The Christmas Killer

by Patricia Windsor

Nancy Emerson disappeared the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. From that day on, Rose Potter's life was not the same. She had dreams. In the first dream, Nancy appeared and brought Rose to a pine-filled forest. Two days later, Nancy's body was found. On it was a poinsettia, the "signature" of someone who would become known as the Christmas Killer.

The small town of Bethboro, Connecticut, is running scared. And neither the police nor Rose's twin brother, Jerram, have any idea who the killer could be.

Rose tries putting the murder out of her mind. But the dead never sleep. And when Rose closes her eyes at night, Nancy's there, waiting....

Genres: Horror, Christmas, Young Adult, Mystery, Fiction, Thriller, Holiday

272 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1991

About the author

Patricia Windsor is the author of many books for young readers. Her book The Sandman's Eyes won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Juvenile Mystery. Patricia Windsor lives and writes in Maryland.

Reviews

[Cameron Chaney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ummmm . . . wow. This was not what I was expecting, and that is totally fine by me. Going into this, I expected a simply entertaining Point Horror read. Trashy and fun. What I got was a masterfully told melancholic tale that genuinely unnerved me. There were times I had chills, there were times I was moved to tears, and there was even a moment toward the end of the book where I had to set it down and process what I had just read. Not to mention the guessing game I played while trying to figure out who the Christmas Killer was. My friend Chelley and I buddy read this together, and part of the fun was bouncing theories back and forth, trying to figure it all out. Turns out one of my theories was right, but I won't say what . . . Just read this tale of existential dread for yourself!

[Chelley Toy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve never read anything by Patricia Windsor before so when the wonderful @library_macabre suggested this as a buddy read I was super intrigued!

Set in the small town of Bethboro, Connecticut, with its Thomas Hardy weather, fourteen year old Nancy Emerson disappears the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. The whole town is left wondering what has happened to Nancy? Roseclear Potter begins having dreams. Dreams about Nancy clawing at her window wanting her to follow. And when bodies of young victims start to appear with a “signature“ poinsettia, in the areas Roseclear is being led to in her dreams she is scared to even close her eyes. And neither the police nor Rose's twin brother, Jerram, have any idea who the killer could be.

The Christmas Killer, also known as The Dream Killer, really portrays a claustrophobic small town setting with a potential serial killer on the loose but all is not as it seems….

Even though this publication pre dates it this book gave me all The Diviner’s by Libba Bray vibes and I’m really eager to now read more by Patricia Windsor. This is part of the “Point” series and one which was sadly never published as a Point Horror here in the U.K. but this is not your average Point book. This felt different. The writing exquisite and the storyline and imagery hauntingly hypnotises you drawing you into the world instantly.

Give it a read if you love small town mysteries with a sinister unusual twist, twins and serial killers!

[Brandon · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Christmas Killer starts off in a small town of bethboro, where a girl named Nancy has went missing around Thanksgiving .Nobody has any clues about where Nancy is ,or went but our main protagonist Rose may have a clue. Before she went missing ,she spoke to Nancy and she was really weird. She was acting very strange, saying very vague things .Well one night rose has a dream where she's flying with Nancy and she points out where rose suspects is her shallow grave.After this ,it's up to rose to find out what these dreams mean. This is going to be a short review for a surprisingly long book in the point horror series. Basically this book follows a pattern, Rose has a dream ,rose must find somebody to talk to and that's basically it,with a few strolls through town. We have a red herring in Wallace a town homeless man ,not quite in his right mind .There were a few good things in this book ,but where the good things were there was also bad. I enjoyed the setting of this book ,a small town around Christmas. I enjoyed alot of the characters for the most part, mostly the killer his or herself (no spoilers ) reminded me of a cartoon character almost. What I didn't like was a little bit of the writing itself. The whole book almost felt poetic . The characters dialogue was weird and unique because most point horrors are trashy teens .This one felt like teens talking like nobody does. I did enjoy alot of the dream sequences that's where alot of the scares are at ,but other then that this was a slow burner for me that was just fine. I give The Christmas killer a 3 out of 5 stars.

[gremlinkitten · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Christmas Killer (aka The Dream Killer) was a Point Horror book I missed out reading when I was younger, so decided to pick it up to enjoy this holiday season (yes, I am sick). Rosecleer Potter is a normal, everyday fifteen-year-old girl who has a twin brother, Jerram, and loves to dance. She also just happens to have developed the ability to talk, through dreams, to the recently departed, which starts when an acquaintance disappears and whose body turns up murdered in the woods. Now, as the body count rises, Rose has to figure out how to use her power before the killer gets to her.

The first paragraph almost caused me to rethink my expectations of enjoyment I'd get from the book. The sentences were short and choppy, and if the whole book had been written this way, I don't think I'd have managed to get through it. Fortunately for me, it didn't turn out that way at all. Although there were more short, fragmented sentences, they were few and far between and seemed more of a style choice than anything else.

Rose was a good choice as a lead and had both positive and negative attributes to her personality. She was generally nice but could have moments of cattiness or where her temper got the best of her, which made her more believable. I can't say any of the characters are over-developed, but they are described enough to get a rough sketch of who they are as a person, and there are moments of truth in many of their actions, e.g. the mother's freaking out, the father's clamming up, and the brother's withdrawal and secretiveness. The atmosphere is done extremely well. Even though I don't remember many actual descriptions, I got the feeling of a small town, its claustrophobia, and sense of impending doom all the same.

I have to admit this book surprised me. I went in expecting more of the slasher-type YA horrors I read as a youngster, and was handed a more mature, psychological suspense horror read instead. The plot flows well and has enough clues and red herrings to keep most readers interested. As someone who has read a lot of mysteries, I did figure it out, but it could have gone many ways and still have been satisfying. The ending is the only weak point as it was a bit abrupt and maybe too open-ended, but that's a minor niggle and didn't affect my enjoyment much. As far as I've been able to tell, there is no sequel, which might be for the best. The Christmas Killer was a quick and easy chiller that kept me entertained throughout and I'd recommend it for those who like creepy teen reads.

Originally Reviewed: December 29, 2012
Received: Library

[Grace Chan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one captivated me. I fully went into this one thinking it would a boring slog of a book, but instead got an emotionally rich and sometimes gnarly metaphysical mystery/thriller. Yes, all of those things 🤣🤣

Our protag Rose seems to have the gift of communing with the dead. After fellow high school student Nancy is found murdered, Rose has vivid dreams of Nancy showing her where the other bodies are buried. With the cops wanting cold hard facts and not silly dreams, Rose tries to take matters into her own hands to discover the killer, before he kills again.

This was an emotionally resonant Point Horror that I was not expecting, and I really enjoyed Patricia Windsor's writing. The scenes of our protag venturing into another realm to speak with the dead were beautiful and descriptive. And the scenes of the killer describing his kills were gross and descriptive.

What's stopping me from giving it a full 5 stars is that there are a few loose ends to the book that could have been better handled....if you've read this too, let's talk 😆

[Alexa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting read. I feel like it got a little muddled in the middle with everything going on and some things seemed a little irrelevant in the end, but overall an entertaining read! Definitely an unforeseeable twist at the end. I would recommend this to others!

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another reviewer said this novel was before its time and I have to agree. I read it when I was in the 5th grade, so it was a while ago, but I remember it being a page turner that I couldn't put down. At the time, everyone else wanted to read it too, but I went to a small school and after that time, no one else has heard of it. I think it would do well today, with YA being so into this kind of paranormal genre.

[Kasia · Rating 2 out of 5]

was different. didn't grab my attention like I wished it would.

[Courtney Gruenholz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rounded up to three stars.

I have seen a lot of good reviews for this one and was so glad I found a copy. It's in good condition and a great addition to the Point Horror/Thriller collection. There were some things that I liked but the rest of it was just okay hence the rating:

I liked it...it was ok.

Nancy Emerson disappears right before Thanksgiving. Rosecleer "Rose" Potter remembers running into her the previous year and comforting the girl when she saw her crying but that was the last time they crossed paths or even shared one word. Rose was nice to her but Nancy was in two grades below hers...why should she care?

Now that it's closer to the holidays, Rose can't help but think about Nancy while she's home with her mother, father and twin brother Jerram. Back at school though it's all anyone can talk about and soon it begins to be a topic Rose doesn't wish to discuss.

Her best friend Grace having on a crush Gregory Raschak, who doesn't give her the time of day, and Rose's own crush on one of Greg's friends Daniel are things a girl her age should have on their mind. Her upcoming solo in the dance class taught by her New York based teacher, Muriel Westa, who came to boring Bethelboro, Connecticut five years ago are far more interesting.

Then later that night, Rose has a dream about Nancy. The girl takes her hand and they end up flying in the sky until Nancy points down to the ground in a secluded pine forest miles away.

Rose confides into her brother that she believes Nancy is dead. The twins have had dreams before, that unique scientific bond, and Jerram believes his sister. Grace does too and convinces Rose to tell the police but the detective they talk to dismisses it.

That is until the following week when they give her "hunch" some merit after every other avenue turn up nothing. They even arrested a poor, mentally troubled young man named Wallace Romola just because other people judge him but he had a solid alibi and no car or driver's license to get Nancy's body out of town.

Once they find Nancy and have a funeral for her, Rose thinks that now both she and the girl can finally have peace but Nancy won't let Rose rest. She comes to Rose again and again to show her places where even more bodies can be found...

We get a few short chapters that are from the point of view of our culprit, The Christmas Killer. He is a very troubled person and genuinely creepy. He leaves calling cards on the bodies, plastic poinsettia flowers and he sends letters to the local newspaper like The Zodiac did. It was the one point of the book that did leave me...a little uneasy.

The reasoning behind why he does this and the reasoning behind why Rose is being contacted are conflicting but I won't spoil them. The killer's motive is nothing spectacular but the reveal about Rose and the deeper psychology of it is fascinating.

The climax is lackluster but that ending...I don't know whether to be unnerved or impressed at just how unsettling it is.

The titular Christmas Killer is the only reason I would recommend this book to anyone. Everything else is a run of the mill murder-mystery.

If you want a wild slasher sleigh ride you won't find it in this book but if you hold reverence for the horror the original Black Christmas delivered, this will be more to your liking.

[David Veith · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25 Overall. An enjoyable read. Decent pace to story, did sort of skip ahead a bit without much happening though. Felt this was more for young adults. A tad on the predictable side as well.

Spoilers below

A girl goes missing and the main character sees her in her dreams. She is able to help find the body. When another girl goes missing, she helps again but can only do so it seems when they are dead. And it's only the original missing girl who she sees. Turns out she is clairvoyant. Fun overall, but sort of thought it was weird the people (at church no less) were calling her a witch. Not sure exactly what time period this is set in, but it seems like early 90s maybe late 80s. Also, you can pretty much guess who the killer is about halfway through the book. Still an enjoyable read overall, just felt like it was for a young audience.

[Ga.selle (Semi-hiatus) Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

'What are you doing here, my little pumpkin, my little buttercup, my little peach blossom, I am going to eat you up, I am going to bite off that little nose and suck out those little eyeballs, chew on that rosy tongue. Yum yum yum.' 🔪🩸

'Rose felt loathsome. She felt contaminated. But not just with the dead. There was something else. Something evil. It had touched her, embraced her. She had been inside it. What she wanted now was a bath. She would scrub herself raw because she could still smell the breath of the worm on her skin, she could taste his saliva. She had been inside somebody’s mind.'

-They named him the Christmas Killer, because of what looked like his trademark: leaving a red plastic poinsettia on his victims. That had been the incongruous flower on ___s pink jacket. One had been left with ___ body, too. Because of them, the police went back to the junkyard and found the remains of a similar, if dirtier, flower where the skeleton had been. They theorized that the skeleton girl had also been killed around Christmas. 🏵️🔪🩸

E-📖

[Kristin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This took me a long time to finish. It felt like it took place in the 50s or 60s instead of the 90s. The plot moves very slowly and there are a lot of confusing dream/paranormal scenes. I didn’t really understand the ending.

[Emma Beckett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spectacular prose, high drama, teens in peril. This ticks all the boxes.

[Daniel Stalter · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Christmas Killer was a pleasant surprise for me. A Christmas miracle, if you will. Praise Saturn. Patricia Windsor delivered some of the best-written prose I’ve seen in a Point Horror book. It’s really a shame this wasn’t a more popular title. She managed to contrast the dark and depressing aspects of winter with the bright and merry elements of Christmas to maximum effect. The use of a foreboding atmosphere with its slow-burn plot really hit all of my horror sweet spots. The story features a large cast of characters but manages to make each of them feel real in their own unique way. I had some idea of where the story was going but it kept me guessing on all of the specifics. It was odd that this was set in suburban Connecticut in the nineties and everyone is really into drinking tea as though it were set in England. I’ve never encountered a group of Americans who drink tea like that, and I’m a tea drinker. That point aside, I really enjoyed this book. It was easily my favorite Point Horror read so far. The Christmas Killer is the perfect little book for those of us who are looking for ways to make the holiday season creepier.

Score: 5

For my snark-filled, spoiler-laced, deep-dive review; check out my blog:
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[Gabriel · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a masterpiece of YA fiction, I say that with zero smirk or sarcasm, this book is a masterclass on what the genre could have and should have been. Especially in the 80s and 90s. It’s beautifully written, the characters are fascinating, the mystery is compelling, the supernatural and psychic element is so well done that it never interfered with the quality of the storyline at all. There’s a fantastic section, that feels very deep and intriguing. It’s like Black Christmas if Jess was a psychic and it had ghosts, that’s strong praise trust me. The reveal of the killer does kind of feel out of nowhere, since we don’t even really get any indication besides one throw away line and a few references that we as readers wouldn’t be privy to. But that’s such trivial things compared to the big picture it doesn’t even matter.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in the 6th grade as a school project (which was 14 years ago). When I was younger I hated reading but I loved this book. I remember I couldn't put it down. For the project I turned it into a children's story and presented it. Everyone in my class wanted to read it and it was never in library after that because someone always had it checked out.

As I got older I talked about it and nobody seemed to have heard of it. This book was so good. It was thrilling and a page turner. I recommend to young readers. As an adult I worry I wouldn't like it as much as I did then.

[Camille Lambert]

rose potter is your normal everyday high school teen. she has her crushes and the corky best friend. but in the night she sees the dead. leading to an investigation in the murder of nancy. rose and nancy have only crossed paths once . rose making no connection to why she would be the one nancy chose. nancy chose to haunt roses deams.nancy is dead but in the night shes more than alive. this leads to a series of unwinding evens having you on the edge of your chair waiting to see what happens on the next page.

[Branden Lopez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not really much of a reader which comes as a surprise for other English honors students like myself, but this book just like "the outsider" intrigued me and had me reading without stopping. Honestly, I love how the book starts off with Nancy's disappearance and then cuts to flashbacks from the previous days. I love how the author portrayed every character, but I do have to admit that some parts seemed a little boring but other than that this book is very good and I would recommend it to my other friends.

[April Jade · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow what a perfect book to end the year with. I didn’t know what to expect with this but it was right up my alley. Mysticism, true crime, parents very much involved which is not typical for a Point Horror. The writing was incredible and there were multiple beautiful passages I highlighted and some truly chilling ones as well. The Christmas aspect felt a little tacked on but made for some great metaphors from the author.

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

A rather formulaic murder mystery thriller but enjoyable nonetheless.

I liked how Windsor wrote the family dynamics here. The dialogue is lively. I do think more could have been done with the Christmas setting.

The writing does get distractingly flowery in the dream sequences. Saying that, I would like to thank Ms Windsor for the immortal phrase 'delicate nutmeat' in chapter 25. Exquisite.

[Holli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely a stand-out in the genre of pulpy thriller YA. Well-written with a lot of cool imagery. Figured out the plot too early but that's probably my own fault for listening to most of the Teen Creeps podcast episode about this before stopping and deciding to read it myself.

[Tehnehn Kaijaah Edwards · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yikes. I really disliked this book. The writing style was annoyingly pretentious. She made the characters speak in riddles and it was just confusing. The pacing was bad, thé characters were annoying and unlikable, it was 100 pages too long and frankly one of the worst I have ever read.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable read. Wish I would have read it last month.

I wish that Jerram would have been gay though, and Mackey was his older gay mentor, but it was 1991.

[Dana · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is kind of long and I didn't think the ending was that spectacular. It was decent but can't say I loved it either.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read a LOT of 1990s YA horror as a kid, and this one felt more mature and stood out from the others in the Point Horror pack. 25 years later, and it's still vastly better than its literary peers. Relatable protagonist, creepy atmosphere, isn't as heavy on overdone tropes.

[Madame Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent thriller. I couldn't put it down!

[John Norton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun trip down memory lane!

[Alexandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
I went into this book knowing only a little about it. Surprisingly great atmosphere and suspense throughout the book. Great twist at the end!

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

you know I’m a sucker for anything pulp horror. A themed Christmas serial killer book was a fun little jaunt.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful writing in Chapter 25!