Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5

“Christmas with the family can be murder…”

THIS is the exact book I needed to get me out of my lengthy reading slump!! Hurrah! What a book. I’m a little late to the party with book one in this series as it was released last September and I didn’t manage to fit it in last year, but I’m so glad I’ve finally read it after seeing SO many brilliant reviews. The humour was spot on, the mystery so intriguing and the characters some of my absolute favourites. A book I certainly won’t forget in a hurry, and one I feel the need to shout about from the rooftops! I’m so thrilled to be sharing my review of Happy Bloody Christmas. Gimme book two, pronto!

About the book

Christmas is all about lists. To do lists. Shopping lists. Lists to bloody Santa. And doesn’t Anna Johnson know it. Waking up on Christmas Eve after the annual Johnson party, she’s hungover, exhausted and really sick and tired of Christmas already. All she wants is to tick the last things off her endless list and sit down with the world’s biggest glass of wine. ​

But apparently that’s not going to happen any time soon because now her list looks like ​

1. Wrap the presents​

2. Peel the potatoes ​

3. Stuff the turkey​

4. Solve the murder of Santa

A mysterious death in her home really is the last thing she has time for right now, but with police officers who could double as the Chuckle Brothers and a husband and two kids intent on watching Christmas films, it looks like it’s up to her to find out what the hell’s gone on. Oh – and figure out what to do with the body before her in-laws arrive.

Happy bloody Christmas indeed.​

The beginning

Oh how I needed a LAUGH before reading this. And as soon as I started listening to the audio, that’s exactly what I got. It cheered me up no end! On multiple occasions, I’d giggle to myself walking down the street and I just hoped and prayed no one was watching me as I attempted to compose myself. Ahh, the power of a funny book. But it’s not all fun and games, believe me. Because when Anna wakes up with a hangover after their family’s annual Christmas party, she finds much more than last night’s mess. Much more than a few empty beer bottles. Santa is dead. Well, not the real Santa, of course. It’s her boss, Colin. He’s covered in blood, and he is very much… deceased. The humour and the darkness of this murder were perfectly aligned and reminded me so much of a recent festive whodunnit, 12 Ways to Kill Your Family at Christmas (which I absolutely recommend!) Before the police arrive and the body is finally removed from Anna’s larder, an internal investigation begins. Anna, her husband, Oli, her friend, Jennie, and even her teenage son, Ben, start digging…

“The Chuckle Brothers are here and it’s a fucking farce. Sharpen your pencil. We’re going to need that murder board.”

The humour was so consistently spot on. I completely adored it, just as much as I adored every single character we meet along the way. The detectives sent to Anna’s house were such a joke – it was so bloody comical, and they were absolutely not the people you’d want looking into a suspicious murder case in your own home… Slowly but surely, Anna and co. begin to build up a timeline of events, the likelihood that their guests could commit such a horrific crime, any motive that each of them could have had. I was working my way through each suspect with them, trying to pick up on any tiny clues that would enable me to pinpoint who was responsible. There were so many interesting theories, so many reasons people really didn’t like Colin. And to be fair, I agreed with every single one of them. He seemed to be a nasty piece of work! Oh, and aside from figuring out who killed Santa, Anna was hosting Christmas. Her in-laws were coming in less than 24 hours. It was Christmas Eve. Great timing, right? I was so ready for the carnage. The chaos. So ready for where this investigation would take them!

The middle

Every single chapter was so much fun. I had such a blast listening to Anna’s thoughts as well as attempting to solve this whole murder alongside her while she tries to get organised for Christmas… as well as being a mother and a wife. We see so many relatable conversations which set me off with the giggles again, and even though I don’t have kids, I was just blown away by how accurately portrayed parenting is (from what I’ve seen friends/family experience!) Anna and Jennie speak to attendees from the party, the ones who felt a little sus, the ones who it seemed had something to hide… I’ll admit, I was a little concerned by the lack of police involvement! Where were the Chuckle Brothers?! And why had they left Anna to tidy up the blood and crime scene herself?! It did feel like she was well and truly being left on her own to solve a murder, and that it wasn’t serious. It was weird, but also… the HILARITY of it all was perfect. The investigation gets deeper, new information comes to light about Santa Colin, some of it very juicy indeed… I loved the goss!

“I need to try and get some Christmas enthusiasm going or everybody is going to get here and I’ll be sitting in my pyjamas, swigging Buck’s Fizz straight from the bottle, bemoaning the futility of life.”

After quizzing Colin’s son (and having to break the news to him about his father’s death) Anna discovers certain pieces of evidence that maybe point closer to home… I changed my thinking. I suspected new people. And I loved this change in direction. I felt like creating my own murder board to track everything we’d found out up until now! There were some truly brilliant cliffhangers at the end of certain chapters which made it impossible not to read just one more chapter, so switching between the audio and the physical worked so perfectly for me, and helped me read more at different points in the day which was a win! With Anna still no closer to finding the culprit, and the news that her in-laws were arriving imminently, a whole day earlier than planned, this sends her spiralling. I loved her sweary moments! And what I loved SO much was Anna’s friendship with Jennie. She’s the funny friend you need in your corner. The one who lifts you up and always knows what to say. The one who is up for anything! Knowing I can enjoy this friendship more in book two makes me very happy.

The end

Just when the clues seem to have dried up, the alibis all seem to check out and the timelines seem to get more muddled because Anna is CONSTANTLY thinking about them, things finally start to come together. The whole mystery is so perfectly organised when you take a step back, each clue, each tiny snippet of information slots into place in the most satisfying of ways. When Anna gets her brainwave, when everything just clicks, when she know for certain who the killer is, we have to wait a teeny bit longer for that reveal and I was sooo excited! The build up to it was glorious. The author sure knows how to make us readers hang onto every word. And before we do discuss the identity of this killer, I just have to mention Oli’s mother. Even though she was a pretty intolerable woman, she was a truly excellent character! I am very lucky to have a mother-in-law I adore, but I know there is a running joke that mother-in-laws are the devil, and that really is the case here. The strained relationship between Anna and Pamela was just comedy gold. So bloody funny!

“This is something for us, something for those ten-year-old versions of us, obsessed with mysteries, desperate for one of our parents to let us have the shed as our detective clubhouse. If you look at it like that, this is really just us healing our inner children.”

Even though the real killer had crossed my mind as a suspect before, I discounted it because there were just so many factors and I couldn’t settle on one! This didn’t take away any enjoyment for the big reveal though, and it was just brilliantly executed. The conversation of what had gone down, the real version of events from last night’s party, the TWIST. Brilliant. Loved it! There was quite an emotional moment here as the truth is revealed, and it just made me realise how brilliant an author Jo is (not like I didn’t already know by this point!) It was also quite satisfying reading the epilogue, seeing how Anna and her family finally have a well-earned Christmas dinner. It was perfectly tied up, the humour unwavering. When I finished, I couldn’t help but think about book two, about just how this family would be affected, once again, by a Christmas murder. There is a nice nod to what we can expect at the end, and it does sound sooooo brilliant! I really hope I can squeeze in the next book over the next few weeks! I really recommend this one. It has certainly fixed my reading slump 🎄

Overall thoughts

Happy Bloody Christmas is such a clever murder mystery with the most perfectly timed humour and characters you wish you could hang out with in real life… well, some of them. Anna is hungover after last night’s Christmas party, but she quickly sobers up after finding a deceased Santa in her larder. Okay, it isn’t the Santa, but her boss, Colin. And he is very much dead. With the police incredibly incompetent, Anna attempts to solve the murder with the help of her husband and best friend. And what a ride it is. Not only is this book such an intriguing mystery with perfectly placed clues and a plot you can easily sink into, but the humour was such a standout element for me. I’d be actually laughing in public while walking the dog and listening to the audio. The joy this book gave me was endless and so unexpected, but something I desperately craved. And I am so looking forward to reading book two! Relatable, ridiculously entertaining and addictive as heck. A must read for the festive season!

HUGE thank you to the wonderful Jo Middleton for sending a copy over to me! She actually sent it to me last year but time just ran away with me over Christmas and I didn’t manage to fit it in! You can grab your own copy of Happy Bloody Christmas on Amazon or wherever you buy your books. Make sure you’re following Jo on Instagram and X for more updates!

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