I'm going with the book I read yesterday for this: Mind you, this is by no means a bad book (I gave it 3 1/2 stars); the characters are well-developed, the story gets going fairly quickly, and while it does, it's an engaging read -- even if I didn't like all the characters I was supposed to like quite as much as the author probably hoped.  Also, if you haven't made up your mind early on about the "who" (and the probable "why"), and if you like an author twisting your tail round and round until you get to the solution, you'll certainly get your fill here.  Alas, the latter wasn't true for me in this instance, though; and as a result, from a certain point onwards the story's twists and turns felt a bit like the manipulations of one of those "three caps and a pea" shell game operators, but one where you've twigged the main sleight of hand early on and are just half-heartedly following the motions and waiting for the big reveal.  As a result, the final 100 or so pages of the book took me about twice as long as they would have if I had still been fully engaged at that point -- and in a 230 page book, that equates to almost half the contents.

Side note: While PanMacmillan's (and it always seems to be them) insistence on republishing mysteries set during or even only in the vicinity of Christmas with a new title (and matching cover) shouting "Christmas mystery", "cozy", and "Golden Age tradition" is seriously getting on my nerves at this point, here they've actually hit the bull's eye in a sense -- which will become clear very fast to any reader who's also read the book after which this mystery's title is obviously fashioned, and to which it pays hommage to a certain extent; i.e., Agatha Christie's first Miss Marple mystery.  Unfortunately, the new title indirectly also shines a light on precisely those clues and constructive elements of the book that, to me, made it clear fairly early on where we were headed ... and of course now I'll never know whether, if I had read the book under its original title (Redemption), those clues would have stood out to me quite as much as they actually did.

I was just going to do an "Ask Auntie Jane (Austen, not Marple)" ... but as BT pointed out, you can never really ask Will Shakespeare for his comment too often, so I've decided to call upon him for a second opinion.  Not that I mistrust Miss Austen of course, but these are serious questions, after all, so it seems justified to make doubly sure.

So, here we go:

• A.   Will I read all the books on my TBR?  (page 378, line 29)

Jane Austen's response (from Pride and Prejudice):

"... their vice.  He was fond of the country and of books, and from these tastes ..."

William Shakespeare's response (from Romeo and Juliet):

"Prodigious birth of love it is to me"

Umm.  This is seriously spooky.  You guys can't possibly mean my entire TBR --  or if you do, you've both answered this one completely blindly.  So I'm going to interpret this as meaning I'll at least read all the books on any TBR I might create for a special purpose in 2019 (e.g., for my new spin on the Women Writers challenge).

B.   Will any of my 2019 reads be 5 stars? (page 227, line 31)

Jane Austen's response (from Sense and Sensibility):

"... judged it wisest, from the experience of the past, to submit -- and therefore, ..."

 

William Shakespeare's response (from Venus and Adonis):

"At this Adonis smiles as in disdain"

What?!  I'm supposedly going to finish off my TBR, but not a single book is going to be a 5-star read?  You've got to be kidding me!  That's some motivation to keep on reading ...

C.   Will I discover a new favorite book / author / series? (page 309, line 23)

Jane Austen's response (from Pride and Prejudice):

"... be soon down again and soon dining at Longbourn, and the conclusion of ..."

D.   Will I discover that a major twist (hopefully, for the [even] better) has occurred in one of my favorite series? (page 459, line 16)

Jane Austen's response (from Pride and Prejudice):

"'I can easily believe it.  You thought me then devoid of every proper ..."

Aha!  This makes more sense.  A new twist, especially one for the even better, is surely going to keep me reading, because I'll want to know how it ultimately plays out.  Seems now we're (finally) getting somewhere.

E.   Will I finish all of my reading challenges in 2019? (page 69, line 7)

Jane Austen's response (from Sense and Sensibility):

"... regret that they were only eight altogether."

Jane Austen's response (from Sense and Sensibility):

"... pleasure at seeing them in London, making the usual enquiries about their ..."

Somewhat too self-involved for my taste, though in a first novel dealing with identity and the autobiographies we create for ourselves that probably shouldn't have come as a total surprise ... and I'll grant Setterfield that it doesn't exactly have "first novel" written right across its forehead.  The story's central underpinning is one of my absolute no-go tropes, however

-- and I'm sorry, but the days when I would have found the two (!) generations of Angelfield / March children's upbringing and childhood, or the household as such for that matter, anything even approaching romantic, wild or desirable are long gone. 

Far and away the best scene is the one summed up in isanythingopen's 70% mark status update -- a doctor's prescription of Sherlock Holmes as a cure for a cold and for getting overly romantically caught up in an identification with 19th century women's literature.  (Writer, heed thy own words, I'm bound to add.)

3 1/2 stars because I'm feeling generous and the writing actually is quite atmospheric whenever it isn't trying too hard.

The framework narrative mostly takes place in December, so I'm counting this book towards the Winter Solstice / Yuletide square of 24 Festive Tasks.

As explained in this year's Rules / Mode of Play post, we're going to reveal the seven final holidays included in the card and the respective book tasks early on, so as to allow enough time to complete these books. 

The final holidays and book tasks are:

Winter Solstice / Yuletide (December 21): Read any book that takes place in December OR with ice or snow on the cover OR that revolves around the (summer or winter) equinox OR a collection of poetry by Hafez.

Festivus (December 23): Read any comedy, parody, or satire.

Christmas (December 25): Read any Christmas book.

Kwanzaa (December 26 - January 1): Read a book set in Africa or the Caribbean OR by an African, Caribbean, or African-American author OR a book with a green, red, or black cover.

New Year's Eve (December 31): Read a book about endings, new starts, or books where things go BOOM!

Hogswatch (December 32)*: Read anything by Terry Pratchett.

Epiphany (January 6): Read a book with three main characters OR a book about traveling on a journey to a faraway place OR a book that’s part of a trilogy OR with a star on the cover OR with the word “twelve” or “night” in the title OR or concerning kings or spices.

The non-book tasks for these seven holidays will be revealed on December 16, which is when we'll also be opening the corresponding doors on the calendar.  (Hey, we want to keep some element of suspense at least for these ...)

* Discworld calendar.