I suspect this review will be shorter, because this time I’m reviewing a novella. As usual, this book was provided as a free ARC by the author, with no obligation to give a good review. But I’m giving one anyway.
Here is the blurb:
Three Boxing Days. Three dead girls.
And the killer’s already in the queue.
DCI Fiona Weston has spent three Christmases failing to catch the man Hartington Heath calls the Christmas Killer.
No team, no working CCTV, no leads—just table four at The Grind, a pumpkin spice latte she didn’t order, and Emily, the barista who remembers everyone’s usual.
You’ll meet him in chapter six. He’s the quiet one by the window, cutting his cake into neat little cubes, tipping generously, and deciding who he wants for Christmas this year.
She’s been hunting him for three years. He’s been sitting at the next table.
A dark, funny, small-town Christmas crime novella. For readers who like their festive reads with a seasonal latte—and a body count.
Having read the blurb as I copied and pasted it into this review, I realise that I didn’t read it just before reading the book. So I didn’t know that the author admits you meet the killer early on. When I got to this scene, I had concerns. Revealing the killer early is always a risk. Either this was going to be a game of cat and mouse, or it was going to be a damp squib. Thankfully, The Regular is the former.
I assumed the title referred to the regularity of the killings (every Christmas) but then realised it also refers to the regulars at the cafe. There was a brief moment when I wondered if Fiona, a regular at the cafe, would turn out to be the killer. The multiple POV also had me concerned Emily would be the next victim, but you’ll have to read The Regular to find out if I was right about that.
The novella goes straight into the plot and introduces the main characters and a decent supporting cast. Less words to tell the story sometimes means characters aren’t fleshed out, but I didn’t feel this was the case here. The Regular is definitely not a cosy crime, but there are some good flashes of humour to break up the grit. Possibly due to the word count constraints, there isn’t much of a twist at the end. This was a bit of a disappointment, but the book is still a rollicking read. The pace doesn’t let up.
One thing I did not like is Fiona’s obsession with her weight. It felt like I was reading a book published twenty years ago, although diet culture is alive and well today. Tilburn does mention his wife in the acknowledgements so I assume he got her advice on how to write women. He does a good job, but I’m looking forward to reading more books with female characters who are curvy and they like it.
No spoilers on how the plot ends, but the book has a little section from Fiona’s notebook. It’s a lovely way to spend more time with the characters, with little updates on each and some insights into Fiona’s thought processes. I’m giving 4 stars out of 5, it’s nearly Christmas, after all.
