It has been a while since I read the 18th instalment of the Women’s Murder Club series, but 19th Christmas very quickly reminded me what I love about these books. As always, the main characters are well written and easy to connect with. Despite being so many books into this series and understandably the lives of these characters changing, the elements of their personalities that make them who they have never changed. I enjoyed the plot of this one, I thought it was unique and different, the team trying to prevent a crime from being committed rather than dealing primarily with the aftermath of a crime. It was nice that a way was found to bring Jacobi back into the fold and I hope this continues in future books. The subplot of Cindy and Yuki working to free a wrongly detained undocumented man was a great one and I wish more time had been spent on this throughout the book, it felt rushed into a conclusion. This is also the only time minus the end chapters that any of the Women’s Murder Club are in contact, with one member being absent for almost the entirety of the book, however I understand that with the case being worked on her skills were not required. The best part of this series is the four women taking charge and working together like they did in earlier instalments. Despite not being relevant to the plot itself, I would have liked to have seen more of the personal lives of Cindy and Richie and Yuki and Brady as I am quite invested in these relationships. Overall, the plot of this book had me hooked throughout but there are certain aspects I wish had been included and expanded upon. I am looking forward to seeing if the next instalment has more of what I was looking for and expect from the Women’s Murder Club series.

[1.5] this had really poor writing for a thriller, there were subplots and a random epilogue that didn’t link to anything else in the book, and as a reader i wasn’t entirely sure on what was going regarding the clues.