The Winter Killer: The new and most chilling book yet in the gripping British detective crime fiction series you have to read this Christmas (DI James Walker series, Book 3)

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A fast-paced gripping read with plenty of twists and turns . This series just gets better and better!�� NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐��⭐⭐ I raced through it this weekend. Such a smart twisty, warped, credible, brilliantly plotted and compelling. Deserves to be such a hit.’ Reader Review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

With the forecast for a blizzard looming over Cumbria, the report that 4 trail hunters are missing raises concerns and makes it more difficult for the search and rescue teams to work. I loved every paragraph, every sentence and every word of this masterpiece! I was totally hooked’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Now, in a race against time, DI Walker and his colleagues must try to locate the remaining three missing men. The only problem is, few people seem inclined to help them do so.

Book four in Alex Pine's excellent Detective James Walker mystery series is, to my mind, the best yet, and I've loved them all! The investigation is detailed and difficult with a cast of characters who cover all aspects on both sides of the case, and my only criticism would be that there are an awful lot of people in this story! The book is deceptive in that it seems to be a slow burner, but actually something is happening all the time with hints and red herrings both helping and hindering in equal measure! Although this can be read as a standalone, all four are definitely worth reading on a cold night, maybe as the snow falls outside. This is book four in the series, and this time we see newly promoted DCI Walker and his very able team investigating four men who are missing after they headed off on a hike in heavy snow in the Lake District. DI Walker is now DCI Walker, and it is near Christmas again and he wonders if he is going to have a quite time over the festive period. But the quiet life is short lived when he gets a call from a woman who says her husband and three of his friends gone on a hike in the Lake district and they haven’t returned home, and she worried about their safety. Overview: This was a great festive read with my reading buddy. I read the first two books in this series last December so was excited to see that this came out last month. As usual I didn't guess the killer. I never do with these books because the author is very clever at throwing numerous red herrings and constantly throwing new suspects into the mix.The author describes the scenery in Cumbria brilliantly, the reader will feel that they are there in the horrible weather conditions - snow, reduced visibility and dropping temperatures - make searching for the men difficult because they have to keep calling the rescue mission off. This is a crime thriller peppered with surprises, the first being when the crime team find the farmhouse of one of the missing men trashed, and the windows of the vehicles belonging to all four in the group smashed. Not long afterwards the first body is discovered. With a bullet hole in the chest, the police now have a murder investigation on their hands. Discovering the whereabouts of the other three men becomes even more urgent.

The topic of trail hunting is contentious and divisive. Both the pro-hunt and the anti-hunt activists have been known to fabricate details of incidents and there is a degree of enjoyment by both sides from the confrontations.

I would definitely still recommend this book, especially if you want an easy thriller to read over the colder months. But if Pine intends to write a fourth book, I just hope he gets a little more daring. And, if it wasn't bad enough to be dealing with a situation like this so close to Christmas, the worsening weather situation isn't anything to feel merry about either.

Normally the 12 days of Christmas are seen as a season of joy and goodwill. However James Walker’s promotion to DCI has failed to remove the Xmas jinx on the team and this investigation will see his overtime budget stretched as the team work long hours over the holiday period.

Although the third book in the series, the book can easily be read as a standalone and there's even a character list at the start of the book to introduce you to who's who which I always find very useful. Following the ceremony, Libby notices that Rachel, her sister and maid of honour, has vanished into thin air. Shortly before her disappearance Jessica saw Rachel and a man storm out of her room in a heated argument. Afterwards Rachel tried to drown her sorrows in alcohol and was lastseen in the garden with her sister and an ex-boyfriend, Ethan Prescott.