Friday Mood Recs: Wintery mysteries to curl up with this weekend

Chilly recommendations from Renee of Book Talk, Etc.

Jan 19, 2024

Hey readers! When I was planning guest posts for this break I knew I wanted to have Renee of the It’s Book Talk newsletter and Book Talk, Etc. podcast share some favorites. Renee and I are book friends who have recently begun to find more and more books we love in common. I always enjoy discussing these books with Renee because we ask different questions about the books we read, resulting in excellent conversations and deeper reading.

Renee also loves mysteries and is deeply knowledgable about various styles, types, and tropes. I can’t tell you how often I’m asked to recommend mysteries and thrillers, and every time, I feel badly because it’s not a genre I read very often! I jumped at the opportunity to have Renee share a few of her favorites from a genre I’m less familiar with. To fit the cold snowy vibes I’m currently feeling, Renee agreed to round up some of the best mysteries and thrillers with cold settings. These books sound like perfect page-turners to curl up under a blanket with and read all day.

If you love Renee’s recommendations, be sure to check out 12 of her all-time favorite mysteries and thrillers. And subscribe to her Substack and podcast, Book Talk, Etc. to keep getting mystery recs (and more!) directly in your inbox and earbuds.

I’ve been a mystery reader for as long as I can remember. Growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, I was the kid who often preferred to stay home and read my mystery books. My favorites, then and now, involved puzzles and the mystery that surrounds those puzzles. There’s something compelling about a fictional story involving a situation, person, or place that is shrouded in some kind of mystery. From my early days of following Nancy Drew (anyone remember The Triple Hoax?) to my teen years when I added a bit of horror to my mysteries—Stephen King’s Pet Sematary absolutely terrified me—the mystery genre has been my go-to genre and my comfort reads.

Mystery has been one of the most popular book genres for decades. They often dominate the bestseller lists, get made into blockbuster movies, and are the chosen reads of book clubs around the world. So, what exactly makes mystery books so satisfying and dare I say, bingeable? For me, there is the allure of the unknown and the need to know what happened. It’s addictive! We must read (quickly!) to follow the clues, put the puzzle pieces together, and solve the mystery. This element of “good is separated from evil, the guilty are locked up, dead, or at least identified, and the innocent are free to move on with their lives,” is aptly pointed out by bestselling As mystery writer Tana French points out, there’s also something satisfying when “good is separated from evil, the guilty are locked up, dead, or at least identified, and the innocent are free to move on with their lives.” Reading mysteries can be one way of bringing a sense of order to our often chaotic lives.

During the winter months, I love to read mysteries that have settings that reflect the season. I live in the Midwest where it’s often cold, gray, and snowy, so I tend to seek out stories that are also set in cold climates or even blizzards. For me, these types of mysteries beg to be read by a fire and under my coziest blanket. Today, I’ve compiled a variety of some of my favorite winter mysteries for you. While some may have thriller elements, like a faster pace, all the novels have a mystery at their core. I hope you find some new to you mysteries to curl up with under your favorite blanket.

The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon

Jennifer McMahon is one of my trusted, go to authors for creepy and atmospheric books. In this story, set in 1908, Sara Shea is found mysteriously dead, just months after the death of her own daughter. Fast forward to the modern day when teenage Ruthie lives in Sara’s old house with her mother and younger sister. When Ruthie’s mother disappears, she sets out to find her, discovering uncanny parallels with Sara’s life in the process. McMahon is so good at ensuring both the past and present-day timelines are equally mysterious.

The Second Stranger by Martin Griffin

A locked-room mystery with the suspense and pacing of a thriller, this story, set in the remote Scottish Highlands during a blizzard, is one of my recently enjoyed atmospheric winter reads. One bitterly cold February night at the remote MacKinnon Hotel, Remie Yorke begins her last shift at the front desk as the snow begins to fall. She has booked a one-way flight for the next day—and she's never coming back to Scotland. Or so she thinks. With only two guests left to check out, the hotel is quiet, and she expects a slow final night—until there is a knock at the door. An injured police officer walks in and says he crashed his car while transporting a prisoner, that prisoner has escaped, and can he, the officer, shelter at the hotel. Remie has her doubts, but she lets him in. One hour later, there’s a second knock at the door and another man claiming to be the same police officer comes in reporting an escaped prisoner and looking for shelter. Remie finds herself in quite a precarious situation, to say the least. Expertly plotted, and with a perfect winter setting, this one was a twisty puzzle that had me rapidly turning the pages.

The Current by Tim Johnston

With one of the most chilling and tension filled opening scenes I’ve read; Tim Johnston introduces us to two young women who decide to leave their college campus in the dead of winter and drive north to Minnesota. After stopping for gas at tiny gas station far from the exit and late at night, they experience a situation that has them fleeing in a hurry. However, it isn’t long before they find themselves in an even more terrifying predicament involving the icy Black Root River. One of them will not come out of it alive. What happened was no accident, and news of the crime awakens the community's memories of another young woman who lost her life in the same river ten years earlier, and whose killer may still live among them. With stellar writing, a dual timeline mystery, and themes of grief, family, and resilience, this story is one of my more literary recommendations.

The Ice Twins by S. K. Tremayne

If twisty, what is really going on, mysteries are your thing, I think you’ll enjoy this creepy read that has a nice blend of psychological thriller elements. A year after one of their identical twin daughters, Lydia, dies in an accident, Angus and Sarah Moorcroft move to the tiny Scottish island Angus inherited from his grandmother, hoping to put together the pieces of their shattered lives. But when their surviving daughter, Kirstie, claims they have mistaken her identity—that she, in fact, is Lydia—their world comes crashing down once again. As winter encroaches, Angus is forced to travel away from the island for work, Sarah is feeling isolated, and Kirstie (or is it Lydia?) is growing more disturbed. When a violent storm leaves Sarah and her daughter stranded, they are forced to confront what really happened on that fateful day. One of the more propulsive mysteries I’ve read, this one had me trying (and failing) to put the puzzle pieces together.

The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex

Something that often elevates my reading experience with mysteries is a story that’s inspired by true events. The Lamplighters is inspired by the true story of the mysterious disappearance of three lighthouse keepers from a remote lighthouse tower miles from the Cornish coast and the wives they left behind. On New Year's Eve, 1972, a boat pulls up to the Maiden Rock lighthouse with relief for the keepers. But no one greets them. When the entrance door, locked from the inside, is battered down, rescuers find an empty tower and a table is laid for an uneaten meal. The Principal Keeper's weather log describes a storm raging round the tower, but the skies have been clear. And the clocks have all stopped at 8:45. Twenty years later, the keeper’s wives are visited by a writer looking for the truth about the men’s disappearances. This is both a fascinating mystery and a haunting ghost story that effortlessly blends mystery with psychological suspense and historical fiction.

Additional Winter Mysteries I Recommend

The Overnight Guest by Heather Gudenkauf
The Snowman by Jo Nesbo
An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena
We Know You Remember by Tove Alsterdal
A Solitude of Wolverines by Alice Henderson
What Beauty There Is by Cory Anderson
The Lightkeepers by Abby Geni

***This post contains affiliate links to Renee’s Bookshop.org site. If you make a purchase using the links, Renee may earn a small commission at no cost to you. All commissions earned through Bookshop.org go to a chosen pet nonprofit organization, Frosted Faces Senior Rescue.

Renee is the reader behind the It’s Book Talk Substack and Instagram and the co-host of the Book Talk, Etc. podcast. Of late, you can listen to her interview the founder of Bookshop.org and share her newsletter plans for the new year.