It all started with Agatha Christie’s iconic And Then There Were None—the isolation trope closed circle mystery was born, and mystery-lovers have been hooked ever since. In my humble opinion, there can never be too many closed circle mystery/isolation trope stories like Christie’s! I can read book after book and never be satiated.
It’s a formula that hits every time—a group is stuck in an isolated location, an extreme weather event or another reason why they can’t leave arises, a ticking clock puts pressure on the situation, and then everything is thrown into chaos by a grisly death—but was it an accident…or murder? There are only so many solutions in an isolation plot, and if it is murder, the culprit may be a mysterious outsider, someone sitting right in front of the stranded, or be one of them. The fun is in finding out which.
There’s a reason it’s a classic. It’s a fast-paced, sticky plot best supported by a dynamic cast of characters with complex psychology, messy interpersonal relationships, secrets, and numerous potential motives. It takes a true sociopath to trap people in an isolated location and bump them off one by one, and part of the thrill as a reader is the guessing game of “which one of these people is secretly a monster?”
My latest young adult thriller, The Bitter End, is And Then There Were None with a Gossip Girl flair that was inspired by my love of this trope and a desire to challenge myself to write one for teens. Plus, I’m a girl who loves (and misses—as someone living in Southern California) weather, so a snowstorm obstacle was a no brainer. I adore a good, chilly thriller, don’t you? There’s nothing better as the days grow shorter than curling up by a crackling fire with a shiver-inducing book… though frankly, I like to read snowbound thrillers year-round!
So as you too begin to pile on the sweaters, here are just a few wintry page-turners from my shelves that served as inspiration or even just a vibe check for The Bitter End, and are sure to make for cozy—or at least chilling—fireside reading this winter.
One by One
By Ruth Ware
This book is a chef’s kiss for the snowy isolation trope: a group of co-workers from a tech startup come for a retreat at a ski chalet in the French Alps, and everyone it seems has a secret—or beef—with one another. They all love-to-hate the company’s enigmatic co-founder, who goes missing during a ski outing on the first day. Then a blizzard hits and one by one they start dying. The snowstorm in the lap of luxury vibes are immaculate in this one, with a heart-pounding ending you won’t forget. I’ve read this one not once, but twice, and there may be an homage or two to it in The Bitter End!
An Unwanted Guest
By Shari Lapena
Part of the thrill of this subgenre is the formula—knowing what’s coming, but delighting in how the author introduces variables—setting, cast, storms—to bring home a pulse-pounding reading experience. An Unwanted Guest plays off a multi-POV cast stranded in an isolated hotel during a winter storm, where everyone is a stranger to one another—or are they? Every beat hits where you want it with a delicious reveal of who everyone is and whom they might want to kill. Plus, the cold weather complications are especially evocative in this one.
Shiver
By Allie Reynolds
Not every book that scratches this sub-genre itch sits slasher adjacent! People aren’t picked off at intervals in Shiver, but the book’s multi-timeline format creates its own unique escalation of tension, so by the time the body falls, you are chomping at the bit. Shiver volleys between a reunion between old snowboarding friends at a ski resort in the off-season and the last time the friends were all together, ten years ago before one of their own mysteriously disappeared. So often isolation trope mysteries hinge on sins of the past, something I love and drew on myself, and Shiver is no exception, executing the idea very well! It’s a feat where the past timeline is as intriguing, if not more so, than the present one.
Rock, Paper, Scissors
By Alice Feeney
And sometimes all you need is two against the elements… and possibly someone who lured them there to exact revenge. Rock Paper Scissors is a whirlwind dual-timeline thriller split between a wife’s letters to her beloved husband on each successive anniversary, showing the ins and outs of their complicated relationship, and a big anniversary trip to a remote rental in the Scottish Highlands…in the midst of a snowstorm (as is the theme!). The trick is, the husband has difficulty recognizing faces, so how can he be sure who he’s on this trip with? Or maybe it’s whoever invited them to this mysterious house with the axe to grind. Only half of this one hits the snowy isolation trope, but it hits it hard! Alice Feeney is masterful with the final page twist, as well, which absolutely inspired me with The Bitter End.
Breathless
By Amy McCullough
Okay, but what if instead of a ski chalet or a remote cabin, you’re stranded on a literal mountain peak? Taking place in the intense and brutal world of high-altitude mountaineering, Breathless sets its action on an 8,000 meter peak, inspired by the author’s own similar (though luckily less thriller-esque) climb. I’m fascinated by the mountaineering world and had read over twenty books on the subject before picking up this thriller—and it nails it! A group of ruthless, ambitious climbers jockey for fame and fortune above 25,000 feet where they have the benefit of perfect deniability—after all people die on mountains all the time, and it’s easy to lose your mind from oxygen deprivation. And it can be easy to get away with murder…
Into Thin Air
By Jon Krakauer
I know what you’re thinking: That’s not a thriller? Into Thin Air is non-fiction! But some of the best true stories are, in effect, thrillers, and this book appeals for many of the same reasons the fictional ones on this list do. It features a cast of characters (who happen to be real people) who are ambitious, driven, and assembled in an extreme, remote location when disaster strikes. There’s no killer, per se—except the mountain itself—and there’s no mystery to solve… but you will be left pondering the what-ifs, the why-dun-its, and the was-it-worth-its, and turning pages as quickly as all the best thrillers. Into Thin Air is a must-read for thriller fans of this trope who may not otherwise venture outside of fiction.
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