Four, maybe more, people will be dead by midnight on Christmas Eve, unless you can put all the pieces together and stop me.’ Signed, Rest In Pieces.
Edie’s great-nephew, Sean, who she raised as her son after his parents were tragically killed, happens to be a Detective. She contacts him about her special gift and they intend to work together to figure it out.
Shortly thereafter, a local man is found close to death with a puzzle piece gripped in his hand. This pushes Sean over the edge. Edie could be in real danger and he expects her to shut down her little investigation into Rest in Pieces right away. Octogenarians aren’t so easily controlled, however. Anyone with elderly parents knows that…
As bodies continue to drop, Edie realizes she is this key to this all. Only her knowledge can solve it. Going against Sean’s wishes, Edie digs in deeper with the hopes of uncovering the identity of Rest in Pieces before anyone else can be killed.
I really enjoyed this detailed Adult Mystery. It’s probably my 2nd-fave out of the 3-books that I have read thus far from this author.
I liked the incorporation of the jigsaw puzzle pieces as clues left by the murderer. I also grew quite attached to Edie. She’s a bit of a curmudgeon, which I can get behind, and has quite the Scrooge character arc within this story.
While this wasn’t as Christmas-focused as I was expecting, it was still just enough to get my spirits up as we soar into the holiday season.
I do want to mention that I feel like some Readers may expect this to be a Cozy Mystery, maybe due to the inclusion of Christmas in the title, or just the basic synopsis, but it’s really not. This is a straight Adult Mystery with some heavier topics explored throughout.
I feel like a couple of Benedict’s earlier books could have fallen victim to this quandary. Readers going in expecting one thing, getting another and not being happy about it. That’s the only reason why I am mentioning that.
I enjoy Benedict’s mysteries. They intrigue me and I enjoy that the MCs are often dealing with some pretty significant real life things in addition to the mystery elements.
While her characters may be hard for some to understand, or get behind, I always end up rooting for them. Edie is someone I would want to be close to in real life. She’s a grump and so am I. I find that endearing. I can relate.
I’m hoping Benedict has a few more Christmas Mysteries in store for us. I would definitely be picking them up.
Thank you to the publisher, Poisoned Pen Press and Dreamscape Media, for providing me with copies to read and review. The audiobook was fantastically narrated and I absolutely recommend that format for this one!