CHILLING WINTER THRILLERS

12/17/2020

I don't know about you, but I love reading a good thriller when it’s snowing outside! There’s just something so moody about the snow that I’m always looking to buckle down with a chilling read! So, here’s my list of 9 𝗖𝗛𝗜𝗟𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗧𝗛𝗥𝗜𝗟𝗟𝗘𝗥𝗦! PS: I have read and recommend each of the books on this list. Leave me a comment if you have any more suggestions!

1. ONE BY ONE: RUTH WARE

Getting snowed in at a luxurious, rustic ski chalet high in the French Alps doesn’t sound like the worst problem in the world. Especially when there’s a breathtaking vista, a full-service chef and housekeeper, a cozy fire to keep you warm, and others to keep you company. Unless that company happens to be eight coworkers…each with something to gain, something to lose, and something to hide.

When the cofounder of Snoop, a trendy London-based tech startup, organizes a weeklong trip for the team in the French Alps, it starts out as a corporate retreat like any other: PowerPoint presentations and strategy sessions broken up by mandatory bonding on the slopes. But as soon as one shareholder upends the agenda by pushing a lucrative but contentious buyout offer, tensions simmer and loyalties are tested. The storm brewing inside the chalet is no match for the one outside, however, and a devastating avalanche leaves the group cut off from all access to the outside world. Even worse, one Snooper hadn’t made it back from the slopes when the avalanche hit.

As each hour passes without any sign of rescue, panic mounts, the chalet grows colder, and the group dwindles further…one by one.

𝗪𝗛𝗬 𝗜 𝗖𝗛𝗢𝗦𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗕𝗢𝗢𝗞

I chose this book because not only does it take place in the perfect setting (a snow filled mountain resort that sits FAR from any other place) but because of the claustrophobic feelings it gives off. These characters are STRANDED at this secluded location while a raging blizzard is happening outside. Things only get worse too because someone inside is a killer!

2. NO EXIT BY TAYLOR ADAMS

A brilliant, edgy thriller about four strangers, a blizzard, a kidnapped child, and a determined young woman desperate to unmask and outwit a vicious psychopath.

A kidnapped little girl locked in a stranger’s van. No help for miles. What would you do?

On her way to Utah to see her dying mother, college student Darby Thorne gets caught in a fierce blizzard in the mountains of Colorado. With the roads impassable, she’s forced to wait out the storm at a remote highway rest stop. Inside are some vending machines, a coffee maker, and four complete strangers.

Desperate to find a signal to call home, Darby goes back out into the storm . . . and makes a horrifying discovery. In the back of the van parked next to her car, a little girl is locked in an animal crate.

Who is the child? Why has she been taken? And how can Darby save her?
There is no cell phone reception, no telephone, and no way out. One of her fellow travelers is a kidnapper. But which one?

Trapped in an increasingly dangerous situation, with a child’s life and her own on the line, Darby must find a way to break the girl out of the van and escape.
But who can she trust?

𝗪𝗛𝗬 𝗜 𝗖𝗛𝗢𝗦𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗕𝗢𝗢𝗞

I chose NO EXIT by Taylor Adams because this book is the epitome of a chilling winter read. Stranded at a rest stop with strangers is scary enough especially with the blizzard that is raging outside. But then finding out that SOMEONE may have kidnapped a little girl and is hiding her in their truck? Well, that’s when things take a turn for the scary!

3. THE HUNTING PARTY BY LUCY FOLEY

Everyone's invited...everyone's a suspect...

During the languid days of the Christmas break, a group of thirtysomething friends from Oxford meet to welcome in the New Year together, a tradition they began as students ten years ago. For this vacation, they’ve chosen an idyllic and isolated estate in the Scottish Highlands—the perfect place to get away and unwind by themselves.

The trip begins innocently enough: admiring the stunning if foreboding scenery, champagne in front of a crackling fire, and reminiscences about the past. But after a decade, the weight of secret resentments has grown too heavy for the group’s tenuous nostalgia to bear. Amid the boisterous revelry of New Year’s Eve, the cord holding them together snaps, just as a historic blizzard seals the lodge off from the outside world.

Two days later, on New Year’s Day, one of them is dead. . . and another of them did it.

Keep your friends close, the old adage says. But how close is too close?

𝗪𝗛𝗬 𝗜 𝗖𝗛𝗢𝗦𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗕𝗢𝗢𝗞

Here we have another locked room type “who-dun-it” that takes place during the winter! When a blizzard strikes leaving these people stranded in a remote location, things get chilling. Then to find out there is a killer in the midst makes it all the more frightening! I love books like this which is why I am choosing them as perfect winter reads!

4. AN UNWANTED GUEST BY SHARI LAPENA

A weekend retreat at a cozy mountain lodge is supposed to be the perfect getaway . . . but when the storm hits, no one is getting away

It's winter in the Catskills and Mitchell's Inn, nestled deep in the woods, is the perfect setting for a relaxing--maybe even romantic--weekend away. It boasts spacious old rooms with huge woodburning fireplaces, a well-stocked wine cellar, and opportunities for cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, or just curling up with a good murder mystery.

So when the weather takes a turn for the worse, and a blizzard cuts off the electricity--and all contact with the outside world--the guests settle in and try to make the best of it.

Soon, though, one of the guests turns up dead--it looks like an accident. But when a second guest dies, they start to panic.

Within the snowed-in paradise, something--or someone--is picking off the guests one by one. And there's nothing they can do but hunker down and hope they can survive the storm--and one another.

𝗪𝗛𝗬 𝗜 𝗖𝗛𝗢𝗦𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗕𝗢𝗢𝗞

An Unwanted Guest takes on the same themes as the books I posted before this one. This is another stranded in a blizzard mystery where the guests come to realize that not all is at it seems and someone or something more sinister is after them!

5. STRANGER IN THE LAKE BY KIMBERLY BELLE

Charlotte didn’t know her greatest risk was saying, “I do.”

When Charlotte married the wealthy widower Paul, it caused a ripple of gossip in their small lakeside town. They have a charmed life together, despite the cruel whispers about her humble past and his first marriage. But everything starts to unravel when she discovers a young woman’s body floating in the exact same spot where Paul’s first wife tragically drowned.

At first, it seems like a horrific coincidence, but the stranger in the lake is no stranger. Charlotte saw Paul talking to her the day before, even though Paul tells the police he’s never met the woman. His lie exposes cracks in their fragile new marriage, cracks Charlotte is determined to keep from breaking them in two.

As Charlotte uncovers dark mysteries about the man she married, she doesn’t know what to trust—her heart, which knows Paul to be a good man, or her growing suspicion that there’s something he’s hiding in the water.

𝗪𝗛𝗬 𝗜 𝗖𝗛𝗢𝗦𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗕𝗢𝗢𝗞

Stranger in the Lake fits in really well with this list because it’s a chilling murder mystery. Not only does it take place during winter, but the frozen lake where the dead body is found lends itself to the uncomfortable mystery that unfolds! This was a favorite read of mine in 2020!

6. THE WINTER SISTER BY MEGAN COLLINS

In this spellbinding and suspenseful debut, a young woman haunted by the past returns home to care for her ailing mother and begins to dig deeper into her sister’s unsolved murder.

Sixteen years ago, Sylvie’s sister Persephone never came home. Out too late with the boyfriend she was forbidden to see, Persephone was missing for three days before her body was found—and years later, her murder remains unsolved.

In the present day, Sylvie returns home to care for her estranged mother, Annie, as she undergoes treatment for cancer. Prone to unexplained “Dark Days” even before Persephone’s death, Annie’s once-close bond with Sylvie dissolved in the weeks after their loss, making for an uncomfortable reunion all these years later. Worse, Persephone’s former boyfriend, Ben, is now a nurse at the cancer center where Annie is being treated. Sylvie’s always believed Ben was responsible for the murder—but she carries her own guilt about that night, guilt that traps her in the past while the world goes on around her.

As she navigates the complicated relationship with her mother, Sylvie begins to uncover the secrets that fill their house—and what really happened the night Persephone died. As it turns out, the truth will set you free, once you can bear to look at it.

The Winter Sister is a mesmerizing portrayal of the complex bond between sisters, between mothers and daughters alike, and forces us to ask ourselves—how well do we know the people we love most?

𝗪𝗛𝗬 𝗜 𝗖𝗛𝗢𝗦𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗕𝗢𝗢𝗞

So, I haven’t had a chance to read The Winter Sister by Megan Collins yet, but it has been on my radar for quite some time! I decided to add it to this list for a few reasons. First, the title itself is perfect for the books listed here. Secondly, this book is described as a haunting and atmospheric novel and books like this are pretty chilling! Finally, family suspense’s are my favorite and I know many reads enjoy them just as much as I do!

7. THE NIGHT OLIVIA FELL BY CHRISTINA MCDONALD

From the USA TODAY bestselling author of Do No Harm and Behind Every Lie comes an emotionally charged domestic suspense novel about a mother unraveling the truth behind how her daughter became brain dead. And pregnant.

A search for the truth. A lifetime of lies.

In the small hours of the morning, Abi Knight is startled awake by the phone call no mother ever wants to get: her teenage daughter Olivia has fallen off a bridge. Not only is Olivia brain dead, she’s pregnant and must remain on life support to keep her baby alive. And then Abi sees the angry bruises circling Olivia’s wrists.

When the police unexpectedly rule Olivia’s fall an accident, Abi decides to find out what really happened that night. Heartbroken and grieving, she unravels the threads of her daughter’s life. Was Olivia’s fall an accident? Or something far more sinister?

Christina McDonald weaves a suspenseful and heartwrenching tale of hidden relationships, devastating lies, and the power of a mother’s love. With flashbacks of Olivia’s own resolve to uncover family secrets, this taut and emotional novel asks: how well do you know your children? And how well do they know you?

𝗪𝗛𝗬 𝗜 𝗖𝗛𝗢𝗦𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗕𝗢𝗢𝗞

I loved this book. It’s a thrilling chiller about a mother searching for answers into why her daughter is braindead after a fall and pregnant. I highly recommend it to all readers!

8. THE WINTER PEOPLE BY JENNIFER MCMAHON

The New York Times bestselling author of Promise Not to Tell returns with a simmering literary thriller about ghostly secrets, dark choices, and the unbreakable bond between mothers and daughters . . . sometimes too unbreakable.

West Hall, Vermont, has always been a town of strange disappearances and old legends. The most mysterious is that of Sara Harrison Shea, who, in 1908, was found dead in the field behind her house just months after the tragic death of her daughter, Gertie. Now, in present day, nineteen-year-old Ruthie lives in Sara's farmhouse with her mother, Alice, and her younger sister, Fawn. Alice has always insisted that they live off the grid, a decision that suddenly proves perilous when Ruthie wakes up one morning to find that Alice has vanished without a trace. Searching for clues, she is startled to find a copy of Sara Harrison Shea's diary hidden beneath the floorboards of her mother's bedroom. As Ruthie gets sucked deeper into the mystery of Sara's fate, she discovers that she's not the only person who's desperately looking for someone that they've lost. But she may be the only one who can stop history from repeating itself.

𝗪𝗛𝗬 𝗜 𝗖𝗛𝗢𝗦𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗕𝗢𝗢𝗞

The Winter People is one of my favorite books by the author. It’s part ghost story, part mystery, and wholly chilling! This is a winter read, one that would be PERFECT for reading by a warm fire. If there is one book you want to read with the seasons, this is it!

9. I'M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS BY IAIN REID

Now a Netflix original movie, this deeply scary and intensely unnerving novel follows a couple in the midst of a twisted unraveling of the darkest unease. You will be scared. But you won’t know why…

I’m thinking of ending things. Once this thought arrives, it stays. It sticks. It lingers. It’s always there. Always.

Jake once said, “Sometimes a thought is closer to truth, to reality, than an action. You can say anything, you can do anything, but you can’t fake a thought.”

And here’s what I’m thinking: I don’t want to be here.

In this smart and intense literary suspense novel, Iain Reid explores the depths of the human psyche, questioning consciousness, free will, the value of relationships, fear, and the limitations of solitude. Reminiscent of Jose Saramago’s early work, Michel Faber’s cult classic Under the Skin, and Lionel Shriver’s We Need to Talk about Kevin, “your dread and unease will mount with every passing page” (Entertainment Weekly) of this edgy, haunting debut. Tense, gripping, and atmospheric, I’m Thinking of Ending Things pulls you in from the very first page…and never lets you go.

𝗪𝗛𝗬 𝗜 𝗖𝗛𝗢𝗦𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗕𝗢𝗢𝗞

I’ll admit, this book can be severely depressing (the winter setting adds to the effect!) but it is such an original and chilling read that it almost NEEDS to be read by everyone. I encourage readers who have been wanting to read this one to get on it and actually READ it. It’ll take you through a mind loop that’s for sure!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this list! I try and take particular care in my book selections when I am making them. If you have read or plan to read any of the books listed here leave me a comment and let me know! I love chatting books. Also, if you know of any books with similar themes add them to the comment section. I’d be happy to add more!

- Elle

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