The Christmas Crimes at Puzzel Manor

by Simon Brett

Book Overview

Invited to the country hotel, Puzzel Manor, for Christmas weekend, Jack Tarrant and his lover, Maria, soon find themselves embroiled in a case of double murder in a work that encourages readers to... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385308434
• ISBN13: 9780385308434
• Release Date: November 1992
• Publisher: Delacorte Press
• Length: 186 Pages
• Weight: 0.76 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.8" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

The Ultimate Christmas Mystery

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.

Great fun for puzzle aficionados

As I write this, I see that two reviewers have said the ending is a cheat. I have read the book cover to cover and am unable to understand what exactly the cheat is. My best guess is that the final page contains a puzzle for which the solution is not provided. The answer to the puzzle reveals the identity of an important person in the mystery. I know because I solved the puzzle, which did not strike me as particularly difficult. At any rate, on to the plot. Jack Tarrant has retired from Scotland Yard, where he was a homicide detective, and finds himself convalescing after being shot by "The Executive Exterminator," a serial killer who preyed on working women and was never caught. As Christmas nears, Jack receives a letter from the Police Injuries Subscription Society (yes, I noticed the initials, too) offering him an expense-paid package for two at Puzzel Manor. Thus, Jack and his girlfriend, Maria, end up at Puzzel Manor for a traditional English Christmas, or so they believe. Almost immediately, things go wrong. First, Jack and Maria find a body. The innkeeper, however, is loath to report the murder to authorities, but his reluctance seems irrelevant since the heavy storm has downed phone lines and made leaving the manor nearly impossible. In other words, a situation reminiscent of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None now exists: several strangers in an isolated setting with a murderer among them. Here, though, there's a big difference. The killer is deliberately leaving clues for Jack, taunting him with puzzles whose solutions slowly spell out a message. Author Brett includes the puzzles and their solutions in such a way as to let the reader play along. At the end of most chapters is the newest puzzle. At the end of the following chapter is the solution and explanation to the puzzle. The difficulty of the puzzles varies, naturally, but I imagine a reader who enjoys puzzles should be able to solve several of them. I enjoyed the novel quite a bit. Yes, many of the characters are rather ill developed, but the novel is fun, and Jack and Maria, at least, are clearly drawn.

excellent English country murder mystery

A delightful book from which I withhold the fifth star only because the ending is a bit of a cheat.