So here I am, backstage at the show of world-famous magician Rylan Blaze, whose benefactor has just been murdered. My suspects are all professional tricksters: masters of the art of misdirection.
THE MAGICIAN, THE ASSISTANT, THE EXECUTIVE, THE HYPNOTIST, THE IDENTICAL TWIN, THE COUNSELLOR, THE TECH
My clues are even more abstract: A suspect covered in blood, without a memory of how it got there. A murder committed without setting foot inside the room where it happens. And an advent calendar. Because, you know, it’s Christmas.
If I can see through the illusions, I know I can solve it. After all, a good murder is just like a magic trick, isn’t it?"
What Worked for Me
Stevenson is wonderfully consistent in this series, so if you enjoyed the first two books I would say 100% pick this one up as well. We get the same character voice, fun side characters, and interesting investigation plots. I really love this series so I want to have each of the books be consistent in these ways so I know that when I pick up one of these books, I get what I wanted. But please don't take that to mean the books are boring or stale - exactly the opposite. Stevenson does such a great job being consistent with the foundational elements, such as Ernest's voice, that the mysteries can go a little off the rails and the reader is along for the ride.
I enjoyed that Ernest had extra 'rules' for us this time around given that this was a Christmas special, not just a normal mystery read. Stevenson did a good job of really capturing the essence of what a Christmas special is. This series is set in Australia and I believe Stevenson is Australian (although I'm not 100% sure since I could not confirm on his own website) - while I'm American who consumes a good amount of UK/Aussie TV and books. I do find that the execution of the 'Christmas Special' is slightly different in American media vs these other areas and I don't feel that American media really play up these types of specials. That being said, I think the rules we get about what makes a Christmas Special really hit the nail on the head, at least from my experience with UK TV shows, mostly.
I was sort of expecting this mystery to be a little easier to solve since the book was a bit shorter so I actually paused a few times while reading to really think over the different characters and motives to see if I could figure it out (since Ernest does always give us all the clues, after all). I couldn't quite put it all together so I was pleasantly surprised with the solution to the mystery. I think Stevenson does a fantastic job plotting out these mysteries and the different clues/suspects/red herrings. So far, each of the three books in the series have each felt completely unique and there hasn't been repeated elements that stick out to me. These are the types of mystery books that I love to read when I want a classic mystery read where we get some bodies dropping, some clues, and a whole cast of characters to evaluate.
What Didn't Work For Me
This was more of a novella-length read at 192 pages vs the 384/336 pages of the first two books in the series. As such, I found the pacing a bit rushed to fit in as many investigation twists and turns that we would get usually. I also thought that the family connection in this book was a bit underplayed and could have had more emotional depth to it in the same way we got some emotional development in the 2nd book if we had just had more pages to explore.
Overall, this was another fun installment in the series. I wish it had been longer and the mystery more involved but as Ernest himself said, this was a Christmas Special episode. I look forward to the next book in the series.
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