What The Critics Said

Dead of Winter is chilling in all senses – it’s clinical, harsh and pulls no punches, and benefits a great deal from being set during a severe weather warning. The final scenes are a thrilling race against time when temperatures have plummeted and the snow is piling up.

Crime Review

A police procedural which had me hooked from the first page. Excellent plot, 3D characters and great atmosphere. What's not to love?...

The story centres on Fenwick and Nightingale, but it's Issie who dominates the plot. She's a brilliant creation - a girl who has had an instinct for survival from an early age, but who's been traumatised to the point where her decisions are no longer sound. You ache for what she's gone through and for the horror of the situation she finds herself in. But it's not just the main characters who come off the page well - on the police teams even relatively minor members have real personalities but I was particularly impressed by Lord Saxby who becomes more understandable as the bluster is peeled away.

It's a big read at 544 pages in the hardback edition but I read it in two sittings with a reluctant break for food in between. As I got closer to the end I suffered that horrible temptation to flick to the final pages - I had to know what happened now. The tension is steadily ramped up throughout the book to the point where it's almost unbearable. There's a real sense of atmosphere too - the investigations take place in December and it's bitterly cold and with blizzard conditions on occasions. It's so real that I shivered. Splendid, splendid stuff.

You could read this book without any knowledge of what has gone before in the series - you'll pick up the essentials as you go along. 5 Stars.

The Bookbag