This is a story about a man. An ordinary man who is a film buff and runs a DVD store. He also has a vision of becoming the most prolific serial killer in UK history. He does his research, meticulously, and picks a village of 392 residents in Northumberland. He packs his bags and goes to stay in the village under the pretext of writing a novel. He gets to know the villagers and befriends them. Then one snowy night he puts his terrifying vision into practice.Well, this completely blew my socks off. Half the book was a slow burn as we got to know the characters and the other half just took off at a blistering pace and I almost couldn't keep up it was so frantic. I could quite easily see this as a film. I had several characters in my head when I was reading it, all from 'slasher' movies. This book is so much more than that though. It seriously put chills up my spine and certain parts felt very claustrophobic as the terrified and trapped villagers tried to work out what was going on. The writing was wonderfully descriptive but not 'flowery'. In fact it was stark and in your face! The ending was great and left open for a sequel, which I am off to read now.
Great review, and totally agree with your comments about the first and second halves of the book. I was up far too late finishing it off last night!
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