The Winter Dead

LoveReading Says

Packed with personality and a rich sense of its rural Scottish setting, Lynne McEwan’s The Winter Dead sees DI Shona Oliver refuse to let a case go cold, even when a bloody trail in the snow seems to lead to nowhere, and to no one — with no body, is there even a crime? And how do you solve it? Oliver steps up to do exactly that in this slickly-plotted, mystery-steeped crime thriller.

After spotting blood on a piece of wood, DI Shona Oliver’s instincts kick in and she has it tested. When it’s confirmed to be human blood, she opens a case that leads down many snow-carpeted paths, all of them twisting, tangled and tingling with mystery, starting with a search for the lumberjack who delivered the wood.

Then comes a shocking find: “A bloom of crimson, obscenely stark, lay on the white snow. Something, or someone, had been dragged down the path. The trail stopped abruptly in front of them.”

As the plot thickens, with some leads melting as others open up, not least when a local ranger is found to be missing, Oliver is also forced to face resurfaced personal issues, and all this under the guilt-tinged shadow of her force losing one of their own.

Reviewed by Joanne Owen
Joanne Owen’s lifelong love of reading and writing began when she was growing up in Pembrokeshire, and very much wished that witches (and Mrs Pepperpot) were real.
More reviews by Joanne Owen

About The Winter Dead

A blood-soaked hammer is discovered in a lorryload of wood delivered to a local pub. DI Shona Oliver appears to have a murder weapon, but where is the victim?

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