The Smart Woman's Guide to Murder

You would think that at my age, I would be smarter than to fall for a marketing line that claims "A GOLDEN AGE COUNTRY HOUSE MURDER MYSTERY BROUGHT BANG UP TO DATE, Perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, Anthony Horowitz."

I beg to differ. I have't read anything this overwrought since 'Chasing Embers' by James Bennett.. "You surely jest," you say. 'Oh no,' I claim, and proceed to demonstrate.

"It happened when the snow first fell, violet white, branding our eyes with its glare and covering our steps almost as soon as we had lifted our feet. The cold bit deep into our faces and when we opened our mouths to speak, snow singed our tongues. The wind laced round our legs as we leaned into the fierce air."

I'd question 'violet white' snow, but show more let's let it slide. Snow definitely doesn't 'brand with glare' and the metaphor doesn't match the cold feeling Dowd is going for. Couple that with 'singed.' She might be wanting to get at 'so cold it was burning,' but this is a group of book club ladies walking outside a mansion in England, not explorers in the Arctic. It's overwrought and silly. Wind 'lacing' around legs is a look, not an action.

Our narrator looks out a "greasy car window" and noted that "the house stood ashen faced amongst it all." Then, the sun starts to set: "A translucent sun was falling in the sky, casting only an insipid light. We were at the hinged point of the day when darkness was stirring and would soon turn over into dusk. The day was unravelling."

'How did the window get greasy?' I paused to wonder here. And 'what scared the house that it looks ashen, or is it just anemic?' But where I really got stuck is the three different metaphors crunched together for describing a sunset: a hinge, cooking and knitting.

Then there's the three pages our narrator spends describing her dead father's smoking habit.

Add to this that although we are teased with the dead body in the first scene, the actual lead in and discovery doesn't take place until 27%. Agatha Christie this ain't. I finally quit with relief.

It turns out this isn't a mystery at all. This is an immature narrator who relentlessly exaggerates and meanly describes her mother, an aunt, an 'adopted' aunt, and another of her mom's friends, along with two mansion servants, all in context of her own historical relationship issues. It's supposed to be biting and incisive, but really it's mostly like an adolescent learning to use irony for the first time. She seems to be working out her family issues about her perfect dead father and her cold, unfeeling mother. There was literally nothing "thriller" about it, except if you mean the piano mysteriously playing her dad's favorite tune. Until the 27%, in fact, most of the story took place in retrospect, with the narrator telling stories about how horrible each of these people were, and how wonderful her memories of her father were.

Worst marketing campaign ever, Jaffe. Had your team said anything about "troubled new adult working out her anger for her mother and loss of her father while witnessing the antagonism at her mother's hateful book club," I would have known to pass on reading. It don't recommend it to anyone, except masochists who like watching people be mean to each other.

Advance copy provided by Netgalley and Joffe Books and all opinions are definitely my own. show less

I enjoyed this for what it was - a modern version of the "locked room" mystery. The clues in this cosy-mystery are there from the beginning - its just that the have yet to be put into perspective - and there are also a few red herrings.

I enjoyed the style of writing (quirky and witty) - though the narrator - Ursula - did grate on me a little (bit of an attention seeking neurotic with a daddy fixation). The pace was steady (real time if you will) as we kick off with a bang and then wind back to the beginning and proceed from thereon. Snappy chapter headings offer some much needed advice if you want to survive a murderous weekend away.

Would be interested in reading something else from this author. Nice little isolation read!

Pandora Smart arranges a weekend away for her book club, unfortunately her daughter Ursula decides to tag along, an unwanted addition to the gathering at this country house of Ambergris Towers.
Then the snow starts to fall, and while trying to find a way to the village a body is discovered in the garden. But this will not be the last.
Unfortunately I found all the characters to be irritating, and hoped that they would all be murdered by the end of the book. They certainly seemed to be a bunch of inept characters to investigate a murder, which might be the comic aspect of the story which totally past me by.
Overall I enjoyed the plot, but didn't like the characters
Received an ARC from the publisher

"It's a magnificent house to hide a killer."

A well done murder that kept me guessing. I definitely liked the crazy twists and the fun in the story. But the characters really are pretty awful. They typically don't have any thing nice to say, so they are constantly belittling, insulting, swearing or otherwise tearing down everyone around them. It was hard to remember that the MC was 25.....But, when I decided to just ignore most of that, the story sucked me in. I was completely wrapped up in trying to figure out who did what because so many pieces weren't fitting together. I did enjoy the end, even though Mr. Bojangles never got adorable and her insulting her mom, aunt or not aunt or godmother never got funny.

A very convoluted plot with plenty of twists. All the characters have enough issues and angst to keep a room full of therapists busy for many years. There are places where this bogs the story down, but not so bad that forget what is happening.

A classic locked room murder with a twist. It was a locked english mansion, but all the inhabitants were locked in with a massive snow storm as the bodies pile up like cord wood. Snarky and sassy dialogue gives the reader a glimpse into the unusual characters as they argue, plot and try to figure out who the murderer is and why they were killing.

What's the first thing you do when you find a dead body? Call for help? What if the phones and the internet are out? What if there are more dead bodies?

This updated take on the snowed-in murder mystery reminded me of an episode of Saved by the Bell when the crew went to a murder mystery weekend (without real murders). Of course, this idea isn't original, but Victoria Dowd gave it an update.

I liked the book but wish there had been some twist that set it apart from all of the other books and shows that have done this scenario.

Thank you Netgalley for letting me read this. This is my voluntary honest review.