THE TWELVE DAYS OF MURDER

A murder-mystery weekend turns actually deadly for a group of British friends.

Twelve years after the disappearance of their friend Karl during one of their events, the surviving members of the Murder Masquerade Society have met up at Fenshawe Manor in the Scottish Highlands on Christmas Eve to act out a Twelve Days of Christmas–themed play: “Young people of their class didn’t do cosplay, it would never have occurred to them to trudge around sci-fi conventions dressed like Storm Troopers, but this was their equivalent—with a glamorous booze-filled evening of backstabbing fun thrown in.” Although wealthy, privileged, and on vacation, no one at the party is quite who they seem to be. And when the group is snowed in, the first real victim appears and the body count begins, just like the countdown in the famous Christmas song. No one has reception to call the police, so the friends tough it out in the house without knowing who among them is the killer. Years ago, Charley, the least privileged member of the group, was blamed when a valuable necklace went missing—and she’s determined to avoid taking the fall for the murders. After a long exposition introducing the game and large cast of characters, the pace quickens as the frenemies grow increasingly suspicious of one another. The author of the play has barely disguised the actors’ real-life secrets as funny fictional backstories for their characters, such as this for Charley’s: “She has stolen a priceless necklace from Mrs Dove...” Meanwhile, the snowy Scottish backdrop turns smelly and bloody from all the dead bodies. The deaths are gruesome and fit the theme. Scandals, hurt feelings, and secret ambitions are the suspected motives, but by the time one character rises to the top as a suspect, they’re killed off.

Formulaic without being too predictable, it’s good for spreading holiday fear.