12 deadly gifts, one killer on a Christmas countdown… On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me… this is one deadly Christmas that you can’t forget.The police are baffled by the ‘Santa’ killer, who sends his intended victims gruesome presents based on the twelve days of Christmas. When a young journalist receives a mutilated bird in the post, it’s a race against time to find the killer…
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Holy moly this one is a rollercoaster!
The Present starts with an undeniably scary prologue, but at first I wasn’t sure about the setup – everything felt a bit unrealistic and I thought it would be ‘just an ok read’. However, once I got more into the story I was totally hooked!
The story is completely gripping and utterly terrifying. Many of the scenes are so tense that I could barely breathe and I was rigid with fear and there are some stomach-churningly gruesome descriptions. The Twelve Days of Christmas song was used in a very creepy way and I’ll never be able to hear it again without thinking about this book (although I’ve never really liked it since I had to be a maid-a-milking in a school show once when I wanted to be a lady-dancing…)
The shocking climax was absolutely riveting and the ending makes sense, although I still had a couple of questions I wanted answering after I’d finished. I’d be very happy (albeit petrified) to read more from Anna and DS Devlin.
Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction for the ARC of The Present. 4.5/5 stars.
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