Seeing this billed as a Jackson Brodie mystery that works as a standalone for those who haven't read the previous five books in the series — and also seeing that Jason Isaacs narrates the audio version — I jumped right in, hoping for a taste of the series and a smart, writerly mystery.

Verdict: a lot of work goes into the mystery, which does stand alone, but without as much Jackson Brodie as you might expect.

Character-driven vignettes make up the first three-quarters of the book and then swirl into a sort of gang's-all-here manor-house murder mystery that lands the whole thing just shy of a spoof. This is best read at leisure on snowy nights, which I definitely didn't do. The narration was great (did I mention — Jason Isaacs?) but it isn't the kind of story that works well for me on audio — too many characters, scattered around for too long, with a breakneck ending pace that left me wondering just how much I missed. As for the Jackson Brodie of it all — my interest is piqued, though I've been advised that previous books aren't quite as lighthearted as this one.