“To go in the dark with a light is to know the light.”
–Wendell Berry
The best crime fiction—the best fiction, period—reveals the best and worst of human nature. And no season better delves the darkness and chases the light than winter. Especially the Winter Solstice, which celebrates the coming of the light after the longest night of the year. Add in its pagan origins and its influence on our modern Christmas and New Year’s traditions and you can see why so many wonderful stories of mystery and suspense happen during the darkest days of the year.
This is the perfect time to set a novel, to embrace the darkness by allowing our most evil characters to mark the Winter Solstice with murder and mayhem. And better yet if you can weave in some Druids, who celebrate this special night with the burning of an oak log—pagan rituals being the precursor to the Yule Log—and throw in a dead body or two. That’s what I do in my seventh Mercy Carr mystery The Snow Lies Deep.
But I’m not alone. There is a whole winter of books waiting for you, in which clever, creative authors have plumbed the darkness and pursued the light, and come up with compelling reads that will keep you turning the pages until Spring. So, cozy up to the fire and indulge in your own Winter Solstice book binge with these wonderful stories.
*
Carol Goodman, The Bones of the Story
This irresistible locked-room mystery has all the elements that make a story memorable: a small college setting in upstate New York, an unsolved cold case involving the disappearance of a student and the gruesome death of the professor searching for her, and a reunion of alumni gone very, very wrong. All in the middle of a December snowstorm.
Nobody does smart, twisty murder like Carol Goodman, and this one has the added plus of writers and writing advice, however dripping in blood. A tour-de-force.
Ann Cleeves, The Darkest Evening
A blizzard. A stranded toddler. Vera Stanhope to the rescue. An embarrassment of riches for any mystery fan, in what is arguably my favorite Vera novel. Ann had me at the title alone—taken from the Robert Frost poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening—and I was hooked. Add in Vera and the toddler and Brockburn, the grand house full of secrets, some related to Vera herself—well, what’s not to like?
I’ve read this one so many times that my signed hardcover copy is getting a little frayed. I may gift myself a new one for the Winter Solstice.
Waubgeshig Rice, Moon of the Crusted Snow
This haunting allegory is a slow-burner of a thriller that turns the post-apocalyptic novel on its head. Set in the community of the Anishinaabe far to the north, chaos descends when the place goes dark, literally and metaphorically just as the long winter looms ahead. Finding their way out of the darkness may mean embracing the old ways—or not.
I won’t say anymore, as this award-winning novel defies categorization. Just read it—and prepared to be awed.
Peter Høeg, Smilla’s Sense of Snow
One of my very favorite novels of all time, about a Smilla Jaspersen, woman of Danish and Greenlander descent, whose unique understanding of snow helps her unravel a murderous conspiracy that takes her from Denmark to Greenland. Beautifully written and masterfully plotted, this is a classic that still holds up. I’ve read it more than once—and the homonymous movie adaptation is worth watching, too.
Elly Griffiths, The Last Remains
Okay, so this fabulous mystery is set during the summer solstice, not the winter solstice, but if you’re looking for Druids, you need look no further than Elly Griffiths’ great Ruth Galloway series, and in this book, her Druid pal Cathbad goes missing after being named the prime suspect in a murder. This is quintessential Elly Griffiths. Enjoy!
Winter is coming. Keep the darkness at bay: Light your Winter Solstice candles, burn a Yule Log in your fireplace, heap your mantle with holly and ivy. And read, read, read….
***
