The Twelve Days of Murder

Twelve years after the last Murder Masquerade Society whodunit get-together, the mostly aristocratic British group reunites for another festive party to solve a fictional murder. The only nonwealthy member of the group is Charley Sale, who is deeply scarred by their last meeting, where not only was she accused of stealing a necklace but someone also attempted to drown her. Her secret lover, Karl, also disappeared that weekend, never to be heard from again. However, she needs her friends’ help to resuscitate her flagging acting career—and, against her better judgment, she does care for the group—so she agrees to join in the festivities once again. Each participant is assigned a character from the “Twelve Days of Christmas” carol—but then they begin actually dying in ways related to those characters (Lady Partridge is hung from a tree, for instance). Amid a terrible snowstorm with no phone or wireless coverage, Charley desperately tries to discover the murderer, and this time it’s no fiction. Narrator Ella Lynch is convincing as the initially insipid Charley, who is inexplicably drawn to this vicious group. Lynch capably conveys Charley’s discovery of her inner strength as well as the evolution of the other characters and the true personalities of the evildoers.