The Murder Game – Tom Hindle’s Mystery Where Everyone Has a Motive!

Last Updated on April 22, 2026

As I write this review, we’re only a few weeks to a brand new year, so I thought it was fitting to add my thoughts about Tom Hindle’s The Murder Game which, coincidentally, is set on and around New Year’s Eve!

Published in February 2023, this is Tom Hindle’s second foray into the world of cozy crime fiction, following his well-received debut A Fatal Crossing (2022).

So, if you fancy being transported to the seaside town of Hamlet Wick for an NYE party that takes a deadly turn, read on…

Setting the Scene

The story unfolds at Hamlet Hall, a struggling hotel owned by Ian Davies. In a bid to boost business during the off-season, Ian’s employee, Will Hooper, organizes a 1920s-themed murder mystery party for New Year’s Eve.

Nine guests, mostly locals, arrive at the hotel to participate in what they believe will be an entertaining evening of role-playing and sleuthing.

Before we get into the plot, you need to know who the players are, so here goes…

The Cast of Characters

• Will Hooper: The young organizer of the murder game, haunted by a traumatic childhood experience
• Gwen Holloway and Hugh Holloway: A couple with political aspirations
• Sylvia and Nigel Cobb: Local residents with ties to the community
• Edward and Martha Finn: Another couple attending the party
• Justin Fletcher: A journalist hoping for a career-changing scoop
• Damien White: A London property developer with plans for the local lighthouse
• Lily White: Damien’s daughter

Additionally, the story features hotel staff and actors hired for the murder mystery game:

• Ian Davies: The owner of Hamlet Hall
• Carl Hooper: The hotel’s reputable chef
• Jack Marshall: A former bit-part London actor turned drama teacher
• Theo Bloom: A young aspiring actor from Hamlet Wick
• Claire Foley: A local woman with amateur dramatics experience

The Plot Thickens

As the guests gather for the New Year’s Eve celebration, tensions are already high.

Gwen Holloway’s plans to renovate the local lighthouse as part of her mayoral campaign clash with Damien White’s intentions to turn it into a holiday home.

The lighthouse, a site of past tragedy, becomes a focal point of conflict among the townspeople.

The murder mystery game begins, but it quickly takes a sinister turn. Will Hooper’s carefully crafted story bears an eerie resemblance to a real-life tragedy that occurred in Hamlet Wick years ago.

Before the guests can fully process this unsettling detail, they make a horrifying discovery: one of their own is found dead, their head bashed in with a rock.

The victim’s identity (which I’ll keep undisclosed to avoid spoilers) shocks the assembled group. What started as a game has become a grim reality.

With no phone signal and the hotel’s remote location cutting them off from the outside world, the remaining guests find themselves trapped with a killer in their midst.

As accusations fly and suspicions mount, it becomes clear that the murder is somehow connected to events that transpired in Hamlet Wick two decades earlier.

The lighthouse, once again, emerges as a key element in unraveling the mystery.

The Pros and Cons

The investigation that follows delves deep into the town’s history and the interconnected lives of its residents.

Old rivalries, long-buried secrets, and hidden motives come to light as the characters grapple with the reality of having a murderer among them.

The narrative shifts between the current investigation and flashbacks to earlier incidents in Hamlet Wick, gradually revealing how these events have shaped the characters and led to the present-day murder.

The problem with it, though, is two-fold. First, there are too many red herrings, so a lot of focus on things that ultimately have nothing to do with the murder or the plot.

The second problem, and for me, the biggest criticism, is that there’s a virtual neon sign pointing directly at the killer quite early on.

And don’t worry, if you don’t pick up on it, Hindle made sure that he references it at least three times.

It is so obvious that it ruined the rest of the book for me. Maybe he didn’t give the reason why, but once you know who, then the rest is just a bit of filler.

Character Development and Themes

On the upside, if for some reason you don’t guess the killer and the book isn’t ruined for you, the small-town dynamics are very good.

So, too, is the aspect of revisiting an incident from the past, which provides more motives for the characters at the party.

With young and old in the book you do get a better sense of the tension between preserving the town’s heritage and embracing change which is a recurring theme.

Overall Verdict

The Murder Game is generally a decent read with a well-crafted mystery akin to the style of Agatha Christie, though nowhere near as good.

It’s also a locked room mystery which adds a howdunit to the whodunit and that is definitely the more interesting of the two reveals.

I know that too many readers felt that the identity of the killer became apparent too early in the narrative so if you want something a little more puzzling this book isn’t necessarily for you.

Follow On Books

In an era where cozy crime mystery series tend to be held together by the same amateur sleuth or detective, author Tom Hindle has gone in a different direction.

Each of his books is a stand-alone read and the third one is Murder on Lake Garda, released in January 2024.

This book takes readers to the private island of Castello Fiore by Lake Garda, where the Heywood family gathers for their son Laurence’s wedding to Italian influencer Eva Bianchi.

But as the ceremony begins, a blood-curdling scream brings the proceedings to a devastating halt.

With the wedding guests trapped as they await the police, old secrets come to light and family rivalries threaten to bubble over.

Everyone is desperate to know…who is the killer?

The fourth novel is due out in January 2025 and will be called Death in the Arctic.

This time around, aspiring travel writer Chloé Campbell is invited aboard a luxury airship flying to the North Pole for the opportunity of a lifetime.

However, when a fellow passenger is found dead in their cabin, she finds herself trapped at the top of the world with a killer in her midst.