DI James Walker is ready for a quiet family Christmas in the sleepy village of Kirkby Abbey.
But when he opens an early Christmas present left on his doorstep, he soon realises it is no gift. Inside is a gruesome surprise, and a promise - twelve days, twelve murders. Not long after, the first body is found, half frozen in the snow.
As the blizzards descend, panic spreads through the remote Cumbrian village - there's a killer amongst them, and with eleven more victims to go, anyone could be next....
Can James stop the killer before they strike again?
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It was 6pm when Annie Walker heard her husband's car pull into the driveway of their terraced house in Tottenham. SEPTEMBER
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(@AvonBooksUK, 26 October 2020, 400 pages, ebook, #ARC from the publisher via # NetGalley and voluntarily reviewed)
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As the book is set at Christmas and features a killer who sends threatening messages using Christmas cards, I was expecting this book to be a bit twee to be honest. I thought it would be a lighter read, more of a cosy mystery despite it being categorised as a thriller. Twee premise or not, this is a proper thriller. Consider me better informed. The book is set in a small village, sort of like the one where I grew up, where everyone has secrets and things to hide. It's actually the perfect place for a serial killer to be lurking. I found the threatening messages in Christmas cards a bit twee to be honest, but not as cheesy as I expected, the cards just muddy the waters for the police as dozens of boxes are on sale in the village store, most residents have bought some and have been sending them to each other. I like thrillers and horror novels set in small towns and villages, they have much more potential to be menacing than a big city where so many people are anonymous. Things get quite intense when the village is cut-off by a snow blizzard and the police scramble to find leads and clues before someone else dies. I had no idea who the killer was. Now I know, it should have been obvious but somehow it wasn't.
