I received an eARC from the publishers through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. It has not affected my opinions. Serena lives in Walsall with her family. ROBIN STEVENS is the award winning and bestselling author of the Murder Most Unladylike mystery series. She was born in California and has been making up stories all her life.

There are also various reps included in the book and I have to applaud for the autism and the ADHD rep. Those were just perfection. I loved how each story was presented as if it was a file in an archive of The Very Merry Murder Club. Co-edited by Serena Patel, the award-winning author of the Anisha: Accidental Detective series and by Robin Stevens, author of the bestselling Murder Most Unladylike series. The diversity rep was brilliant but the storytelling just fell flat for me in the majority of the stories. When Ali and Tulip's surgeon mum starts acting strangely, it's up to the Double Detectives to solve the mystery.Since this year I am trying to actually follow my reading goals and not forget I ever made them after two days, I have decided to DNF this anthology. It's just not for me and I am not getting anything out of it, so I see no reason to push through when I could already be moving on to the next read that has more potential to be amazing and breath-taking. I feel mean rating this so poorly as I am not the target audience but I don't think most of these stories lived up to the promise of festive childlike mysteries. Many of them had annoying characters and boring plots and I only finished it for a book club where most were in agreement. We go from suspicious ski slopes to a silent window watch on neighbours. There are scenes of subterfuge in the woods, and then a snowy death outside a guest house. Then again, there’s a stealthy game of Scrabble with serial killers, alongside a dodgy dance competition decision!

A collection of wintery crime and mystery stories by thirteen of the most exciting and diverse authors in children’s books today! Join them as part of the Very Merry Murder Club as they lead you on a snow-covered wintery journey of festive foul play and murderously magnificent mysteries! This time around I’ve not been able to contribute a story to the collection (I’ve got a lot of projects I’m working on at the moment that meant I just didn’t have enough time to write something else) – but I’m very happy to step aside and be your introduction to 13 authors you may not have come across before. International Col 1 Cambridge International Caribbean International Early Years Collins Big Cat for International Schools International Resources Webinars Catalogues Big Cat Writing Competition Winners 2023 About Abiola Bello, Annabelle Sami, Benjamin Dean, E. L. Norry, Maisie Chan, Roopa Farooki, Nizrana Farook, Patrice Lawrence, Joanna WI was quite looking forward to reading this anthology, but I think an expectation mismatch meant that it ended up being quite disappointing overall. From the title, I was expecting 13 murder mysteries, but I didn't even get 13 mysteries. Instead I got maybe 9 mysteries (and 4 murders) and some adventures that didn't even have a mystery with a crime to solve at the heart (but had riddles or just strange events instead.) Maybe a different title and a better description of the stories would have helped. This looks really cool! I’ll definitely buy it as soon as it comes out. I think I’ve heard of Dominique Valente, though I can’t remember where from.