RATING: OKAY
SPOILERS!!!
DI TomStonem starts a new job in Newcastle. His boss calls him because they have found the body of a politician with clear signs of violence. In the jacket pocket of the politician they find some kind of list, similar to a Christmas wishlist and it seems to have been written by a little girl. As the days succeed, two more victims fall to the murderer: the politician's lover and a teacher. Then a woman calls the police, claiming that her daughter was in a relationship with the teacher, and she fears she may have killed him as she has mental problems.
The narration of these events is interspersed by chapters told from the point of view of a child. It is near Christmas and we learn that this child has a difficult life as their parents are addicts, and they often leave the child in charge of their twin brother and sister. The child is also jealous of one of the girls in the class, and on Christmas Day he is angry and thinks of doing something to the girl. Yet, the mother is kind and nothing happens. By this point we know that the child is a boy, and when he returns home, he discovers that his house is on fire. His brother had tried to cook for himself and his sister and he set the house on fire, and the sister died.
We discover that the boy from the story is Tom, and we discover that after going to different foster homes, he and his brother, Seth, found a home with the people they consider their parents. Their real ones were found dead that Christmas long ago, after overdosing.
Seth, who has been travelling around, turns up at Tom's new place, and Tom is glad that they have the opportunity to talk, and they even speak about the terrible event in their lives. Tom says that he felt guilty for a long time, but he discovered that the ones who were to blame were their irresponsible parents, and he insists that Seth can't feel guitly either.
Tom and his team find the woman who they were after, and before she is arrested, she tells him that he should take care of Seth. Feeling that this is a threat, Tom rushes home, but Seth is all right. It is on Christmas Day when his boss insists that he spend time with his brother that Tom realises that the killer is actually his brother. This is a revenge for what happened years ago, and his next victim is Tom. Thankfully, the police turn up and save Tom.
I enjoyed parts of this book but I found some sections unbelievable and boring.
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