“Nothing says Christmas like foliage and an outlined corpse.” That’s a line from the book which is repeated a couple times.

The  Christmas Jigsaw  Murders 
by Alexandra Benedict 
11/9/2023
Read by Sandra Duncan, 8h 56m
Rating, A / Crime fiction 

So this is a cozy in name only because it really gets quite dark. 

First, the author also last years’s Murder on the Christmas Express and both are excellent who-done-its. The trouble with this one is that half the tale is spent exploring the relationships involved – mostly gay or lesbian – and the crime falls to the wayside for awhile.  But perhaps that’s one way to add suspects.  ??  I gave it an A. 

Edie is almost 80 years old now and this year someone sent her a Christmas present. It’s a jigsaw puzzle made up of 6 just pieces which, when put together properly, show part of an unidentifiable corpse.  The note is not signed but tells Edie to “Rest In Pieces.”  

And so it begins, the elderly crossword-making and amateur sleuth who is, at best, even crankier during the Christmas season, takes the puzzle/threat seriously after a man is found dead on the running path near her home.   

Now she has to ponder the situation with her adopted son, Seth, the recently promoted Detective Inspector, and his husband, lliam, who are trying to adopt through an agency. The baby is currently still with the surrogate.  

The point of view changes and when it’s Edie it’s sometimes first person, but also we occasionally get to visit the thinking and mind-set of the perpetrator whom the 3rd person refers to as “they.” (I believe we saw that previously in Robert Galbraith’s 3rd novel, Career of Evil and maybe elsewhere one time. 

I’ll be keeping my eye out for more books by Benedict.