Review: This Is Not a Game

This Is Not a Game by Kelly Mullen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Mimi is a septuagenarian living on Mackinac Island in Michigan, living her best life of bridge, crosswords, and the occasional Gibson martini. Then she receives an invitation to a Jazz Age themed auction party at Jane Ireland's extravagant mansion - the kicker is the invitation comes with a side of blackmail, Jane knows Mimi's secret and the price of silence is to buy a specific lot at her auction, no matter the cost.

Mimi has been estranged from her only living relative, her granddaughter Addie, since Addie started dating Brian. But when she receives the invitation/threat she knows she needs Addie's keen mind to help her ... at the very least she needs to tell Addie her darkest secret before it gets exposed.

When they arrive at Jane's party there's a motley group of guests, including Jane's son-in-law (who is also rumoured to be her lover), her brother, her life coach, a tv host, a famous artist, a pianist, a perfume creator (and there may be more). There seems to be a brittle atmosphere and Jane is seen arguing with guests at different times in the evening, before retiring to bed at just gone 9pm.

With the mansion's drawbridge raised and an extreme storm blowing in, the party are set to spend an uncomfortable night together, and then they find Jane's body and Mimi is accused of the murder. Can Mimi and Addie draw on all their resources to solve the mystery before more bodies pile up or the police can get onto the island from the mainland?

This sort of mystery harks back to some of the great locked room mysteries, all the guests (and staff) have secrets, most of them are also being blackmailed, some of the guests are co-conspirators, most of them are lying, the power has gone out and they are all trapped in the mansion which has lots of secret passageways (cue duh, duh, duh music).

I enjoyed this, I didn't guess the identity of the murderer and there were plenty of red herrings along the way. Maybe my only quibble was that it was a bit convoluted at the end.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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