The Christmas Jigsaw Murders
Ratings3
Average rating3.3
15
Ratings3
Average rating3.3
Rest. In. Pieces.
On 1st of December, renowned puzzle setter, loner, and Christmas curmudgeon Edie O'Sullivan finds a hand-delivered present on her doorstep. Unwrapping it, she finds a jigsaw box and, inside, six jigsaw pieces. When fitted together, the pieces show part of a crime scene – blood-spattered black and white tiles and part of an outlined body. Included in the parcel is a message: 'Four, maybe more, people will be dead by midnight on Christmas Eve, unless you can put all the pieces together and stop me.' It's signed, Rest In Pieces.
Edie contacts her nephew, DI Sean Brand-O'Sullivan, and together they work to solve the clues. But when a man is found near death with a jigsaw piece in his hand, Sean fears that Edie might be in danger and shuts her out of the investigation. As the body count rises, however, Edie knows that only she has the knowledge to put together the killer's murderous puzzle.
Only by fitting all the pieces together will Edie be able to stop a killer – and finally lay her past to rest.
Reviews with the most likes.
So I mostly liked this, but really had some issues with how it was written.
The best parts of this are the jigsaw element of the story, which was a fun and quite unique way of revealing the mystery, and Edie herself as a character. She dislikes a lot (including Christmas) and is prickly most of the time, but it was still quite enjoyable to read from her point of view. Riga also had some great one liners.
Some of the issues I had were with the extraneous details like the near constant references to Edie's ex which added absolutely nothing to the story, the overly stereotypical characters in the police team and the odd parts which just didn't sit well in the story such as how when Sean (Edie's nephew/adopted son) was kidnapped they were just casually getting food from the buffet at a Christmas party and when the killer tries to poison Edie, but then Edie ends up giving her communion in a hooded robe? It was just so odd.
