Nestled in North Yorkshire lies Midwinter, a tiny village in the middle of nowhere. Run by the Midwinter Trust, this year a selection of six people, all with links to the world of crime-writing, have been invited to attend a Christmas celebration and win the ultimate prize. It could be the prize of a lifetime. And for some, it will be the end of their lifetime.

The snow is falling, the clues have been set but what game is being played here? As the body count begins to rise, it seems that someone has changed the rules without telling anyone… but how can you win a game when you don’t know who else is playing?

Well, that was interesting. In a good way, just to be clear. “Interesting” can be a euphemism for a failed experiment, and while there is something experimental about this, Martin has done an excellent job of not forgetting exactly what sort of book he excels at – namely a murder mystery.

The book has puzzles scattered throughout them as the reader is invited to play along with the guests at solving the game that the Midwinter Trust has set. I have to say, none of the puzzles made me sweat (apart from a massive anagram that, sorry, I couldn’t be bothered with) so consider them an amuse-bouche, if you like. Having said that, I know others have not spotted bits of these – I am the Puzzle Doctor after all – but if you get stumped, don’t worry, the solution will be along in a few chapters.

The bigger puzzle is whodunnit in the fictional mystery and this I didn’t get. Probably at this point because I was juggling ideas as to what was happening in Midwinter at this point – and I got that wrong as well.

I’ve seen the book described as multi-layered and believe me, there are more than two layers here. Martin does a good job of hiding some surprises, partly by deliberately not asking at least one obvious question, which, when revealed, makes perfect sense.

All in all, while my old brain did keep mixing up some of the characters – thank you for the dramatis personae – I found this to be a Christmas cracker of a read. At the end of the day, despite the bells and whistles, this is still a very strong mystery novel and, I think, one of the cleverest I’ve read for a while.

I do have a couple of questions that I won’t share here, as they would be spoilers, but I guess I’ll have to track Martin down to interrogate him on what seem to me to be a couple of massive coincidences. Luckily (for me at least) I should be able to grab a word at Death In The Dales in Sedbergh in October…

Miss Winter In The Library With A Knife is out this Thursday in ebook and hardback this Thursday from Head Of Zeus. Thanks so much for the review copy (and early proof too) in exchange for an unbiased review.