Today, I’m delighted to be hosting a stop on the fabulous Marnie Riches blog tour.

Marnie’s latest book – The Girl Who Walked In The Shadows – is the third book in her George McKenzie series. Here’s what the blurb says: “Europe is in the grip of an extreme Arctic blast and at the mercy of a killer who leaves no trace. His weapons of choice are razor-sharp icicles. This is Jack Frost.

Now a fully qualified criminologist, Georgina McKenzie is called upon by the Dutch police to profile this cunning and brutal murderer. Are they looking for a hit man or a frenzied serial-killer? Could there be a link to a cold missing persons’ case that George had worked with Chief Inspector Paul van den Bergen – two abducted toddlers he could never quite give up on?

The hunt for Jack Frost sparks a dangerous, heart-rending journey through the toughest neighbourhoods in Europe, where refugees and Roma gypsies scratch a living on the edge of society. Walking into the dark, violent world of a trans-national trafficking ring, can George outrun death to shed light on two terrible mysteries?”

Dr George McKenzie is a real kick-ass character. She’s tough in a street-smart, non-nonsense kind of a way, as well as clever and inquisitive. Her rather fiery brand of investigating complements the calmer Dutch detective Van den Bergen, and together they make for a formidable team. But the team is under pressure, both to connect the strange and gruesome Jack Frost murders that are taking place with seemingly unconnected victims, and to work out what the link might be to the disappearance of two children abducted from their own garden two years previously. The situation isn’t made any easier for George by her and Van den Bergen’s on-off love affair hovering in a tricky no mans land between on and off.

The sense of place, as ever in the series, is captured brilliantly. Set in the grip of a bitter snow covered winter, the story has an ice-cold atmosphere that will have you turning up the heating and wrapping yourself in an extra blanket as you read.

The Girl Who Walked In The Shadows is a fast paced thrill of a read, with a bucket-load of twists and turns, and some emotive and thought provoking issues at its core.

It’s an excellent addition to this very popular series and, although written as the third instalment, I think it would work well as a standalone for those new to the George McKenzie books.

Perfect for thriller fans.

To find out more about Marnie Riches pop over to her website and follow her on Twitter @Marnie_Riches

THE GIRL WHO WALKED IN THE SHADOWS is out now. You can buy it from Amazon here

And be sure to check out all the other fabulous stops on the tour …