Snowy Settings & Chilling Tales

With the arrival of winter settling in and the outside turning cold, it’s the perfect time to cozy up with a winter read. The idea of snow-covered grounds and icy winds often come with the excitement of holiday cheer, but in actuality they can be so much more harrowing than picturesque. Here are some books that will give you the spine-chilling suspense of winter and eerie atmospheres. These are perfect reads for those long dark nights when the snow falls and the chills go beyond the weather.

If you enjoy Agatha Christie, be sure to read An An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena. As a guests arrive at a cozy mountain lodge, they hope to enjoy a short getaway filled with seasonal winter activities. However, the unpredictability of winter brings in a blizzard and now guests are trapped indoors until it passes. Tensions begin to rise and a guest is found dead. Every visitor is now a suspect.

In The Overnight Guest, a true crime writer seeks solitude as she works on her newest book. Choosing to write in an isolated farmhouse, she gets snowed in. As the winter storm worsens, she takes a break from her work to find a child outside of the farmhouse during the storm. The boy is hurt and won’t speak. What happened? Maybe the farmhouse isn’t as isolated as she thought.

After the first snowfall lands in Oslo, a woman goes missing. A mysterious snowman is found at the scene of the crime. As the day goes on, it’s revealed that several other women have gone missing too. The common thread among all disappearances is the mysterious snowman left behind at the scene, signaling that something much more sinister is at play. If you enjoy reading a detective style story, The Snowman is the pick for you.

For those who prefer a non-fiction title, check out Ice Ghosts by Paul Watson. This book explores the lost expedition of Sir John Franklin and his crew who disappeared into the Arctic in the 1840s. A very bleak setting that is quite literally chilling.

All of these snow-filled stories will keep you on the edge of your seat, proving that that some wintery horrors come from unforgiving landscapes. What are some of your favorite chilling tales?