Book info

• Title Dark Winter
• Author David Mark
• Year 2012
• Genre Mystery

DS Aector McAvoy is a man with a troubled past. His unwavering belief in justice has made him an outsider in the police force he serves, a good man among the lazy and corrupt. Then on a cold day in December he is the first cop on the scene when a young girl is killed in Hull's historic church - and the only one to see the murderer. A masked man, with tears in his eyes... When two more seemingly unconnected people die, the police must work quickly. Only McAvoy can see the connection between the victims. A killer is playing God - and McAvoy must find a way to stop the deadly game.

Thoughts

This was really quite a good thriller, a debut novel done very well. I had a few problems with it along the way, but overall it was definitely worth reading, almost a page-turner, with some intriguing characters.

The present tense prose is unusual, and sometimes it would flow well, but sometimes it would feel just a little jarring. The characters were well drawn, although sometimes I felt, quite unusually, that there was a little bit too much of the inner angst from our main protagonist McAvoy.

I quite liked how big a back story the characters already had, and particularly the way that McAvoy’s played into the current story as well. Sometimes it felt as though we were a bit left out of things, as though there was a prequel book we may have missed, but mostly the balance was very good. My only real problem with the story was the big leap made when narrowing down the next victim. It’s never really explained, with just a “that’s what I’d do if I was the killer.” Is that really enough to go traipsing round the country demanding information and putting your big feet in places it isn’t wanted? I’m not sure.

Aside from those few niggles, I thought it was good, interesting, unusual, and I’ll definitely check out the next in the series.

Rating: 3 / 5