Cath and her mother were never close, their relationship fracturing when Skye abandoned her nine-year-old daughter. Cath’s scattered memories of time spent with her mother are clouded by hurt and anger, so when Skye dies suddenly, Cath is mostly ambivalent to the loss.

Among her mother’s belongings, Cath discovers that Skye had purchased them both spots at an unusual vacation: a murder mystery experience in a quaint English village. Players won’t know which villagers are in on the mystery or who among them is a (fictional) killer.

Cath is puzzled; her mother never spoke of wanting to go to England, nor was she a fan of murder mysteries. Though she considers ignoring the trip, friends convince Cath to go, and she soon finds herself in a charming country house with two other guests — Wyatt and Amity. The three Americans each came solo — Wyatt was gifted the trip by his husband, Amity treated herself to the vacation, and Cath reluctantly honored her mother’s mysterious wish.

Wyatt and Amity are wickedly sharp and genuinely funny. Both murder mystery (and British mystery) fans, they fill in as lead detectives while Cath gamely pitches in as best she can. As the trio track a murderer, Wyatt and Amity start a second investigation into why Cath’s mother was so determined for her to have this experience.

WELCOME TO MURDER WEEK is filled with warmth, wit, and whimsy. The staged murder is steeped in all of the makings of a quintessential British mystery, even poking fun at the very tropes it uses. Wyatt’s transformation into a dramatic detective who theatrically reveals “whodunnit,” “howdunnit,” and “whydunnit” makes for a particularly fun conclusion to Murder Week.

But beneath all the playful mystery-solving lies the book’s deeper emotional journey. Cath’s story is bittersweet as she pieces together clues about her mother’s past while solving the fictional mystery. As she, Wyatt, and Amity track a “killer” through the village, she shares memories of a story her mother used to tell her, bits of information that became clues to Skye’s past and a guide to forgiveness and acceptance. While the new knowledge she gains on the trip is far too late to reconcile the mother and daughter in any meaningful way, Cath comes away from the experience with a more open heart and a surprising new beginning ahead of her.

I’m very thankful to NetGalley and Gallery Books for the opportunity to read an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinions.