Blurb:

In the picturesque village of Kibblesworth, DI Tom Stonem is dreaming of a quiet Christmas alone.

But in the shadow of the Angel of the North, a body lies waiting. The dead man is posed with a child’s Christmas list in his pocket, and the first mysterious item – 1. No angel – is crossed off.

When a second body is found – a woman, stabbed in the abdomen after her work Christmas do – Stonem is convinced there’s a grim connection between the crime scenes and the seemingly innocent list. 2. Red partee dress. Could this be a murderer’s twisted code?

As a blizzard rages in the Tyne & Wear countryside, the body count is snowballing. Can Stonem stop the killer before they get everyone on their Christmas list?

An anti-cosy Christmas crime novel for fans of The Killer in the Snow and One by One.

Review:

Chris Frost has a few aliases, but I’m ashamed to say The Killer’s Christmas List is my first outing with this author. It definitely won’t be the last – his writing is slick and fast paced and I loved getting between the pages of a Christmas book that’s slightly darker than you might expect from a festive read.

In The Killer’s Christmas List, we meet DI Tom Stonem and DS Lauren Rea. I love being introduced to a new team of detectives, and this is no different. I love the relationship between Tom and Lauren and I hope there is more to come from them. They both have interesting lives and back stories which I would really like to delve into a little deeper.

The premise for the novel is unique and exciting, so I was intrigued the whole way through, particularly as the detectives tried to find connections between the victims and predict what the killer would do next. I did have an inkling who the killer was, but I could not have guessed how they would be caught or how the investigation would unfold.

The Killer’s Christmas List ends on a cliffhanger. I do hope Chris Frost is able to continue the series so we find out what happens next.

The Killer’s Christmas List is available from Amazon.