I was just about to write that this was a slow month for the blog, but then I saw that I’d actually read eight books. Honestly, before I checked, I thought it’d been less than that. Probably because I read a few books from favourite authors, which I ploughed through, and a couple of disappointments that took me an age to read. Oh, and another that I struggled with before abandoning it – no, make that two books. So it was probably about ten days with decent reading, but thanks to Sarah, Len, Jeffery and Victoria, along with Miles at the Bodleian, the remaining three books dragged things out.

Oh, and I’ve wasted a lot of reading time replaying Assassins Creed: Valhalla – sometimes there’s no better therapy than galloping across the English countryside, decapitating Saxons with your axe…

OK, the books up for the Puzzly are:

• The Sixth Lie by Sarah Ward – the second Mallory Dawson after The Birthday Girl. A great read, despite being a cold case, so not my favourite bit of the genre.
• The Charabanc Mystery by Miles Burton – despite it’s rarity, and a great first third or so, it’s far from his best. Why so rare? Maybe disappointed readers checked their copies away? Just a thought.
• The Christmas Jigsaw Murders by Alexandra Benedict – weird premise, unlikeable protagonist and a silly plan from the killer.
• A Well Earned Death by L C Tyler – in which the author tackles the difficult subject of slavery in a charming and funny mystery. No idea how Len does it, but he does it so well…
• Henrietta Who? By Catherine Aird – another good Book Club choice (no idea how that happened) but no immediate plans to rush back to Aird.
• The Watchmaker’s Hand by Jeffery Deaver – the return of Lincoln Rhyme and his nemesis the Watchmaker. Another great thriller from Deaver.
• Murder Most Cold by Victoria Dowd – the only book to contain a locked lake mystery? Quite probably. But it’s so much more than that…
• The Killer’s Christmas List by Chris Frost – a second Christmas serial killer novel and while it’s definitely better than the jigsaw one, it didn’t quite click with me.

Most other months, any one of four authors – Sarah, Len, Jeffery or Victoria – could have walked off with the non-existent trophy. Such a shame that they have to go head-to-head…

Well, there was one of them that really ticked every box – character work, funny (both wry humour and some obvious but still funny jokes), a unique impossible crime and clues – oh so many clues – and I still didn’t get most of it. I’m slightly surprised, looking back, that Victoria has not won the Puzzly since her debut, The Smart Woman’s Guide To Murder, so it’s well past time to correct that.

So the Puzzly for November 2023 goes to Victoria Dowd for the excellent Murder Most Cold, and not just for the efforts she made to make sure I got a copy in my grubby little hands. The Smart Women series is a must read, a spot-on amalgam of modern and classic mystery, and this one is an absolute cracker. Congratulations, Victoria, roll on whatever comes next…