The Snow Killer

The DI Barton Series, Book 1

By: Ross Greenwood

Narrated by: David Thorpe

Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

‘Fear the north wind. Because no one will hear you scream…’

A family is gunned down in the snow but one of the children survives. Three years on, that child takes revenge and the Snow Killer is born. But then, nothing - no further crimes are committed, and the case goes cold.

Fifty years later, has the urge to kill been reawakened? As murder follows murder, the detective team tasked with solving the crimes struggle with the lack of leads. It’s a race against time and the weather – each time it snows another person dies.

As an exhausted and grizzled DI Barton and his team scrabble to put the pieces of the puzzle together, the killer is hiding in plain sight. Meanwhile, the murders continue…

The first in a new series, Ross Greenwood has written a cracking, crackling crime story with a twist in its tale which will surprise even the most hardened thriller readers. Perfect for fans of Mark Billingham and Stuart MacBride.

©2019 Ross Greenwood (P)2019 Boldwood Books

Critic reviews

"Move over Rebus and Morse; a new entry has joined the list of great crime investigators in the form of Detective Inspector John Barton. A rich cast of characters and an explosive plot kept me turning the pages until the final dramatic twist." (Richard Burke, author)

"With The Snow Killer, master of the psychological thriller genre Ross Greenwood once again proves his talent for creating engrossing and gritty novels that draw you right in and won’t let go until you’ve reached the shocking ending." (Caroline Vincent)

"Ross Greenwood doesn’t write clichés. What he has written here is a fast-paced, action-filled puzzle of a story with believable characters and spiced with a lot of humour." (Kath Middleton, author)

Refreshingly different, well done

Looking forward to the next book in this series. This is a well crafted story. Knowing from the beginning who the murderer is, I wondered if I would like it, but the journey to discovery by DI Barton makes for a very interesting mystery. The entire cast of characters were well fleshed out, this is not Mr. Rogers neighborhood, but still a book that can be heard in polite company.

Adults!

A murder mystery with functioning adults at the center of the detective squad is a rarity - not to mention a main character with a loving marriage and no self-destructive vices. Actual communication occurs between colleagues as well as real management of situations. It was nice not to slog through angst and ennui in addition to the mystery, to just let the story stand on its own - which it does fairly well. What will bring me back, however, are the simply nice and good characters.

The only thing that detracted from the listening experience was the narrator's oddly chipper way of declaring the POV before each chapter. After a while, it made me giggle because it was wildly out of place.

Good Story

Although I thought I wouldn't like this story because it was slow to get going, I discovered it was really good. The ending was unexpected.

ENGROSSING

This book was another chance and I was engrossed in it, I really thought that I wouldn't like it but here I am. The storyline is original and I like how the author incorporated todays jargon but still the old terms are used and how our minds work. The killings are a bit brutal but the conclusion wow didn't see that one coming. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Narrator was very good.

Great Story

I loved this book. I wish it was a bit more gruesome, but still a great story.

A Good Old English Murder Mystery

Although it gets a bit deep into day to day details & jumps back & forth between characters a lot it was much enjoyed. I thought it would be important to remember each detective's details but you get enough to memory to enjoy all the characters. I would recommend it.
The narrator was great to listen to! He did a great job with the entire story. I will search out other books he's narrated.

Struggle to become involved

Struggled to finish. It moved faster at the end. I wasn't always involved with the story.

Enjoyable

I was convinced I knew the killer until the latter part of the book. It was well narrated and the story had a good tempo. It lacks the character depth of other novels but that works here as it is not really relevant to the story and since this is the first book, I assume the rest will come over time. An enjoyable listen.

Slow story

I tried to listen to this title several time and just could not complete it. A lot of details that did not add to the story...

Low expectations met

Not a new approach to story telling or character development. Having the "snow killer" narrate part of the story doesn't work. it's more of a life of a policeman story than a crime tale.