A January Killing by Paul Toolan.
The ancient ritual of 'Wassailing' begins with a torchlight procession. It ends with shotguns being fired into the trees, to scare off ‘evil spirits’ and revive the apple blossom. But not every shotgun fires blanks, and next day a dead body has blossomed in the orchard.  What is the killer’s motive? Why this victim? And who is sending anonymous letters to the villagers of Stockton Marsh, where Detective Inspector Batten’s own Sergeant lives? 
A good read. Good story. Likeable characters. 4*.

It is an exceptional cold winter in Stockton Marsh where Wassail is celebrated, a pagan blessing of the apple orchards topped with plenty of cider but this happy gathering is overshadowed by the death of one of the participants. Late as usual, he is found dead in the same orchard. We are quickly informed that his wife received an anonymous letter and that other letters are being distributed. It is clear that the Inspector Zig Batten and his team have to find a serial writer/murderer. The setting of a rural community in rural Somerset is very attractive, the characters, both main characters and bystanders are well developed but we are confronted by several POV's and they all seem to talk to themselves Ex.: "You've got to stop doing this,Zig.Doing what Zig? This hanging about ,where dead bodies are". Unfortunately several of them appear in the same chapter and blend into each other. Frankly,apart from being confusing is it also,and this is very personal,very annoying. Fact is,the storyline is full of opportunities but somehow it didn't deliver. Mind you,it has a very attractive cover...

I really liked the pacing of this book. The setup and pacing of the murder and subsequent actions made it interesting for the reader and an enjoyable time to see what came next

This is a new author for me and I have been missing out.
I was hooked from the first page and read this book in one sitting. It is so beautifully written. A psychological thriller I could not put down. A masterpiece and I am already searching for more books from this author. Highly recommended.
I would like to thank the author Paul To plan, publisher and Net.galley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for giving an honest review.

Thankyou to NetGalley, BooksGoSocial and the author, Paul Toolan, for the opportunity to read a digital copy of A January Killing in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.
I was very intrigued with the premise of the storyline, so I was quite eager to read this book. The book itself had a very strong start which I thought was great. Unfortunately, the middle part of the book seemed to drag and then it finished as strongly as it started.

After such a good opening to this murder mystery, I cannot say that I really enjoyed the remainder. There were far too many rhetorical questions and I was confused as to who said what at times. So we had detective Zig Batten trying to unmask a shotgun killer in a small Somerset community. I actually liked this character although he didn't seem to enjoy himself except when in Crete on holiday? The ending was as good as the start of the book but it was a struggle to concentrate at times- especially looking for speech marks!

I have never read a book written by Paul Toolan but I am here to tell you this will not be my last. I really enjoyed this mystery. It kept me involved in every page and I couldn't put it down. I will be getting the next book for sure. Thank you Paul!

I struggled with this book I have to be honest.
The constant voice inside everyone's head was confusing and distracting for me.
Limped on to the end,but it's not a style I'll look for again.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The writing is such that you feel like you are right there with the characters experiencing it. It starts out in a small village with a winter ritual and someone gets murdered. Then the letters get delivered and things really start to unfold. Its a good mystery and I felt that all the characters and events blended well. I will read the other books in this series.

Thank you to NetGalley, Paul Toolan, and BooksGoSocial for a free ARC of this novel.

Somerset and Wassailing at the 'old' end to Xmas 17th January, guns are fired into the apple trees to get rid of evil spirits that have taken roost following the harvest. This time, though, a man is killed, encouraging the evil spirits to stay. Will the apple harvest fail. We don't stay around for that long, but it is Easter before everything has been sorted out and the murderer found - but the murderer's murderer? Have they been found too. Who else has been killed too?

This book is written in an interesting way. There are times when the senior detective seems to talk to himself, ask himself questions and reply. Enjoyable read.

Toolan has quickly became one of my favorites.

A January Killing was written so beautifully that I would have kept reading if the plot had suck. It didn't! The plot, characters and the interactions between each other and the setting is top notch!

The author has an incredible eye for detail, though I would like a bit more character development as I couldn't get clear character pictures.

If you like a good murder mystery, one that's told with real undeniable knowledge of the craft, A January Killing is surely the story for you.

(Many thanks to Netgalley for allowing me the opportunity to read.)

This mystery thriller was definitely unlike anything I’ve read before.

It's about a quaint little town called Stockton Marsh, where they have a yearly tradition called Wassail, where they bless their apple orchard so they have a good crop the next year.
Only this year, during the ritual firing of the shotguns, one villager didn't fire blanks because someone ends up dead. Simultaneously, someone is sending anonymous threatening letters. It's up to Detective Inspector Zig Batten to find out who did it, and to keep the town safe by finding the killer so he won't strike again!
Despite this being the second book in the Zig Batten series, I found it isn't very necessary to read the books in order.

The writing was beautiful and the story and setting were very interesting, but the constantly switching POV’s were pretty hard to follow and had me rereading lots of parts. Sometimes the author went so far as to change POV's over five times during a single chapter, without prior notice!! It's a great way to get to know the characters and create a mysterious atmosphere, but a little notice would have been nice. I sometimes only figured out which character we were supposed to be right before it switched again, which caused me to reread everything I'd just read, to make some sense of it all.

However, after a while I got the hang of it because some of the characters had a distinct voice and were easily recognized. It was also interesting to read about the whole Wassail tradition, since I had no clue something like that actually exists and is still actually still being practiced!

The suspense had me on the edge of my seat during the first half!
I was a bit disappointed with the second half though, since lots of issues went unresolved to me, and I was still left with lots of questions!

Overall, an enjoyable and entertaining psychological thriller.

Love the deep development of the characters in this second book of Paul Toolan's, particularly between the lead detective, Zig, and his sergeant. The plot is extremely good while managing to avoid the wanton 'gruesomeness' and cynical 'tough cop' stuff that's unfortunately rampant in a lot of modern detective stories. Some of this is dark, nevertheless, but in a way that rhymes with reality and makes you warm to and empathise with the characters.

My only negative comment is the slightly choppy style of alternating between narrative, speech, and the characters' inner thoughts; it's not always clear which is which and sometimes it totally lost me and I found myself having to go back and work out who was saying what/thinking what, which is a bit annoying. It's a real shame as there's some beautiful writing here. I'm hoping that perhaps as time goes by, the author might find a slightly easier balance.

That said, a book I couldn't put down, loved the characters and looked forward hugely to Paul Toolan's next offering. There were some unfinished issues at the end of the book and not everything was explained perfectly - but that was the same at the end of the first book and by the first chapter of the second, it didn't really matter ... HIGHLY RECOMMEND!

Thank you NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for the eARC.
It's a bit difficult for me to review this book. On the whole I enjoyed the premise, the story is a good one, but the writing style wasn't much to my liking. The constant internal dialogue by most of the characters (especially Zig) became a bit annoying after a while. Reading about the Wassail was interesting and the ending was good, but I didn't get invested in any of the characters.
On the whole this was a good story, but I'm afraid I can only give it 3.5 stars due to the unusual (to me) writing style.

Wow, wow, wow!

A January Killing by Paul Toolan

I was blown away by Toolans ability to write so beautifully and eloquent that I got lost in the book almost immediately. The characters are well formed and you can honestly relate to some and feel the emotional attachment as well. While this book came out in 2015, I am just now reading it and wish I had done so earlier. Like his other books the author carefully shows the dialogue in a way that most readers could understand and while the POV was hard to figure out because there were several, it did not keep the reader from understanding what was going on. I now want to read everything I can from this author. I love psychological thrillers and this one is at the top of my list.

Thank you to netgalley as well as the author/publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

5+++ stars ⭐️ out of 5