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Well written, excellent characters that you can really invest in and a plot that twists and turns and keeps you guessing. Although I found that some parts were predictable I still enjoyed to find out that my guesses were right. I enjoyed DI James character and would definitely like to see more from him but I didn’t really relate to Annie as a character. Welcome to the small rural Cumbrian village of Kirkby Abbey where DI James Walker and wife Annie have recently relocated. Formerly a Met officer, this couple have made the difficult decision to leave their London life behind, following the early release from prison of criminal gang lord Andrew Sullivan who blames James for his incarceration and may have an axe to grind. Swapping city lights for glorious countryside views, James is anticipating a very quiet life compared to the one he’s been used to. As Christmas approaches with his family descending on Kirkby Abbey to help the couple celebrate their new home and the festivities, life is calm, peaceful and maybe a touch boring! The case was very complex and constantly had me changing my mind throughout. I did guess the perpetrator very early on, but all the different lines of enquiry and different twists as more secrets were revealed had me keep changing my mind and then returning to my original thoughts.
I had a few suspects lined up as I was going through the story, and one by one they were eliminated until I had absolutely no idea who the killer was. When the killer is revealed at the end of the book, it was interesting to see how the clues had been there but cleverly hidden by the author. So DI James moves his family from London to the Cumbrian village his wife grew up in, in the anticipation of a safer life. There had been threats – or so he believed – against his family in London and his wife was increasingly nervous living there. Her home village was small – less than 1000 people, and set in a lovely part of the world – Cumbria is great – if you can take the weather – another wet, windy and cold area of the world.I was compelled to read this book as soon as I saw the cover. I love a good seasonal crime thriller and nothing better than a Christmas one! Detective James Walker and his wife, Annie, decide to move to a smaller town hoping for a safer environment then they had in a big city. It doesn’t take long for things to become tense. A village crime thriller, in the vein of The Midsomer Murders, it will keep you guessing right until the end. I loved this book but if you are a fan of brutal grisly and detailed murders this may not be for you as it focuses mire on the 'whodunit part than the grisly details.
It takes a long time for the story to truly get going. It was only until I was 20% in did the first body appear. Consequently, I found the narrative quite mundane up until this point and this was a feeling that never truly disappeared, even as the tension is supposedly rising in the plot. There’s a lot of detail included in the story that I found was unnecessary and really slowed the pace down. I was left feeling bored and frustrated that there was not enough suspense and grit that the blurb appeared to suggest.After ending the discussion with the cop, you find yourself standing forth the table where your goal is to tap and collect items. Open the cupboard on the left side to discover a screwdriver. Next, tap the opened door on the left side and go through it to a new room. You will discover an Empty Soda Bottle, a Second Wrapper, Fish Food, Yellow and Red File Folders, and an Apple Core on the left sid e. It begins with a present and a Christmas card; a dead and bloody partridge and a card featuring the well known carol, The Twelve Days of Christmas; inside is a threat - Twelve Days, Twelve Murders, Twelve Victims and they all deserve what's coming to them. With a snow storm on they way and likely to cut the village off from civilisation, it is a race against time for DI Walker to catch the killer, before the body count mounts up and panic in the village overwhelms him.
The novel opens with a Prologue to establish what made James and his wife, Annie, move to Cumbria. However, this rapidly becomes a red-herring in the story and does not really feature. Indeed, I suspect this will become the basis of a future story in this series and I am sure the criminal will feature again. When James receives a parcel with a dead partridge and a Christmas card stating that there would be twelve murders in twelve days little did he know what was to come.For me, this read like a Midsummer’s Murders storyline – a local murder spree with village spite and secrets and rivalries all being played out through murder. Now look at the painting on the wall of the four cats. Match the numbers from their collars and you get 5367.
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