Welcome to my review, in which I shall endeavor to do more than just give you one giant squee of delight over this book. It is definitely Katharine Schellman's best book yet (and I say that as someone who has thoroughly enjoyed the whole series thus far). It may very well be my favorite book of the year; it's certainly in the top 5! I had high expectations for this fourth installment of the Lily Adler series, and this book exceeded them. It's a wonderful cozy murder mystery, perfect for any time of year!

What a night! As our book opens, families (and a few individuals) have come from far and wide for the neighborhood Christmas ball! It's a dazzling affair, with music and dancing, candles and silks and pearls - and secrets aplenty. It is clear that all is not well - even before the weather takes a dramatic turn for the worse, trapping several families, including Lily's and Jack's, in for the duration.

By morning, their number has decreased by one. Speculations may abound, but the only thing truly certain is that the murderer must be one of the housebound. As you might expect, the mystery is complicated by a multitude of secrets, which their keepers are intent on protecting, regardless of the situation. Lily's brother-in-law, the magistrate, has no experience with such things, so it's up to her to determine what really happened at midnight.

I was absolutely delighted in this wonderful mystery. I love a good Christmas story, and so I was enamored from my first glimpse of the cover. 1% in, I was already squeeing at my best friend about details, which I should probably not spoil.

I so enjoyed every bit of this novel. The tension was just right throughout. We reconnected with familiar faces and met a whole host of new ones. The journey was simply a delight from beginning to end and I'm so pleased with how everything came together! The mystery kept me guessing and my only complaint is my expectation of having to wait another year for the next installment of this marvelous series!

Lily Adler is caught in a snowstorm along with several other people after a ball. They're all stuck at their hostess's manor for the duration - and one of them is a murderer.

This book continues Schellman's trend of improving with each installment. The character work was excellent and the mystery good, the climax was exciting too. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

I recommend this latest installment in the Lily Adler series, partly for being a well-done version of the classic trapped-in-a-country-house mystery and partly for the strong character development. Lily finds herself snowed in the country with Jack, Matthew, Carothers family and acquaintances, and a murderer and thief. The entanglement of Jack’s family in the mystery adds urgency as Lily tries to solve the mysteries and resolve a very personal matter. The crimes are well-plotted and revealed, and the characters and dialogue are engaging and believable. I was glad to see some partial resolution to Lily’s personal affairs and look forward to the next book. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was a great mystery Christmas novel and I loved the whole who done it? It reminded me a lot like the old Agatha christie books. I love the story it was slow at first but loved reading every page to see who done it .

100 percent opinions are my own.

Number four in the Lily Adler series, it is the first I have read, and I quite enjoyed it! I was looking for a nice palette cleansing non-stressful mystery, and this fit the bill beautifully. A regency era (1816) mystery starring the widow, Lily Adler. A snowstorm (according to the author’s note, based on the historical “Year Without a Summer” resulting from the eruption of Mount Tambora) forces a number of Christmas Ball attendees to stay the night. The next morning, one of the party is discovered — quite dead — in the chicken coops.

Regency manners, the impact of scandal on women, the greater (unspoken) freedoms allowed a widow over an unmarried woman and two (!) hints of lesbianism pepper a narrative surprisingly free of filler and with some Upstairs / Downstairs thrown in. Lily Adler is smart, self assured, and takes charge of cases without having to beg, look demure, or manipulate — bravo! The plot is clever, twisted, and not obvious (though I did figure it out before the end), and I liked the characters. There were tiny bits of romance tossed in, but of a more Austenian style — there are bodices but they are never, ever, ripped.

I’ll probably go back to check out volumes one to three as I am always happy to discover a nice, reliable, series.

This was another great entry in the Lily Adler series, it does what I was looking for when reading the previous books in the series. The characters were what I was hoping for and I enjoyed how good the mystery was. It was well written and I enjoyed how Katharine Schellman wrote this.

"Self-serving,” Amelia said, shaking her head. “Gregory did not care about the morality of the situation; he simply didn’t wish to deal with any bother. So I had to . . .” She hesitated. Here was the part that was hard to admit. “I had to reveal some very personal information to convince him to agree. To present it as a challenge, which I knew he would have a harder time resisting."