There's something about whodunnits in wintery isolated settings this year. I've read The Guest List, Snow and One by One is the next book I've planned to read.
The Dead of Winter also takes place on an isolated location, namely St Michael's Mount in Cornwall in 1938. An exclusive charity event has been planned by the owner of the Mount in order to support displaced Jewish children from Germany.
The police officer Archie has been invited since he's an old friend of the owner Hilaria St. Aubyn. She has invited a celebrity to attend as well hoping that it would bring about some publicity for the Mount and its cause. Archie in turn invites his two friends Josephine and Marta.
You might have guessed it. The guests all have their own backstories and as they arrive on their location one by one, they find out that the Mount will be isolated for a few days due to bad weather. They are ready to celebrate Christmas, so they don't mind until one of them ends up dead and the only one who could've done it has to be among them.
I felt that this book was a little bit short. It's strange to say, but the action and investigation started half way through and it wasn't enough to fully grip me although I found the ending to be satisfying.
The story is told through the eyes of around eight different characters, which means part of the first half you'll have to guess who was who. Then when the action gets going the novel has ended.
I like that this novel is in a way based on real life. Josephine Tey is apparently the Agatha Christie of her time, the celebrity is also well-known and St Michael's Mount was in hands of Hilaria St. Aubyn back then. I didn't mind that there are 8 novels about Josephine prior to this one. Sure, I don't know the characters as well as fans of this series will do but I still enjoyed the story.
All-in-all it's an OK read. The setting didn't feel as isolated or grim as I would've liked it to, and there are a few too many characters for such a short novel. It's an interesting whodunnit though with a few twists and turns I didn't expect.
Many thanks to the publisher Faber and Netgalley for providing me with a review copy!
3 stars
Statistics:
Date read: October 31, 2020
Date published: November 5, 2020
Publisher: Faber
Format: eBook
Pages: 320
Genre: Historical Fiction
My Number of Books Read by this Author: 1
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