This is a charming cozy mystery a la Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes but with a f/f marriage in trouble romance subplot and I greatly enjoyed it.

The writing is brilliant as usual and had me engaged throughout the whole story. The murder mystery investigation is so over-the-top and charming and hilarious and I loved it. The marriage in trouble was my favourite part though. I found it to be very touching and real and I loved seeing two people who in a long-term relationship dealing some serious issues that have come up in their relationship. They love each but it does not automatically fix things between them. There are a lot of honest talks and confessions and apologies to be made but the support and the care are there and I am hopeful that Liza and Hanna will find their way back to each other.

The story is full of clever nods to staples in the detective novel genre - a group of strangers are snowed in (at Easter, mind you!) with no wifi/telephone connection, a slew of murders, a criminal mastermind, a femme fatale, a meddlesome amateur detective. It's ridiculous but also a lot of fun to read.

I highly recommend it if you like gorgeous writing telling a story that explores a romantic relationship in trouble while solving a classic murder mystery in the mean time.

I read this right after finishing the first season of Only Murders in the Building and wowza, was that good timing! Basically Cluedo but make it gay is a premise I never knew I needed until I read Murder Most Actual but I think that people will absolutely adore this cozy mystery that somehow brings back all the nostalgic feels about old mystery movies (and games) while also adding a much-needed modern twist thanks to the inclusion of a podcast and some marital problems that kind of move into the background for the sake of the "action" but are very prevalent to the story.
Honestly, if you love Hall's writing style like I do, then this is a must read, whether you're a fan of mysteries or not!

Considering how much I love Alexis Hall and cozy mysteries, I had thought I would love the crap out of this.

Sadly, I didn’t. The plot was “meh” and every character was unlikable.

I couldn’t be more disappointed in this.

In Murder Most Actual Liza and Hanna get snowed in at their hotel/castle in the Scottish Highlands. And soon guests start getting killed off one by one. Solving the mystery falls on none other than Liza, a true crime podcaster.

A very enjoyable read that'll give you a few laughs, a few head scratchers and a couple to root for. It weaves together humor, suspense and relationship drama for a solid read for mystery lovers. It feels like both a parody of and a love letter to classic mysteries. So if you're a fan of Agatha Christie, Clue, or any mystery that ends in a grand reveal, hop on!

I loved all the references to classic mysteries. From the Poirot like character, to people being killed off one by one, a la And Then There Were None, and the Clue like chapter headings... It was clear the book was written by a lover of mysteries. On the other hand, this was also written with a critical eye of the classic mystery genre. This makes it feel fresh, since the book doesn't just take the tropes but looks more closely and subverts them. At the same time, this does feel less satisfying at times, when the criticism of the genre gets in the way of actual murder solving itself.

Aside from the mystery, this is also a story of a strained relationship. Liza and Hana's bickering, arguments, slow growth and eventually healing, was probably my favorite part of the book. How they used the crazy situation they were in, to communicate more and understand each other more was done very well. Their relationship feels real and faceted

As I mentioned, at times, the book doesn't feel as satisfying as other cozy mystery books. For example, the grand reveal here, does not compare to the others in the genre. Even the revealer herself goes on for paragraphs about how she's not qualified to do this grand reveal. And as the reader I agree, partly because she was following a completely different track up until the reveal. And especially because the one connection she fails to make is probably one of the most obvious ones.

Overall, I think that this a book that fans of the genre will enjoy, as long as you're not expecting another neatly tied cozy mystery. And not only will you get to read a head scratcher of a mystery, but you'll also get to read about a relationship heal and grow.

I requested this book because I love Clue. I've always played Clue (or Cluedo as we call it here in Portugal) and love the game, to the point where I even watched the really bad adaptation. Sadly, I was disappointed by this book.
Firstly, I'll just address the positives: I read this in two sittings which was surprising since this wasn't a book I particularly enjoyed and I really enjoyed that the main characters were a f/f couple, even though I didn't care about them.
Now for the negatives: throughout the book, I could predict most of the plot twists, which is something I hate, especially in mystery novels. Also, the ending was the most boring ending ever. I understand that in the book the main character said that most crimes are boring but still, I'm not going to go through 300 pages to get a lackluster ending. Also, Belloc annoyed me so much. His character was too similar to Poirot in my opinion and it just pissed me off.
Going into this, I was expecting something else, to be honest. The only Clue-inspired things were the chapter names and the characters. Mustard being Colonel Coleman and Scarlet being Ruby was okay, I guess, but I wanted something more. Also, throughout this novel, I didn't feel that much suspense like I usually do whilst reading mystery/thrillers.
I honestly didn't like either of the main characters (nor any other character for that matter). They were unlikable and I didn't care about their marriage problems. I didn't feel like it was solved by the end and I could've done without that plot point.

Overall, disappointed and just not for me.

This was my first foray into cozy mysteries. Normally I am not into mysteries (unless they are historical), but this being Alexis Hall, whose books I have previously enjoyed, I thought I would give it a go. Sadly, I just don't think this genre is for me. The writing was fine, the characters were fun and the mystery was interesting, but I still couldn't fully engage with the story. And I think that is because of the genre, it just doesn't do it for me. So if you enjoy cozy mysteries, please give this a try. I think you might like it 😊

Alexis Hall came for capitalism in the very first chapter, so this cozy mystery was magnificent from the start. As if we would expect anything less. Our intrepid investigators are a married couple desperately in need of therapy: true crime podcaster Liza and finance fancy human Hanna. It meets the cozy definition with ease, holing up in a castle hotel on a stormy weekend with quite a cast of characters on hand.

The story positively thrives on the comical exactitude of squeezing a lady in a peacock shawl, a professor in plum, a vicar in green, a colonel in a mustard tie, and our investigators around one dinner table with a chef by the name of White in the kitchen. The Clue-esque delights continue with a seductress in a scarlet 1940s-style dress who goes by "Ruby" and knows secrets pertaining to the murder. There's also a private detective with delusions of Poirot who is guilty of referring to himself in the third person and throwing around unnecessary French phrases, so consider me DEAD on arrival. The characters take themselves quite seriously and some of their antics made me laugh so hard, I genuinely snorted and/or cried. There are also some fun layout Easter eggs, so expect to find the billiard room adjacent to the library and a certain secret passage off the conservatory.

This was a wacky, fun mystery with a litany of great one-liners (all diligently highlighted by yours truly) and a pleasant degree of self-awareness. Between Liza's itch of curiosity to solve the murder(s) and Hanna's insistence on not being too gruesomely disrespectful or enthusiastically reckless, the two make a great team. It's one of the best cozies I've had the pleasure of reading, and I highly recommend it. My thanks to Kobo and Valentine PR for my copy to read and review.

𝑊ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝐻𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑎 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐿𝑖𝑧𝑎 𝑠𝑒𝑡 𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑟𝑒𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑙𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑚𝑎𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑎𝑡 𝑎 𝑙𝑢𝑥𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠 ℎ𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑙 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑆𝑐𝑜𝑡𝑡𝑖𝑠ℎ 𝐻𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑔𝑒𝑡 𝑎 𝑏𝑖𝑡 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑏𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑑 𝑓𝑜𝑟. 𝐴𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑜𝑑𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑘 𝑢𝑝 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑠 𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑒, 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑠𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑚𝑎𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑔𝑒 -- 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑙𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑠?

As a long-time fan of cozy mysteries and shows like Murder She Wrote, I knew that MURDER MOST ACTUAL would be my cup of tea 🫖 Plus I'm always a sucker for an Agatha Christie style "locked door" mystery! I found MMA to be a quick, easy read full of humour (and lots of murder!) Although I felt the mystery a tad convoluted at times, I was satisfied by how it was all wrapped up at the end. Liza was definitely a better sleuth than I was!

Recommended for fans of the genre who are looking for a modern take on the traditional detective story. Also...I would absolutely LOVE for this to be the first in a "Hanna and Liza" crime series (hint hint?) 🤪

Unfortunately this wasn't my favorite Alexis Hall book, by a pretty wide margin.
It was surprisingly slow and kind of boring, which is a bit wild since it seemed to be purposefully absurd?

While Hall's trademark humor carried this book, but I found it a bit hard to connect to the characters.
While the Cluedo aspect was very nostalgic, it was pretty easy to see through and didn't hold any surprises.

I still love seeing more sapphic books, and Liza and Hanna's relationship was what kept me going through this,
and I hope to see more sapphic stories from AH in the future!

3,5* rounded to 4
First thing first: this is a weird cozy mystery as one of the pillar of the genre is "no strong language" and there's a lot of strong language (I don't care but I know that the aficionado of the genre do)
That said I had fun and think that the author could start a series as it was quite entertaining and the mystery was solid.
It's slow burning and the first part it's a long introduction to the MCs, their wedding issues, and the other characters. The second part is fast paced and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
That said I found the wedding issues part a bit boring even if I appreciated the humour and the banters.
Not the best book by this author but there's a lot of potential.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Wives having a hard time in their marriage find themselves involve in a murder mystery Clue style! I want to say I loved it, but sadly, while I enjoyed it, I wasn't entirely involved in the story. There wasn't much info, plot wise, just one murder after the other, not many clues even if I'm not really sure about this because I'm the worst detective ever.
The writing style was easy to follow and just the kind I really like. Alexis Hall has become a must read author because the conversations are fun and you get thrown into the story. For me this was more a plot problem but that didn't keep me from still having fun reading this.
Sapphic murder mystery with older MCs? Yes, please. We need more of those!

Thanks so much to the author, Kobo Books, Netgalley, and Valentine PR for the gifted advanced e-copy of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts and participation in the blog tour. All opinions are entirely my own. All of my reviews nd blog tours can also be found on Instagram @Tackling_TBR and my blog tacklingtbr.home.blog.

TW: death/murder, description of violence, description of crime scenes

This book was seriously so much fun! I didn't want to put it down while I was reading, and I was very mad any time I actually had to. Darn work and life getting in the way of my reading!

If you like Clue then you'll enjoy this book. The big mansion where people keep mysteriously passing away, the kooky and colorful cast of characters, the sense of humor of a serious story that isn't taking itself too seriously (although we can mostly thank Ruby for that mindset), it really had it all for me. And wrap it all up with an adorable queer couple bow? Yes please.

I will say that I guessed some bits of the ending before we got to it, but there were still some fun surprises for me along the way, so I wasn't too mad about the few things I saw coming. And I think using Liza's podcast as the reasoning for the detective work brought a fun, modern twist. Plus, sassy podcaster solving a crime with her adorable wife playing Watson? It was just so much fun.

I would absolutely recommend this book to my friends and family - in fact, my mom has already tried to steal my kindle so that she can read it next! I think that the perfect setting for reading this book would be inside in bed or on the couch under a couple of blankets with snow falling outside. And in honor of Murder Most Actual, the podcast within the book, a glass of wine is a necessity!

Alexis Hall has rapidly become one of my auto read authors. This book is funny, witty, and full of delightful twists and turns which harken to the wonderfully campy movie Clue. Hanna and Liza, the lesbian couple at the center of the story, are heroines I loved and rooted for (especially to just fall back in love with each other already).
This is full of all the lovely hallmarks of an Alexis Hall book. Must buy!

Sorry, but I couldn't get past the lead couple's constant bickering and thinking things of each other, worrying about what the other might want/be thinking/be planning. It detracted enough from what could have been a decent Whodunnit along the lines of Miss Marple Investigates, or along the lines of a Josh Lanyon cosy mystery, but I couldn't take any more.

This was such an interesting cozy mystery! It has a nice mix of characters and drama to keep it interesting, and I loved the premise of a true crime podcaster getting stuck in the middle of a crime.

I should preface this by saying I don't read many mysteries these days, but I am a huge fan of Alexis Hall, so I was excited to check this out. I have read a lot of Agatha Christie books, and one of my favorite movies of all time is Clue, so this book was a good fit despite not being my typical genre (which is romance).

Hall does an excellent job building on familiar tropes while also exploring the main couple's troubled marriage. At first, I thought the marriage issues would make the book a depressing read, but Hall manages it with such nuance and care that it works excellently.

I highly recommend reading this if you are a fan of classic mysteries or Hall's work in general. I could not put it down and was rather sad when it ended.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher.

Liza and Hanna's marriage is in trouble. Hanna is a high-flying corporate finance-type and Liza has always been this scatty, flighty, artsy type. But now Liza's true crime podcast has really taken off and she has less time to spend with Hanna, it doesn't help that her podcast listeners are shipping romance between Liza and her co-host Rachael.

Hanna, in her typical high-handed fashion has determined that a weekend in a Scottish country hotel will do wonders for their marriage and booked it without consulting Liza which has created a bit of tension. When they arrive the other guests, many of whom are semi-permanent residents, are reminiscent of the board game Cluedo (as is intended by the chapter titles) with a Colonel who wears mustard coloured clothes, the Reverend Lincoln (as in green), a private detective, and a mysterious shadowy underworld figure known only as Mr B, etc, etc.

Then when the hotel is stuck in a blizzard and all internet/telephone lines are down, one of the guests falls/is pushed to his death from his room in one of the turrets. At first Liza thinks this is some kind of murder mystery weekend that Hanna has organised but it all becomes too real and the bodies keep piling up.

I adore Alexis Hall's books but sadly this one just wasn't for me. I see now that the blurb references Clue and Knives Out which should have given me fair warning as I didn't like either of them. Highly stylised to the point of absurdity, I persevered to the end but it didn't redeem itself. So very sorry because I really wanted to like it.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Did you mean: Murder Most Boring?

Maybe cozy mysteries are not for me. Maybe I've grown out of the light mystery/thriller genre and now can only get sucked in with breath-holding suspense. Or maybe this just wasn't good. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I'm being generous by rounding this 1.5 star read up to 2, especially considering I skimmed the entire second half. It's not a long book, but it took me endless hours to read and I rarely felt interested enough to pick it back up. I mostly kept reading because I was sent this ebook in exchange for a review.

What I did like was the fun Scottish highlands, snowy atmospheric setting. The sapphic representation was great, although the romance and chemistry didn't have me too excited. Murder is not a romance novel though. It's a cozy murder mystery in which a lot of people die and the end result is extremely anti-climatic.

I don't really read cozy mysteries, but don't they have more tension than like.... the tension between me and punching a random classmate? I feel like the tension between me and going through drive thrus for every meal was more intense than the drama and suspense in the book. And the soapboxy bits were so jolting. And I feel like the marriage has so many issues to work out still!

TW: blood, murder (duh), poisoning, classism

Anyways, this was a huge disappointment for me, but I'm still grateful to have tried it out. Thank you to Valentine PR and Kobo Books for the early copy in exchange for a review. My opinions are my own.

Things haven’t been going well for Liza and her wife, Hanna. They have been fighting more often than not recently and their relationship has been strained. While she may have meant well, Hanna booking the two of them for a weekend in the remote Scottish Highlands without even talking to Liza doesn’t help much. The women still love one another, but everything is strained and awkward and pretending it’s not isn’t getting them anywhere. It’s not helped by the fact that the snow is coming down in heaps, cutting them off even more from the outside world, and leaving Liza and Hanna stuck with a group of not particularly likable fellow guests.

When one of those guests ends up falling to their death — or were they pushed? — Liza can’t help but be drawn in. She has a successful true crime podcast and she can’t stay away from a mystery. With the snow taking down the phone lines and the roads impassible, the authorities are not going to be able to get to them for days. So what’s the harm in a little digging? But when another body turns up… and another… and still more, it becomes increasingly clear that there is something sinister going on. But who would want to start killing the resort guests, and why? And what is the role of the mysterious crime lord who is supposedly at the hotel?

Liza can’t help her desire to dig into the mystery, even as Hanna reminds her that she is not actually a detective, and that she has no actual training or authority here. But with bodies piling up and no way to contact the outside world, Liza may just be their best bet to figure out what is really going on. And as much as things are tense with Liza and Hanna, the time together helps them both recognize how much they still love each other and want to be together. But someone is murdering hotel guests, and as Liza and Hanna get close to a killer, they may find themselves next.

Murder Most Actual is a really fun, clever, cozy mystery from author Alexis Hall. I found myself really caught up in the book and enjoying watching the twisty story unfold. The blurb notes that the book is “perfect for fans of Clue…” and this was one of my favorite aspects of the book, as there are so many amusing connections, some subtle and some more overt. For example, the chapters get Clue style titles, such as “Hanna, in the Car, with the Map.” There is a colonel, a professor, a mysterious lady in red named Ruby (a la Miss Scarlet), and more. There are also some cute little throw ins, like Liza looking around noting “There was the colonel, slathering mustard onto a Cumberland sausage. There was the professor, sipping coffee and picking a plum from the fruit bowl.” (References to the characters Colonel Mustard and Professor Plum, for those not familiar with the board game.) It is a bit of silly fun, but I found it entertaining to look for the little Easter eggs dropped here and there throughout the book.

This story is a sort of a mix of cozy mystery, with our intrepid amateur detective heroine leading the investigation, combined with an old fashioned, house party-style murder mystery. The group is trapped in this remote hotel with no cell service, no internet, and impassible roads. As they start getting picked off one by one, the mystery takes a lot of interesting twists and turns. Each time I thought I knew what was happening, things got switched around, yet it comes together satisfyingly in the end. Liza, while admittedly not a real detective, is clever and at times a little absurdly determined to stick her nose into things (as all the best amateur detectives in a cozy mystery tend to do) and I enjoyed her POV here.

At times, I found things got a bit too convoluted, especially the side plot involving this criminal mastermind who was lurking (at least according to some of the guests). And not everything always made sense to me. While I can believe a landline going out in the snow, it’s hard for me to believe this hotel functions with no internet at all in this modern era, not to mention no emergency backup for communication given their remote location. I also wondered from early on why no one seemed at all concerned about most of the hotel staff as they started listing suspects and planning defensive strategies. It does come up eventually in the book that no one has even considered the staff’s role in all this, and my guess it this was an intentional omission by the author to help control the number of characters readers had to manage. But even when everyone suddenly realizes they aren’t considering the staff in any part of this (as suspects, as potential victims, as people to help try to keep safe) not much actually changes. All that said, I found the mystery fun, twisty enough to keep me guessing, and well developed overall.

The relationship between Liza and Hanna is more in the background here and the romance is definitely secondary to the larger mystery plot. The women start out the book at odds and there is a lot of bickering and frustration as they fall into their usual patterns of relating to one another. The life-or-death situation in which they find themselves doesn’t help things. It seems clear Hanna and Liza have been having the same arguments and the same conflicts for a while now and nothing is really changing. And as much as they love each other, they are not sure they can make it better. So as the story continues, we see them slowly come to remember the things they appreciate most about each other, to notice what they admire and love about the woman they married. I liked that it felt more than suddenly realizing they love each other in the face of possible death. Instead, it felt more like this slowly growing awareness of all the things they appreciate about each other and remembering how good things can be between them. That said, I did wish for a little more focus on the relationship, a bit more conversation and a chance to see things more directly. I felt like a lot of this just sort of simmers in the background until there they are, happy again, and the romance reader in me wanted something a little more on page. But I enjoyed watching Liza and Hanna find their happiness together again.

Overall, I found this one an entertaining cozy mystery. There is a sense of humor to this story, even as things are dire and the bodies are piling up. And I enjoyed Liza as a POV character, and watching her and Hanna slowly find that connection they had lost. If you are looking for an enjoyable mystery, particularly one led by strong female MCs, check this one out.

P.S. This story is published as a Kobo Original and, as of now, appears to be only available through their store.

I find already-coupled romances to be really interesting, to see how they work through conflict when they’re already committed, that a happily-ever-after doesn’t mean it’s easy from there on out. Making it through those challenges together is just as romantic as something new and exciting. Adding the mystery element was fun too, and I really liked how campy it was. I’m not sure they both worked for me together though, and I think part of that was the couple, Liza in particular.

I find myself more on Hanna’s side, concerned about the exploitative nature of true crime, and I’m not sure that Liza really convinced me that it’s not. (Even in her work solving the present mystery she wasn’t always mindful of the victims.) We saw how much work it takes to be a true crime podcaster and how dedicated she is to it, but I would have personally liked more of a discussion on that since it was one of the things she and her wife were arguing about.

So while I liked the pieces together, not feeling totally invested in the couple or even really in the mystery made this a pretty slow read for me. I liked the style, but not so much the substance.

Sometimes all a failing marriage needs, are a few murders to spice things up. Some couples, when drifting apart, might feel that a holiday could help them reconnect. Liza and Hanna do too, but what actually does the trick is... murder. Maybe not so surprising, since Liza is a true crime podcaster. Hanna, however, isn't a true crime fan, and this is part of where they clash.

This is my fourth or fifth Alexis Hall book, and while it's a different genre, since what I've read before were romances, this has the exact same feel to it, and the dry, sarcastic writing style I've come to love. I also love the way Alexis Hall plays with genres and how this pulls directly from classic murder mysteries like Agatha Christie's, while also being tongue in cheek about those. There's a humorous undercurrent throughout the entire book that I really enjoyed.

All of this would make this book into a 5 star read, but unfortunately I wasn't the biggest fan of the murder mystery itself. It was intriguing enough to start with, but I found that it wrapped up quite messily and I think that was a shame.