Murder and mayhem disrupt a family Christmas by the sea.
George and his family are celebrating Christmas by the sea. But when a body washes up on the beach, George can’t stop thinking about the strange lights he saw on the cliff top… Neither can his cousin, Isla. Together, they follow the clues, and as they draw nearer to the truth, they step further into danger. On land, or at sea, someone is desperate to stop them, whatever it takes. And that someone may be closer to home than they realise…
Born in Chobham, by an airfield, and raised in Winchester on the banks of the River Itchen, Fleur Hitchcock grew up as the youngest child of three. When she was eight, she wrote a story about an alien and a jelly. It was called THE ALIEN AND THE JELLY and filled four exercise books. She grew up a little, went away to school near Farnham, studied English in Wales, and, for the next twenty years, sold Applied Art in the city of Bath. When her younger child was seven, she embarked on the Writing for Young People MA at Bath Spa and graduated with a distinction. Now living outside Bath, between parenting and writing, Fleur Hitchcock works with her husband (a toy maker), looks after other people's gardens and grows vegetables.
I received a free copy of, Murder at Wintertide, by Fleur Hitchcock, from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. George his cousin Isla, and the rest of their family are spending Christmas by the sea. A body washes up, and their holiday by the sea, is not as charming as it started out to be. This was a pleasurable Christmas mystery book.
Young George is excited to spend Christmas with his Dad and Grandpa at the rented house named Wintertide. When he sees a sudden light on the cliff and hears about a dead body found in the sea, George wonders if the events are connected. Isla, his cousin, seems to have the same doubts. Soon, the tweens band together to find out more and solve the mystery, not realizing that it could very well put their lives at risk.
The story comes in George’s first-person POV in the present tense.
My Thoughts:
The book starts with a short prologue about a body drifting in and out of the sea in the third-person POV. Then, it switches to George’s first-person narrative in the present tense. The kid and his dad are traveling to meet their family for joint celebrations (Grandpa’s birthday and Christmas).
There’s a bit of a mystery right in the beginning about some people arguing on the road. We slowly get more information about the family dynamics, new members, the boy’s favorite ones, etc. Since it is in his POV, we don’t always know much about the others. However, this slowly changes and the undercurrents become clearer.
The setting is perfect for the mystery. Lyme Regis is a coastal town, a bit away from the mainline. It has high cliffs, an extensive beach, and beautiful streets. The weather alternates between windy, rainy, snowy, and chilly. Naturally, this makes the mystery more interesting.
The other kid, Isla is sweet. George is a different kind of sweet. Both are easy to like and root for. Their contrasting personalities and the slowly budding friendship between the new cousins add a nice personal touch to the plot. Of course, there are many other personal elements since this is a family trip.
The mystery blends archeology, history, action, adventure, danger, some attempted sleuthing, and all the things children would love. As expected, the kids get into situations that could be way dangerous in real life. At least, the adults here are not fully absent. They do try to keep the children safe, and the kids also realize they are getting into tricky stuff (even if it doesn’t stop them).
The culprit is easy to guess thanks to the subtle (and not-so-subtle) clues scattered throughout. It should keep the young readers engaged and make them guess about the whos and whys.
There’s some light humor sprinkled at random, making George an entertaining narrator. I like the subtle change in him as things change towards the end.
The ending is heartwarming and sweet, just as how it should be for the target age group. There are some bittersweet moments too, but hope and love do triumph over everything else.
To summarize, Murder at Wintertide is a steady-paced mystery with young sleuths solving a crime and discovering more than what they want. This is my first book by the author, and I’m curious to read more.
Thank you, NetGalley and Nosy Crow, for eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
Thank you to Netgalley and Nosy Crow for an early copy of this book in an exchange for an honest review.
DNF at 50%
This book is a middlegrade murder mystery. I've never read anything like this and because I enjoy both middlegrade and murder mysteries, I thought Murder at Wintertide is going to be something I will like. Unfortunately, this did not happen.
Let's start with positives. I very much like the cover, the art style and the blue colours definitely give the wintery mysterious vibe. I also think the main character George is very well established as smart and clever, but still remains beliavable as a child. He is very easy to root for as well as his cousin Isla. (Who reminded me of Wednesday Addams in the best way possible).
Another huge positive is the main theme of the story - two step families coming together to celebrate Christmas. George's grandpa remarried recently and George gained a whole new side of family - a grandma, an aunt and two cousins. George also has a stepmum who is currently pregnant, so George is about to gain a sibling. And he has some complicated feelings about it. I think this is a very important topic that I personally have not come across as much in a lot of middlegrade and the author handled it very well. (Of course I can only speak about the first half of the story.)
And now for the negatives...
First one is definitely the choppy writing style. Very short and choppy sentences that just do not flow very nicely. Sometimes, when the chapter ends, the book just skips a little forward and we pick up again with something else. It took me out of the story all the time and I just could not get immersed properly.
The biggest negative for me, is the plot itself, though. The murder mystery is interesting, it has something to do with old British crown jewels and the stories surounding them. I actually enjoyed this part. As I said it was intriguing. But because of the choppy writing style I just kept getting lost. For example: we here doing one thing in this chapter, finding something and then doing another thing in the next chapter that tied back to the previous chapter, but I kept loosing the thread tying these two things together. I can't pinpoint exactly why this kept happening to me, if it was because of the writing style or because I just was not invested enough... And I forced myself several times to continue or reread ceratin passages to pick up the thread again. But it got to a point where I was just so lost and annoyed that I decided to DNF the story, otherwise I would get into a reading slump.
Goodness, Fleur's books are so good. I really do need to get parents reading some of our books at school so that they realise how good children's fiction is - and that they don't need the latest celeb offering just because it is cheap at the supermarket.
Previously I've read Murder at Snowfall, Mouseheart and Some of the Cillftoppers series. I also have a Y6 child reading Murder in Midwinter at the moment because after the author AM Howell visited the school recently there was a lot of interest in murder mysteries, so I recommended Fleur's books until others had finished the AMH books (she's sensible and wants to read the first book first!)
This story is pretty dark for a primary child! Y5/6 probably best. Although in Murder at Snowfall they find a body in a suitcase so...
In this George is travelling with his father to Lyme Regis to stay in a holiday cottage for the birthday of his Grandpa and Christmas. On the way they are passed by a large van that is been driven erratically, further down the road the van has had an accident with another car, for some reason George decides to take a photo of the occupants.
When they reach the house, George's Grandpa, his wife Queenie, Queenie's daughter Charlotte and her children, Storm who is a toddler and Isla who George feels is way to clever for him (she's home educated) are already there. George's beloved Uncle Edwin is yet to arrive.
When George and Queenie collect decorations from the car George sees lights on the cliff, then one seems to fall. Later a body is washed up on the beach and George thinks they have stumbled on a mystery. Is the mystery connected to the archaeological dig on the cliffs? It seems to be where they were. It is also connected to that van...the body is one of the occupants!
From this beginning George and Isla, who unknown to George loves mysteries as much as he does, pursue the idea that this is in some way connected to that dig. And those people in the van are detectorists who were searching the sight - hence the lights in the dark. But are they getting in deeper than they can cope with? Who can they trust? Suspicion lies everywhere, especially when George, Isla, Grandpa and Grandpa's friend Charlie and a dog are on a sabotaged boat that ends up being hit by another pitching them all in the water!
Treasure, murders, sabotage and families. Dark but ok for y5 plus I feel. Absolutely loved it.
Received a free eARC via NetGalley in return for an unbiased review.
I am a fan of Fleur Hitchcock's murder mysteries as they are great stories but still suitable for my secondary age students. Murder at Wintertide did seem to be the darkest so far to me but I would still be happy for my youngest students (11) to read it.
George travels with his Dad to Lyme Regis for his Grandpa's birthday and then Christmas. His Grandpa has married a lady called Queenie and she is also there with her daughter, Charlotte, and grandchildren, young Storm and home-educated Isla. George's Uncle Erwin is also coming from New York. When snow begins to fall the family go outside to watch it, George sees two lights on the clifftop and then one falls into the sea. When a body is found on the beach, George realises he may have see a murder. He connects the dots to something he saw whilst in the car with his Dad and realises he knows who the murderer is and has evidence for the police.
I liked this story but it was the introduction of the archaeological dig and the connected mystery which really kept my interest. It was an intriguing bit of history to learn and I hope it will spark an interest in readers.
I will be definitely be adding this to the library shelves.
A cottage by the sea for george and his family, snow transforming the landscape in a magical Christmas scene - this would be idyllic if, days earlier a body had not washed up on the beach. George can't help wondering if it's got anything to do with the strange light he's seen falling form the cliff top. Together with his cousin Isla, they decide to investigate but, as they come close to the truth, they also put themselves into danger. Someone is desperate to keep the truth hidden, by any means, whether George and Isla are combing the beach for fossils or taking to the sea for a fishing trip with their grandfather. And is their mysterious foe really a stranger or someone closer to them than they realise?
I absolutely LOVE Fleur Hitchcock's murder mysteries so it was a real treat to be able to read Murder at Wintertide on NetGalley. From the very first pages, Fleur's warmly drawn characters and setting pull you in and never let you go (in a very good way!). You just wish you could be part of it, danger and all, so compelling are her descriptions of family life and relationships, and the parts of England she knows so well and shares with her readers. A Christmas murder mystery to read any time of the year with a steaming hot chocolate by your side, and read again and again!
A strange, motley crew in a van. A falling light out in the darkness in the direction of the cliffs…
I hurtled through this brill MG murder mystery this week. Set in such a fascinating part of the UK, on the Jurassic Coast, the nature of the mystery is perfectly in tune with the setting. The seasonal weather brings added complications and adds to the growing sense of peril.
George and his family have gathered in a coastal holiday home for Christmas and to celebrate his Grandpa’s birthday. Being reunited with his bookish cousin, Isla, is not high up on George’s Christmas list, but brought together by mysterious events, the two realise that they have much more in common than they’d realised. The cousins have great instincts for detection and they will need to use all of their wits and resources in ways they could never have imagined.
Full of intrigue from the off, it will hook in young readers and the clever plot and classic detective novel features will sustain their interest until the thrilling climax. Murder at Wintertide is brought to life by tight exposition, which makes you care about the characters without straying too far from the story. Woven with details of seaside life, fossil finds and archaeology- it’s a fab read for UKS2.
I really enjoyed reading this book with my 9 year old daughter. She was reading it as part of her school book club and as it was her first murder mystery I wanted to enjoy it with her!
George is spending Christmas with his dad and extended family at the seaside when he spots a light fall from a cliff. It eventually transpires it was a person, who appears to have been pushed and was murdered. George and his step cousin Isla set out to try and solve the murder!
It was quite fast paced and I struggled to stop reading at the designated place (it had to last the whole of the first half of the winter term)! We loved trying to guess who the murderer or murderers was! It was well written and my 9 year old found it to be at the right level for her to read with me and on her own. It wasn’t overly complicated but still managed to keep me engaged! A great starter murder mystery. We must try more by this author!
I was new to Fleur Hitchcock's mysteries but, after reading Murder at Wintertide, I can't wait to get my hands on all the others. A perfect mix of blended families, mismatched sort-of-cousins (who discover they have a lot in common after all), a fabulously snowy seaside setting and a seriously terrifying plot. Fortunately George and Isla are up to the challenge.
Highly recommended for confident readers 10 years and up (although the number of deaths might unsettle more sensitive children).
Many thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for an advanced e-copy of this title.
We start the book with a prologue about a body washing up on the shore and this sets the scene for a good old mystery. The book then switches to the POV of the main character George, and we see the mystery through his eyes. Set in the coastal town of Lyme Regis the high cliffs, beautiful beaches and lovely streets makes this the perfect setting for this story. Add to this the Christmas scene and the weather changes, chilly, wet , windy and snowy. The scenes are set perfectly and just adds to the creepiness. As an adult we are able to work out who the culprit is but it's fun to watch George and Isla work it out. There is humour throughout the book and George's dialogue is brilliant.
I am a huge fan of Fleur Hitchcock. Her books always have the right amount of suspense without being too scary and violent that it would be unsuitable for UKS2 students. Admittedly I like some of her works more than the others. And this one is one of my favourites. George and his dad are about to spend Christmas with his step grandma. Days before their arrival, a body has washed up on the shore. Together with his cousin, they are going to solve the mystery.
There was nothing to not love about this children’s crime/adventure read, full of thefts, murders and two kids that solve it all. On their Christmas holidays George and Isla see lights on the cliff top, the next day a body is found on the beach below, was he pushed or did he fall? Loved the characters, they are good together and great on the little missions they go on. A great all round 5 star children’s read.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for a copy.
Peril, intrigue, and hot chocolate! Murder at Wintertide is a cosy middlegrade mystery set on the snow-bound coast of Dorset.
It’s notable for its portrayal of blended families, the disruption a sibling might feel when the family is expecting a baby, and contemporary technology.
A good match for readers aged 9-11 who like fossils, archaeology, and Christmas.
Lovely book, fab story. Big surprise towards the end, as to who the murderer is! Highly recommended, and all the characters are portrayed in an amazing way!
I have read and enjoyed several of Fleur Hitchcock's books over the years and always enjoyed them. I was delighted to receive an ARC copy of 'Murder at Wintertide' (this has not affected my review). The novel is a great crime/detective novel for years 5-8. George and his Dad are off to spend a pre-Christmas break with his Dad's family to celebrate his grandad's 70th birthday, leaving his heavily pregnant stepmum at home. George has mixed feelings about attending the party - his grandad has recently remarried and some of his new wife's family will be there, too. On the way, George and his Dad are almost involved in a car accident: a few hours later one of the other people involved in the accident is found dead, possibly murdered, and George may have seen it happen (albeit from a distance). A very exciting and tightly plotted story, I will be recommending this to pupils at my school.
Christmas x murder x snow = perfection! This was a lot of fun~
I was looking for a teaser for my daily meme posts and came across this book, it sounded so awesome. Of course I had to get it, especially when fellow bloggers told me it was so awesome. And I am really glad I was able to read this book. Not during Christmas as I had planned, but in the new year.
In this book we meet George who is going to stay with his family in a vacation home at sea for Christmas. Sounds fun right? Well, George is not that into it. He is happy to see his grandparents and his favourite uncle, but he is not looking forward to seeing his cousin, Isla (whose name I can still not pronounce right, sorry) and is also not really happy with the fact that his family is going to be extended as his dad’s new girlfriend is going to have a baby. But soon he won’t be thinking about anything because a murder is being committed and George saw something! Plus, it is also connected to something he saw on the roads to this vacation home (which I loved). Things are getting exciting!
And seriously, things get heated, excited, oh my gosh! I mean that person found in the sea was just the first, after that things are following George and his cousin as they try to solve the mystery and the murder(s). I really loved seeing George and Isla try to figure things out and even when things got dicey they kept going (that one guy was way too into things and there were some harrowing moments). I loved the various twists and turns and I loved getting puzzle pieces and see if I could figure things out myself. It was fab to see the mystery expand with each new find and see that things got more hectic and frantic. Plus, snowstorms add to the atmosphere and I love it.
While I had some sus feelings in regards to that person it still came as a shock when my suspicions turned out to be true. Oh MY GOSH. I loved that. I loved how it all tied together and how it all came together, it was all perfectly done!
I didn’t like George’s aunt already due to things, but who the F lets a guy inside that they don’t know. Anyone can tell you they know your family. As a woman I would have never let anyone inside no matter how much they say they know someone. Nope. Nope. NOPE.
All in all, I seriously need to check out more Fleur Hitchcock books. I always love a good MG murder mystery~ I would recommend this book to all.