I sincerely thank Bookouture for gifting me an Superior Reader’s Copy via NetGalley in alternate for my sincere overview. Opening The Winter Customer was extra like accepting the iron key to the Weyman household property. This snow-covered highland citadel looms over the frozen, icy loch, than it was like accepting a guide. From the second I stepped foot inside its halls, I felt like a suffocating fly on the wall, watching the lies unravel, the secrets and techniques stir, and the shadows creeping beneath the twinkling glow of Christmas lights. This wasn’t only a festive thriller; it was a Christmas cracker filled with dread, deceit, and lethal revelations that lingered with me lengthy after the epilogue was over, the fireplace extinguished, and the final web page was turned.
There are books you learn, after which there are the books that chillingly eat you entire. The Winter Customer by B. P. Walter wasn’t only a story I learn by the roaring hearth; it was finally a storm I stepped into, a frost that clung to my bones, and a secret that left my mouth gaped open in shock greater than as soon as. The Weyman household, reunited below one roof. Wrapped items, pressured smiles, and beneath all of it? Secrets and techniques twenty years’ price, buried deep within the frost. From the very first web page, I used to be completely frozen in my seat, my breath fogging just like the icy loch itself. Walter paints the Weyman household Christmas with such addictive ambiance that I felt claustrophobia settle over me like a heavy weighted wool blanket, which was cosy on the floor, however suffocating beneath. George, the womanising politician, Ken, the Hollywood motion star, and Ralph, the youngest polished GP. All brothers, all liars, all sure by one thing so sinister I may virtually hear it whispering between the strains.
The brothers return to the property below the watchful eye of their formidable grandmother. However beneath the festive façade lies rigidity sharp sufficient to slice via tinsel. After which he arrives, the stranger. Vibrant blue eyes, a storm at his again, and an accusation on his lips that threatens to unravel every part. However by morning, he’s useless, a golden decoration piercing his coronary heart. One in every of them did it. However who? And extra chilling nonetheless, why?
I used to be most totally gripped, devouring chapter after chapter like tearing into wrapping paper, by no means understanding what shock waited beneath. Walter doesn’t simply set a scene; he locks you inside it. The twin timelines from Christmas 2005 and Christmas 2025 had been masterfully woven seamlessly between previous and current, pulling me again to 2005 earlier than hurling me ahead to twenty years later to 2025, every revelation peeling again one other layer of this household’s rigorously constructed lies.
Every perspective, brothers, mom, and above all, the matriarch Eileen Weyman, layered the strain thicker and thicker. Walter’s dialogue let me dwell contained in the minds of the Weymans, every extra unreliable than the final, till I used to be virtually shivering with anticipation. Ah, Eileen. Queen of the home, sharp-tongued, witty, and regal in her authority. She jogged my memory of girls I’ve identified, the sort who rule the room with a raised eyebrow and a reducing comment. I adored her. She’s elegant and iron in equal measure, and her darkish little quips lower straight via the strain with chilling humour. Her phrases echoed in my head lengthy after I closed the guide: “I can take care of dying, it’s the residing you have to be afraid of”. She is the Dowager Countess meets Miss Marple with a splash of a grandmother’s no-nonsense knowledge.
“Until anybody plans to homicide me throughout the evening, I shall see you all for breakfast tomorrow morning.”
And people twists. My God, the twists. Simply once I thought I had unwrapped the ultimate layer of this Christmas current, Walter pulled one other ribbon, one other secret, one other revelation that left me colder. What the writer does finest is lure you within the storm. Exterior, the blizzard rages, however inside, one other blizzard brews. Greed, energy, tragedy, betrayal, it’s all there, wrapped in ribbons of suspense. Each character feels unreliable, each smile false, each secret a ticking bomb about to detonate. And when the twists got here, I used to be floored. This guide is every part I crave in a festive thriller. The fantastic thing about a white Christmas wrapped across the brutality of reality and homicide. Festively frightful, bone-chilling, and brimming with household drama that makes the turkey look tame. It’s witty, it’s sinister, it’s addictive. “The Winter Customer” is like unwrapping the very best current conceivable, layer upon layer of intrigue, till the final, surprising reveal.
You too will be capable to step into the Weymans’ snow-lashed Highland property on September twenty third, 2025. From the icy loch to the glittering Christmas tree, from whispered secrets and techniques to blood-stained ornaments, “The Winter Customer” is a storm you gained’t escape from simply. Chilling, suspenseful, and totally thrilling, that is one festive gathering you’ll always remember.
