The Christmas Killer (DI James Walker Book One) by Alex Pine

 

The Christmas Killer (DI James Walker Book One) by Alex Pine.

Published 29th October 2020 by Avon.

From the cover of the book:

As the snow begins to fall, the body count begins to climb…

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?

The first in a new series, Alex Pine has written a dark, atmospheric crime novel, set in a snowed-in Cumbrian village, for fans of Val McDermid, Ross Greenwood and LJ Ross.

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When DI James Walker and his wife Annie move to the rural Cumbrian village of Kirkby Abbey, where she grew up, they are expecting a quiet family Christmas after the difficult times they have left behind in busy London, but fate has other plans for them.

A few days before the festivities begin, Walker finds a mysterious package left on his doorstep, but rather than being a gift from a well-wisher it contains a gruesome surprise and a Christmas card promising twelve murders in twelve days. The first body is found frozen in the snow soon after, and as victims and sinister Christmas messages start to pile up, Walker and his team are at a loss to explain who is responsible for this campaign of retribution upon the 'guilty' of this tiny village.

Can Walker get to the bottom of the killings before the murderer reaches their target of a dozen sinners?

The Christmas Killer is a festive novel filled with suspense in the remote Cumbrian countryside, and the setting of a sleepy rural village in the snow is the perfect backdrop for this mix of police procedural and cosy murder-mystery with a gritty undercurrent. Small town stories have a tendency to be full of characters with secrets to hide and lies to be uncovered, and rather deliciously, this is just the case in Kirkby Abbey. Someone in this picturesque backwater has knowledge of all the dirt on its outwardly respectable residents, and is determined that a few of them be brought to justice at the pointy end of a very sharp knife.

Walker has a lot of suspects to consider before he can find the culprit, which brings in a slew of entertaining red herrings in true Christie style. As the tension mounts among the residents of the village, the net-curtains are twitching, and long-standing feuds and rivalries between neighbours spill over into shouting matches and fisticuffs, which hamper the progress of the investigation - building up to an intriguing finale.

I polished this book off in double time and am looking forward to picking up Walker's story in book two The Killer in the Snow, very soon. This is just the ticket if you enjoy an easy read Midsomer Murders kind of countryside crime story, with added snowy vibes!

The Christmas Killer is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats from your favourite book retailer.

About the author:

Alex Pine was born and raised on a council estate in South London and left school at sixteen. Before long, he embarked on a career in journalism, which took him all over the world – many of the stories he covered were crime-related. Among his favourite hobbies are hiking and water-based activities, so he and his family have spent lots of holidays in the Lake District. He now lives with his wife on a marina close to the New Forest on the South Coast – providing him with the best of both worlds!