The Christmas Clue by Nicola Upson * * *
I have never actually played Cluedo, though I have always wanted to. It wasn't a game that was available to me growing up in Hungary, and even though I love board games, I have never really had anyone to play them with. My mother absolutely hates board games, and no one else in my family or among my friends is particularly interested in them either. So, unfortunately, Cluedo remains one of those games I know about but have never had the opportunity to experience. That made the premise of this book especially interesting to me.
The story takes place during the Second World War and follows Anthony and Elva Pratt, the couple who would eventually create Cluedo. They arrive at Tudor Close, a hotel where they used to work, to help organise a Christmas entertainment programme involving a theatrical murder mystery. The hotel is preparing for its final Christmas before being requisitioned by the military, so the occasion is something of a last hurrah. Old friends are reunited, guests gather for the festivities, and everyone is trying to enjoy a little Christmas cheer while a devastating war continues beyond the hotel's walls.
Of course, this being a murder mystery, the festivities don't go quite according to plan. People die, secrets emerge, and what was supposed to be a pleasant Christmas gathering turns into something much more sinister.
One of the things I liked most about the book was its atmosphere. Tudor Close is a wonderful setting for a Christmas mystery, with its gathering of guests, familiar faces, the sense that everyone is temporarily escaping the outside world. The war adds another layer to this atmosphere because the characters know that their little celebration cannot last. The hotel is about to close, their lives are changing, and nobody knows what the future will bring. There is a feeling of impending doom hanging over the festivities, which makes their determination to enjoy Christmas all the more poignant.
It is almost as though they have collectively decided to celebrate Christmas as if it might be their last.
I also really liked Anthony and Elva as a couple. They are delightful together, and their relationship feels genuinely affectionate and balanced. Anthony is a talented pianist who has worked in hotel entertainment, while Elva is involved in organising the performances and festivities alongside him. They have a lovely back and forth, and I never felt that one of them dominated the relationship. They seem comfortable with each other, they work well together, and they clearly enjoy each other's company. It is refreshing to encounter a married couple in fiction who simply have a good relationship without unnecessary conflict.
Since Anthony and Elva Pratt were real people, I found myself wondering how much of their personalities came from the author's conversations with their descendants. The murder mystery itself is fictional, of course, but perhaps some of the little details about their relationship and their mannerisms were inspired by family memories. I would love to know how closely their fictional counterparts resemble the real couple.
The other characters also contribute to the atmosphere of the hotel, especially because everyone seems to arrive with their own history and expectations. Having worked in hotels myself, including over Christmas, I found some of the interactions rather amusing. Not everyone who stays in a hotel during the holidays is particularly interested in spreading Christmas cheer. Some guests seem to forget that the people working there are also human beings who might like to enjoy Christmas themselves. You are simply part of the furniture, the reception robot who exists to make their holiday pleasant. So, some of the less festive attitudes among the guests felt rather familiar!
Unfortunately, while I enjoyed the setting and the characters, I was much less impressed by the actual mystery.
The biggest problem was the pacing, which felt extremely uneven. For much of the book, the story moves rather slowly, introducing the characters, establishing their relationships, and building up the atmosphere of Tudor Close. Despite being only 138 pages long, it initially feels like the beginning of a much longer novel. There is a great deal of preparation, and the narrative seems to be laying the groundwork for an elaborate mystery.
And I was enjoying that preparation. I was settling into the story, imagining myself curled up under a warm blanket with a mug of hot chocolate, ready to spend a winter evening unravelling a murder mystery in a beautiful old hotel.
Then, suddenly, everything goes into overdrive.
Something happens that completely changes the pace, and the story rushes towards its conclusion. Information that could have been uncovered gradually through an investigation is delivered almost all at once, and the mystery is resolved before there is much opportunity to appreciate what has been revealed. It feels as though the book spends most of its length preparing for a mystery that it then barely gives itself time to explore.
I found this particularly frustrating because I genuinely liked the setup. There was so much potential in the location, the characters, and the circumstances surrounding the gathering. I wanted to spend more time investigating the deaths, following clues, questioning the guests, and gradually piecing everything together. Instead, the solution arrives in such a hurry that the elaborate preparation feels almost wasted.
In fact, the change in direction was so abrupt that I wondered whether the author had originally intended to tell a different, more complicated story, only to decide to wrap everything up much more quickly. I obviously don't know whether that was the case, but that is certainly how it felt while reading. The first part promises a substantial mystery, while the final part seems determined to finish it as quickly as possible.
This is especially strange in such a short book. Usually, when I read a novella, I expect the story to be relatively concise throughout, but The Christmas Clue doesn't really feel like a novella until its final stretch. The beginning takes its time, almost as though it has hundreds of pages available, and then the ending suddenly remembers that it has to fit into 138.
However, despite my disappointment with the mystery, I really enjoyed the Christmas atmosphere. In fact, the book reminded me of one of the Doctor Who Christmas specials, The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe (2011). There is something about the combination of Christmas festivities, an unusual setting, a mysterious adventure, and an underlying sense of sadness that brought that episode to mind. It has that same feeling of stepping away from ordinary life for a little while and entering a strange, almost magical Christmas adventure.
The Second World War setting makes that feeling even stronger. Christmas becomes a temporary refuge from the uncertainty and destruction outside, a chance for people to gather together and pretend, just for a few days, that everything is normal. I thought that aspect of the story worked beautifully, and it gave the otherwise rather light mystery a surprisingly melancholy undertone.
In the end, I decided to give The Christmas Clue 3.5 stars. I enjoyed it more than a typical three-star read, largely because of its charming central couple, atmospheric hotel setting, and wonderfully Christmassy mood. However, the uneven pacing and disappointing resolution prevented it from becoming the satisfying murder mystery I had hoped for.
I would recommend it to readers looking for a short, atmospheric Christmas story with a historical setting and a connection to one of the world's most famous board games. Just don't expect an especially intricate or rewarding investigation.
For me, The Christmas Clue succeeded much more as a Christmas story than as a murder mystery. It invited me into a warm, festive hotel in the middle of a terrible war, introduced me to a lovely couple, and made me want to stay there a little longer. I only wish the mystery hadn't been in such a hurry to send me home.
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