The Christie’s: A Christmas Murder 1984
By Daryl Smith (Indie author, 2026)
Genre: Fiction/Murder Mystery/Christian Fiction
Pages: (print): 148
Via: Author Request
Note: We received a complimentary copy of this book for honest review.
It’s Christmastime in 1984 Dearborn, Michigan. High Schooler James Christie is attending a Christmas Eve party. Ex-San Francisco detective/ace private investigator Johnny Wong is also attending the party at the Christie mansion. It’s a good thing the detective is in attendance. Because when industrial magnate and family patriarch David Christie falls dead at said party shortly after changing his will, the hunt for the killer is on in this faith-flavored seasonal whodunit.
There’s also superstition. Strange things that go bump in the night. The Christie family curse. Missing pictures. The Third Army. Suicide. Microchips and Silicon Valley. A gold pen. An ancient pact.
This book moves well and is an interesting read. It’s packed with plenty of misdirections, red herrings, and clever clues. It’s a good effort. The cover art is terrif! But it’s not yet ready for prime time. Here’s why:
Thin
The plot feels thin in places. Contrived. Like it can’t decide whether it wants to be a clever murder mystery or a sermon. Issues with typos, punctuation, misspelled words and grammatical errors creep in way too often. Examples: “… when dad passes were going to fight…” (p. 25.) “… your team very through.” (p. 43) “That’s an awful sharp noise you have detective Wong…” (p. 44). “They’re, their and there” are frequently confused and misused, as are “your and you’re.” And so on. There’s also a lot of telling rather than showing. And Johnny Wong’s hackneyed dialogue? Cringeworthy: “Each case different, Johnny said. “Snake bit not always same snake.”
While we can appreciate the faith-flavored aspects of this novel, we don’t appreciate being beaten over the head with it. Especially via Johnny Wong. He comes across as street preacher more than homicide detective. (The “humble Chinamen (sic)” routine gets a little old after a while, too.) Some of Wong’s evangelistic speechifying is painfully out of place. So is some of the dialogue, like David Christie’s dying words, “Father, forgive them.” Seriously, Sherlock? Ditto Jenna’s conversion scene in chapter 5. It feels contrived. Like it’s shoehorned into the plot rather than part of the natural flow. Also, the shift between James Christie’s first-person POV in the opening pages to third person throughout the bulk and then back to James toward the end is jarring and confusing. It doesn’t work.
Final Analysis
The Christie’s* has its moments. But it’s not yet ready for prime time. It would benefit from another coat of polish and a trip through the Editorial and Proofreading Departments. So, we won’t be rating it.
*This is how the main title appears in print. Whether or not this is a typo – and is supposed to be Christies, plural, or Christie’s, possessive, is unclear.
Pages & Paws 
May 13, 2026 at 4:27 am
Hi. I am the author, Daryl Smith. I am very grateful to a professional and well-read blog like Pages and Paws to take the time to review my work, a first for me.
It is good and difficult, I’ve found so far, to get honest criticism. One can pay for a review, and get only praise, not honest criticism.
I definitely need to work on my POV transition, I read this about another piece I have.
On the subject of POV, I thought I’d add something. This piece would have been and probably should have been written all in 3rd person as it was for most of the story. I added the POV of James because James is in essence me. I had a real-life event that took place in nearly the exact time as I describe in the book. In Christian circles this would be called a testimony.
I decided to drop this real-life testimony because I thought it is worth telling. Christ’s power over the darkness to set a sinner free. Should The Christie’s ever reach best seller status, read by ten’s of thousands, an unlikely event, but possible, I wanted this nugget of real truth to be read, to perhaps live on after me in literature.
Writing for me is a hobby. I like to create, to entertain, and I’m grateful this was found to be interesting, but I also write for the glory of Jesus Christ so that others might be pointed to him.
I need work on Grammar. My ACT score back in High School was 15. This reviewed book was an early copy and the published work eliminated I THINK many grammar issues, but I will be making an update soon adding some breaks that allow the reader to follow the POV shift.
It is amazing one can read 12 times a piece and each time miss a mistake that even the spelling and grammar check software misses.
One can pay big money for a professional editorial review, but one must have some expectation that sales will cover the cost of such an expensive professional, and I am still trying to crack the code so to speak to driving significant sales.
In the testimony I also initially tended to describe more than I showed. I THINK I cleaned this up at least somewhat in the current published version.
If you don’t know it, to be an Indie author is not boring. Once you do a press release or any real advertising, you are absolutely inundated with scams from gmail accounts, phone calls,…etc. Every one of them a con or some kind of untruth, false names, multiple identities. I’ve even, no kidding, received anonymous death threats from persons I apparently didn’t do business with who were disgruntled about it.
If one is not wise and very untrusting, one can easily get scammed out of thousands of dollars.
Lastly, I did think the Jenna conversion chapter 5 seemed a bit forced. I’ve tweaked a little such that HOPEFULLY, it feels more natural and believable in the current published version.
Once again, I’m very grateful for an honest review that can be read by so many people.
May 13, 2026 at 7:12 am
Looking forward to the updated version! Keep writing!