Reviews

This is a great read for the Christmas season, theres some great stories.
Stand outs for me were Shoe-Dunnit, The FrostWilds and Ice and Fire.
I would have loved extended stories for some of these. Others were not quite for me, but that's to be expected with short stories.

bookswithkellie's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

4.0

susannelucyluisa's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

5.0

wordsbetweenlines's review

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lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

I didn’t realize this compilation of short stories was middle school aged when I picked it up, and that definitely impacted my enjoyment.

The stories were fine but often they didn’t really give enough information to tie up the mysteries and I was left trying to piece a lot together.

I’ll try reading it with my oldest in a few years and I’ll see what he thinks.

sirkkuwrites's review

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adventurous funny inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

4.0

pulp_fiction_books's review

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adventurous lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

Innocent fun, is how I'd describe this in a nutshell. 'The Very Merry Murder Club' is a collection of thirteen short stories written by an array of authors, set during the holiday season. One thing I really like is there is a ton of diversity and inclusivity throughout, which I am always a fan of especially when it's in works geared toward younger readers (most of the stories are by authors of colour). The title is slightly misleading however as only four of the stories in here actually contain murder (spoiler alert, they were among my favourites) but they all entail an aspect of mystery. Whilst there are a couple of weak tales in here, it's all in all a solid collection.

abiofpellinor's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

The Very Merry Murder Club Review

Shoe-dunnit: 5/10

Autistic representation. A little stereotypical but it's nice to see all the same. Found the statement of ballerinas being nice hilarious. I guess the author is trying not to make kids hate ballerinas after the bitch and the murderer. A cute story with a childish-Poirot like quality where the detective finds something that the reader doesn't know about.

It's snow crime: 7/10

"you are most terrifying" I love Momo 😂

Cut the artery behind his knee?! That's a bit much!

Gotta say, it's been a while since I read middle grade but I wasnt expecting creepy stalker poison candy men. Disabled rep with the paraplegic grandmother who uses a wheelchair (adore that she's a badass spy) and single mum rep (paedeatric surgeon) as far as we can tell.

The Beast of Bedleywood: 8/10

Morals, environmental activism, a good mother. Good parts to this story! And I love the ending with the husky.

The Christmas Heist: 4/10

I wasn’t as into this story, I think I was mainly worried about the kids getting caught in their wee heist. But it was a cute ending and now I want cheesey chips!!

Cool for cats: 5/10

I’m a sucker for a cat book! I enjoyed the little mystery around who broke into the house, even if the answer was incredibly underwhelming. I feel like this needed to be much longer. What’s going to happen with Melody’s make-up skills, will Auntie’s windmill experiments on Shetland work? But I also don’t care about the two main kids 😂

It takes a thief to catch a thief: 8/10

This one was fun! I loved the sneaking around and the investigating and I love a good spy story. And again a badass granny. We need their book! They need to be in a gang! I think this is my favourite one so far. It’s still stupid like the others, but it’s just got a certain something. It was fun

The Frostwilds: 10/10

I wish this one had been a full book! The concept is fab and I feel like so much more could've been done with it. Love a good icy setting in my Christmas reads. We've got superstitions, a community coming together, magic? Everything a kids story needs!

Scrabble and Murder: 4/10

I love that the Americans are lame 🤣 the American wasn’t American! And was evil! The drips etc were interesting spots but I bet you’re annoyed at it being another one of those “don’t tell the reader” mysteries haha. Also wtf is with the justification of murder va mass murder at the end?! 🤣

This was another “don’t tell the reader” solving the mystery. I thought the way the young girl explained it was interesting but “everyone clapped” was a bit too much like a Reddit story for me. Also there’s a weird “she’s only a murderer and not a serial killer” justification which would be fine in my normal books but this is for kids!

The Ticking Funhouse: 10/10

It can’t leave us with that! This is definitely a contender for my favourite so far. A dramatic evil funhouse?! Potential death?! Riddles?! It was great! And whilst I would’ve loved more: why? Who’s the old man? Is everyone okay in the end? I think it was done really well as a short story.

Ice and Fire: 3/10

Whilst I do like what this story is preaching, it’s preaching it a little too hard. Instead of being interwoven with the story and leading the reader to the point it’s shoving it into their faces. Perhaps it works better with younger readers? But myself at that age would’ve just been mildly insulted that the author thought I wouldn’t understand nuance 😂. But the message it’s preaching is an important one and quite Dickensian so it’s fitting for Christmastime. Just not my favourite story unfortunately.

Silent Night: 4/10

Another silly one. Felt like it went from 0 - 100 really quick, needed more sleuthing before the big one I think. My favourite part again was the grandma. Honestly can these authors all just band together for a granny book?! I need it!

No Piste for the Wicked: 5/10

Not the Tesco Metro🤣

This was like a Tracy Beaker meets mystery. We got a bit of sleuthing, some friendship development, some backstory. Impressive for a short story. Not my sort of genre but I think it’d make a good full novel

The Cove(n) at Christmas: 9/10

This was a great one to end on! The suspense was built really well and I loved that we found the clues along with Malorie. The women were just the right amount of friendly mixed with suspicious and the mum was perfectly frazzled to miss any cues. Really liked it!

Average: 6.3/10 - 3.25 stars

sprinkledwithwords's review against another edition

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mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot

2.5

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