“This is. It a Game” is your typical locked room, storm trapped group of people trying to solve a murder mystery. The grandmother/granddaughter aspect was promising but either one was very likable to me. The writing was a bit clunky and sometimes seemed like there was too much detail about weird aspects of the story. The plot moved along fairly quickly but it just wasn’t something that really sucked me in overall.

The small island of Mackinac is a tiny slice of Eden. Addie's grandmother Mimi lives there and welcomes her on the tail end of a horrific breakup. Addie is still very much in love with her ex-fiance Brian, but it is clear that he used her for her ideas on their co-created video game.
The visit is perfect timing as Mimi is being blackmailed for a secret that she is not willing to divulge. The blackmailer requires that she attend a long weekend at her neighbor's mansion and she brings Addie along.

Before you know it, it's a game. A very dangerous game where the party goers are being killed off one by one. Add in a ferocious storm and no one is leaving the mansion. I loved the dialogue and the quick moving plot. If you love Agatha Christie, wish for a real life game or just want to play along, This is Not a Game is for you!
#penguin #dutton #whodoneit #thisisnotagame #Kellymullen

The standard 3 star rating for this standard cozy-ish mystery set on the gorgeous sounding Mackinac Island….I really want to go to there but ONLY during the summer. I have made my husband promise to take me once we are done with the state game (my dad and I were racing to see who could visit all 50 states the fastest. He only had four left but died in August. However, I will definitely finish for both of us. I have five left, and will be going to Utah in November.. But I digress.)

Mimi MacLaine loves a genteel life that n a he exclusive island, which doesn’t allow cars. Her granddaughter, Addie, has come to stay with her after having her heart broken by Brian, her former fiancée….and not only did he kilt her he cut her out of their popular video game, Murderscape, that they developed together (well, Addie did most of the real work, natch.)

Seventy-something local socialite Jane Ireland invites Mimi to a charity auction (Jane is a narcissist who is having a torrid affair with her son in law, so she’s fun!). Mimi invites Addie to join her but fails to tell Addie that Jane is blackmailing Mimi.

Mimi and Addie arrive at the mansion and….wait for it…wait for it…a storm rolls in, trapping everyone there. Then Jane is found murdered. Game lovers Mimi and Addie must discover the murderer. Why? I don’t know. Sounds like a stroke of luck for Mimi if you ask me, but, then, as always, no one did.

Murderscape sounds like a really great game and I wish I were rating it! Instead we have one very non-effusive, unsentimental grandmother and her unlucky in love granddaughter who was way too enamored with someone who was obviously a piece of…well, it’s a cozy, so I should watch my sailor’s mouth. I was just sorry to see her do dumb as to still be tempted by him. Tempted to kill him, perhaps. If Brian turned up dead. So, the book was fine. Standard locked room stuff.

A really fun debut! I loved the vibe between the grandmother and her granddaughter, and their teaming-up to solve the mystery was terrific! All of the minor characters contribute to the complications in the story, plus they're all stranded in a mansion with the killer. This novel has all the attributes of a perfect cozy mystery!

I had no idea where all the clues were leading to in this book, but the banter between Mimi and Addie made for an enjoyable read theoughout with everything coming together at the end.

Mimi is pretty set in her ways. At 77 years old, she enjoys her crossword puzzles and Gibson martinis. She's unashamedly true to herself, even if it means swiping the last sourdough bread from the shelf just as the blonde woman was also reaching for it. After all, she has many more years to enjoy sourdough. However, Mimi's world comes to a screeching halt when she receives an invitation to an auction. Despite Mimi's obvious disregard of the host, the invitation insists that Mimi must attend and must bid on a particular item or else her most dark and deadly secret will be revealed. Mimi is the victim of blackmail and must face her blackmailer at a 1920s themed party. Luckily, her granddaughter, unaware of the blackmail, agrees to attend the party with her. Addie, the co-creator of a popular game based on solving murders, is a long-time fanatic of all things murder and mystery. So, when the host of this strange gathering suddenly turns up dead, Addie finds herself in the middle of a real-life crime with several possible murderers. Set in a giant estate with secret passages during a raging snow storm, this murder mystery is a perfect one to curl up in bed with for a long and cozy day of reading.

This book was such a fun ride! There was so much in this novel that checked all the boxes for me: giant estate, mysterious cast of characters, hidden trapdoors, snowed-in panic, and, as an added bonus, a charming grandmother and granddaughter dynamic. I loved the mystery, setting, and characters. For me, this book was a less-confusing and convoluted version of Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone. It was what I had hoped that novel would be. The characters of Mimi and Addie were likable and fun in their own unique ways. At first I wasn't sure if I would like this very sour and non-matronly main character, but Mimi grew on me and, by the end of the novel, I appreciated an elderly female main character that wasn't as sweet as her homemade pie. Mimi's gruffness with her microwaved frozen dinners was a breath of fresh air.

I'd recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys a cozy mystery with fun characters and settings. It's one that I will be purchasing for my murder mystery loving grandmother, that's for sure!

Loved this story about a grandmother and her granddaughter working together to solve a murder, while also being trapped inside an impressive mansion - complete with secret passages! Their relationship evolved very naturally, and both of their differing expertise was necessary to catch the killer. Felt a bit like Clue crossed with Agatha Raisin. FUN!

You can definitely tell this is a first novel. The dialogue is clunky, and the characters are a little over the top. I didn’t care for the main character, found her obnoxious, so that also put me off the book. I like the setting on Mackinac Island but that’s all I can recommend about this mystery.