“Twelve Days of Murder” is the holiday murder mystery we didn’t know we needed

It’s nearly holiday season and we thought the perfect way to kick things off would be to have a discussion about a novel about a bunch of mystery-living college friends with secrets who end up in their very own closed-door mystery! ‘Tis the season, after all!

Andreina Cordani’s “12 Days of Murder” introduces readers to the members of the elite and slightly snobbish Murder Masquerade Society, which began as a student group at university that would dedicate themselves to dressing up in fabulous clothes and solving fictitious mysteries.

Everything was as fabulous as the group’s name hints it would be until one masquerade in 2011, when one of the group’s founders disappeared and was never seen again.

Eleven years later, the (surviving) gang gets together again when they are suddenly summoned to Scotland for another masquerade. Now in their early 30s, they all slip into their new costumes once again - transforming into characters with names like Lady Partridge and Lord Leapworth.

But when Lady Partridge is found dead early in the party and a snowstorm prevents the authorities from getting to the scene, all of the Masquerade members realize that they’ve gotten into more than they’ve signed up for — and that the secrets of 11 years earlier might soon come to light.

We received copies of Twelve Days of Murder from Pegasus Crime. You can purchase your own here: https://bookshop.org/a/1401/9781639366187

Lakshmi: I love a good closed door mystery!

Asha: Me too! It's always fun to try to figure out the who and how. This one kept me guessing.

Lakshmi: A house full of bratty people with secrets and few redeeming qualities? Sign me up!!

It’s interesting that while the author has written a couple of young adult novels before, this is her first book for adults.

I kept thinking of how ambitious an undertaking that was. Doing a mystery in modern times is hard! As as keeping all of these characters and manners of death straight. 

It’s not a spoiler to say that Lady Patridge is not the only Masquerade member who ends up dead!

Asha: It's never just one victim! Rural Scotland in the winter is a great setting for this.

Lakshmi: Yesss.

Asha: No cell service...lots of snow...The closest village an hour away…

Lakshmi: Plus, most of the characters are from elsewhere, so they are strangers in a strange land. I like how everyone is so rich that they can jet to Scotland for a masquerade.

Asha: Except Charley! She’s not rich at all– which means that she has to take a 10+ hour bus ride to get there.

Lakshmi:  Yes! Let’s talk about her

Asha: Charley is our primary narrator, and she is the outcast (essentially)

Lakshmi: And she is an actress by profession who did not come from wealth

Asha: A struggling actress…

Lakshmi: In fact, she’s always felt on the outskirts of the group and maybe even a little intimidated by them.

Asha: Per your earlier comment about everyone being so rich they can just fly to Scotland, I just looked it up, and, to be fair, flights within the UK aren't what Americans would consider expensive…

Lakshmi: But for an actress they are! (Thus the struggle bus)

Asha: Oh definitely. This line describes her succinctly: 

What was it Matt had said? ‘I don’t know how to introduce you to people these days. Are you a failed actress or a successful receptionist?’

Lakshmi: Oh yes— this book is also very British in that all of the one liners are CUTTING. I also liked this offhand observation: 

And that is why he had no intention of going down there and telling her off like a child. He wasn’t stupid. Leo was a social engineer. One day, he hoped, he would be able to socially engineer the whole country but for now this small group of spoiled guinea pigs would do. And so he would bide his time. If this evening worked out the way he wanted it to, then this time tomorrow they’d be a tight group of friends again.

 A SOCIAL ENGINEER cracked me up!

Asha: The narcissism!

Lakshmi: Very techie of him!

Asha: But back to Charley…

No one in the group is particularly happy to see her when she shows up at the airport

Lakshmi: She is immediately (once again) marked as an outsider

Asha: She's the last one to arrive, and she came by gasp bus – and she's the only one who they haven't kept in touch with…

Lakshmi: As the publisher notes in its press release for the book "Backstabbing, elitism, and fierce secret-keeping" abound amongst the group! And this round starts as soon as she gets off the bus.

Asha: It makes you wonder how they're all friends – or why. As Charley says: 

And then Charley remembers that the day-to-day banter of the Masquerade Society had always been like this. They threw deadly insults at each other the way other people threw screwed-up balls of paper and minutes later they’d be drinking coffee, laughing and ganging up on the next victim.

Lakshmi: Yes! Like I said earlier, no one (not even Charley) has a ton of redeeming qualities. The reader doesn't root for any of them-- instead we (or, at least, I) just observe them, fascinated.

Asha: I was rooting for Charley some…

Lakshmi: Yes, in the way that we root for all outsiders!

Asha: But I also wanted to shake her and tell her to stand up for herself.

This gathering is organized by Ali, whose twin brother was the member who went missing, and who doesn't show up to the airport. The murder mystery parties have always been really detailed, and this one is no different.

I've gone to a murder mystery party before, and the level of detail for this one was impressive – character binders, strict schedules, period-appropriate clothes…

Lakshmi: Yes! if everyone wasn't so insufferable (and you know, if there was no serial killer) these parties would be so fun. And they really commit to the parts.

Asha: In this case Ali has created backstories for the characters that hit a little too close to reality, putting them all on edge. Case in point, Charley’s says:

 Miss Colly is an unashamed social climber and her ambitions have led her to initiate an illicit affair with Mrs Dove’s twin brother, Kurt Piper, despite his betrothal to an oil baron’s daughter.

Lakshmi: Let's talk for a second about Ali's brother Karl. Karl Edward Boniface. He's the one who went missing at the Christmas Masquerade party in 2011. Dec 26, 2011 to be exact.

Asha: Oh Karl...Karl might have been the most manipulative one of them all. He collected secrets, and used them against people

Lakshmi: Here's what he was wearing when he went missing!  

Clothing: Red velvet trousers with white fur edging, red velvet jacket with white fur edging, wide black belt and black boots and fake white beard (Santa Claus costume, minus hat.) May appear to be wounded but blood is allegedly fake.

 Asha: Amazing

Lakshmi: The little police report at the beginning is SO funny: 

At 0215 hours on 25/12/11 we were notified of a call from Alice Elektra Boniface regarding the missing person, Karl Boniface. Caller distraught, making a series of statements including ‘he was meant to be the body’ and ‘how can you go missing from a locked room?’ When she told the operator ‘I stabbed him’ the decision was made to attend immediately.

 Asha: You can just imagine the 999 operator being like "wtf"

Lakshmi: And the police report from 2011 opens the book-- so the reader knows right away that the book will be both detailed and very funny!

But can we talk about Kamala the caterer? I was worried she’d be a magical person of color but I came to like her!

Asha: Kamala was hilarious.

Lakshmi: Here is how we are introduced to her:

 ‘I’m Kamala, the caterer. Welcome to Snellbronach, I’m so glad you arrived before the snow.’ Her clear, lilting accent is pure Invernessian. Charley has an ear for accents; she likes listening to them, imitating them and geeking out at pronunciation videos on YouTube. She’d once read that the people of Inverness have a reputation for clean, clear speech. 

Gideon claps his hands together. ‘Oh splendid, a maid!’

Kamala’s gait shifts slightly – now she definitely is preparing to fight. ‘Not a maid,’ she says firmly. ‘Just a caterer. I’m here to cook your meals but I definitely won’t be picking up your underwear, Mr Gold.’

Asha: It's clear that she thinks they're all ridiculous!

Lakshmi: And she is also so prepared. She addresses them by their CHARACTER NAMES. 

Asha: She wants the bonus Ali has promised her!

Lakshmi: Kamala is there to greet them because the house owner -- Mrs. Dove-- is still in London. So they are all instructed to start the game without her

dun dun dunnnn

Did this book remind you of "The Decagon House Murders" at all? In that it's another book about a group of awkward unlikeable people stuck in a house!

Asha: It did, but that's not really surprising, since they're both a take on 'And Then There Were None.'

Lakshmi: That's true!

Did you have a final thought? Mine is that I didn’t know there were holiday murder mysteries! This was a fun one to dive into!

Asha: It really was!