Reviews - The Night Before Christmas

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111 reviews for:

The Night Before Christmas

Alex Pine

3.65 AVERAGE

millieic04's review against another edition

I found this book very predictable and slow paced, didn’t love the style of writing overall.

willt486's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

jeti33's review against another edition

3.0

mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

books_bakesandbelle's review against another edition

4.0

mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

I really enjoyed this book. I’d definitely go back and read this series from the start as I liked the characters and the story.

Things I liked:
-the police characters were all likeable and I was rooting for them to solve the crime
-the police and crime terminology and investigation process
-realistic, agressive suspects
-highlighting real world issues (fox hunting)
-the multiple suspects and various lines of enquiry. This kept me on my toes guessing whodunnit and their motive
-wrapped up nicely at the end

Things I didn’t like:
-the lack of evidence found. No forensic evidence was found throughout the story for the police to work with
-like the police, I was getting frustrated we’d not found all the victims yet or progressed with the case. Could have maybe been a tiny bit shorter to get to the victims a little quicker

-it annoyed me when DCI Walker didn’t question who was in Kramer’s house. I know he later chastised himself for this, but it felt an obvious thing for him to ask about.

I figured out the motive and knew it would have something to do with the sister earlier than the police did, but I did expect it to be revealed Greg was also involved and that Polly would be the sister, not the person it was, so this was a nice twist at the end

Content Warnings

the_prickly_reader's review against another edition

2.5

adventurous dark mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

nadz_sargent's review against another edition

5.0

Judged the book by it's cover which is naughty I know but it caught my eye!

Couldn't put it down and really enjoyed it. Disappointed that I didn't do my homework as this is the 4th book with DI Walker as the main character. However,bits still a great stand alone story.

Definitely aiming to get the other 3 books sooner rather than later.

I do love a good murder mystery and this didn't disappoint. It wasn't as christmassy as I expected, which is fine. Just seems that things happen at that particular time of year for the detective.