Bookwild - Wintry Thrillers to Cozy Up With

Episode Date: January 19, 2024

This week, we share our favorite wintry thrillers for this freezing weather!Follow us on Instagram:Gare @gareindeedreadsKate @thegirlwiththecookonthecouchBooks We Talked About:The Deep, Deep SnowNo ExitRock, Paper, ScissorsThe Silent Girls The Hunting PartyThe Overnight GuestWhite OutThe SnowmanShiverThe Mountain King Get Bookwild MerchCheck Out My Stories Are My Religion SubstackCheck Out Author Social Media PackagesCheck out the Bookwild Community on PatreonCheck out the Imposter Hour Podcast with Liz and GregFollow @imbookwild on InstagramOther Co-hosts On Instagram:Gare Billings @gareindeedreadsSteph Lauer @books.in.badgerlandHalley Sutton @halleysutton25Brian Watson @readingwithbrian 

Guys, welcome to the Killing the Tea podcast. This is Gare and Kate. And we are going to be discussing all things, chills, thrills, and kills. Kate and I are going to be talking about our favorite books, TV shows and movies that are in the thriller or crime fiction genre, as well as some reading habits and other items related to how we met on Bookstagram that will fit in with this podcast. So, Thank you so much for joining us, and we hope that you have fun and get totally terrified. Happy Thursday, motherfuckers. A week. What a week. Murphy bit me today. Oh, God. Oh, I, whatever.

Murphy. Got me good. That's not good. Yeah. I got one of those mats that, like, it's like fluffy. It looks like a bath mat. Yeah. But, like, you put it outside so that when you're.

dog like goes to go inside he runs across it or she runs across it and or they run across it and like it's supposed to like clean the stuff off their feet yes really quickly right yeah and he was like jumping over it no so i like tried to take it inside to like show him it was like soft and like nice and he would love it and like he was putting his paws on it and then like i went to put my hand on it and he was like this is my mat and like bit me oh murphy that's not cool murphy scurphy of the murph dog not cool at all so that's his style what is cool and what you might say is cold freezing is the outside for most people in i don't know all of america right now a lot of it definitely the Midwest and the northern States. Yeah. Yeah. It's just freezing cold everywhere. It's

officially a hibernation weather. Yes. This is the like you do not go outside unless you absolutely have to. Yeah. Which is already rare for us. I'm being made fun of too because so this is kind of my icebreaker. Ooh, nice. It's related to sort of weather, I guess. Yeah. Like, is there anything style, fashion, clothing-wise, that you are like, I will never give this up? Like, I keep seeing TikToks about how, like, skinny jeans are out. And, like, it's, like, all about a wide leg. And I was like, I am short and squat. Like, I will not give up.

Like, the ankles are probably the only thing left on me that's skinny at this point. Like, I'm showing them off. So I'm like, I will never. Like, I'm officially that person. And that's like, I'm not going to give this up to be in style or fashionable. Yeah. I mean, I won't give up black leggings. And those have always been up for debate.

There are some people who have always thought it was a terrible idea to wear them. But I will say I have a couple flared, which at that point you're talking, we're talking about yoga pants, which was like the OG way to wear basically leggings out in public. So I do have some flared ones because those came into style, but I will say 90% of my leggings are just like straight leg leggings. And it was also very funny because when the flares came into fashion, speaking of TikTok, Gen Z kept walking around and they'd be like, oh my God, there's this new cool thing that I'm so obsessed with. And it is flared leggings. And so they just like didn't even know that they existed prior. funny. You're like yoga pants.

Yeah, but in general, just like a straight leg, black legging, I'm just never going to give it up. It's the best. I, um, I hate pants. Like I, I will wear jeans or I will wear joggers when I'm like out in public or whatnot. Yeah. But most generally, no matter how warm or cold it is, I'm wearing shorts. Like, even if I have to take Murphy outside, I'm wearing shorts.

If I have to go to the grocery store, I'm like, I have to go to the grocery store. I'll wear joggers. But like, I saw a TikTok that made me think of this because there was a guy sitting at his desk. And it must have been fall when he published this TikTok or whatever posted it. It counts. But he was wearing like a gray crewneck sweatshirt and a pair of like the five inch running shorts. And he was like, it's that time of year where every gay guy you know is going to start dressing like Princess Diana. Yes.

Because you know how she like had like the short shorts and like the oversized sweatshirt and it was like a fashion icon moment. And I was like laughing, but I was like, uh, that is 100% a style I'm not giving up. Like a five inch short and a cruneck sweatshirt that is oversized is always going to be my style. even if people are like, oh, it's all about hoodies and it's all about like cargo shorts or something disgusting. I would be like, no, it's not. Yeah, hoods stress me out from a sensory perspective. Sometimes it makes like the collars pull on you, but it's just like, it's just like extra fabric that just stresses me out, I guess is what I'm here to say. But I have also seen that TikTok and a similar one.

And then I'm also seeing the TikToks that are comparing your boy Jacob Allorty to print. Princess die in his fashion choices and in some of his mannerisms. And I kind of agree. It would make sense if he was like Princess Die reincarnated. Yeah, it would. He's such a little angel. I love him. He is. He is so sweet in all of his nephews. I love him. He's like the safest energy. Oh, I know, right? Like you unless he's acting. Maybe it's fake. But he's projecting safe. energy.

I feel in my heart of hearts that he will never get canceled or do anything or say anything problematic. Yeah. Definitely. I don't think it would happen. Do you remember like when the whole like Taylor and Travis Kelsey thing started and everybody was going through his like very old tweets? Yes. And they were just like funny and like kind of dumb.

And like people were like, this is how we know he's a good person because you can't find anything problematic in his old tweets. Yeah, I do remember that. Do you have anything else to say? I just feel like that's how I feel about Jacob Allorty. Like Trieke Blurdy and Travis Kelsey will never be problematic. I think Jacob Allorty never will. And I have to go back to the tweets and say there were nasty tweets that somehow someone's powerful PR machine was really hiding by pushing all these memes out everywhere else about how cute they were. there were some very problematic i mean very he was like calling girls fat and saying like no wonder

this team never wins they don't even like weigh their cheerleaders like oh my god i did not know that some extremely like rude i mean everyone's going to make the argument that in 2007 everyone talks that way right and no this isn't like pin him to the cross and get rid of him forever but like I saw those tweets and then I was like I am not seeing these anywhere else in the mainstream and actually shout out to my boy Brian Licious

on TikTok because he has some of the funniest satirical Taylor Swift commentary even though he loves her music which is just like becoming me and he was the one who showed he got me clued in on the fact that there were some pretty

problematic and weird tweets but that PR was PRing that week. That was her PR then. Exactly. It was not his. Because she was getting so much hate for, what was that guy's name? Maddie Healy. Maddie Healy.

And then some of the things that he said. Yes. Also misogynistic. I'm so tired. I wish they would break up. I was so tired of it. I'm so tired of it. Also.

because I need to stay both sides. Also, if they're happy, I'm glad they're happy. But I'm not personally a fan of it. No, no, I agree with your whole like, don't nail him to the cross, but like also don't celebrate him for being not problematic and being this little angel when there's evidence that he. Yes, exactly. I just get sick of like people trying to like say all this stuff about like her being upset that. she's covered so much in like the NFL and everything. I just don't get it.

When it's like, then watch his games from home. I know. He's not going to be at every ERA's tour. Like you can't be Taylor Swift and do anything and not expected to be all over the media. I agree. I feel like she really wanted fame and she got it. So with the stuff that comes with fame,

I don't know that you can, you got to be able to take a joke about it, at least. Yeah. I mean, nothing's really, nothing's really, like, negative about it other than, like, the media is talking about her more than they are, like, the teams. Right. You know, but, like, no, like, people are like, oh, like, how many times those Taylor Swift shown on the NFL game?

Like, that's not mean. That's not bad. No. You know, it's just them being like, hey, Taylor Swift, you're one of the most popular people in the entire world. So when you go to a game like this, like, yeah. We're going to, you know, be on TV and people are going to be talking about it when you, but whatever. There.

Yeah. The other interesting thing is that it is all media because I saw Dave Portnoy did a breakdown of like how many seconds she was actually on screen this most recent game. And it's like less than 30 seconds that she was actually there. But the media fixates on it and shares a bunch of pictures. and then there's just all these conversations. But Eminem was at the Detroit game. And the amount of time he was shown was like almost the same. So like it's just a stupid conversation in the media to begin with for the most part.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm just kind of it was a nice break when she was mad and making the reputation album and disappeared for a couple years. I cannot wait for reputation TV. but yeah it's just it just gets more complicated of a subject well each month Taylor Swift if you want to take a couple of days off and stay home with the cold weather we've got some things for you to do yeah because you had

you had a genius idea for today's episode I did related to these frigid temperatures so cold I don't like it but if you're wanting to to match the frigid temperatures and the snowy, wintry vibes. Stay at home and read. Yeah, and stay at home at read. We are going to share just so many wintry, wintry vibe thrillers or not thrillers. I don't know if you had non-thrillers books.

I had only thrillers. Oh, nice. Okay, so thrillers. Oh, okay, cool. You're like, you're the one. You're the one I'm asking. Yeah. Well, I don't know.

I feel like if it was like something about cold, I'd be like mentioning only hockey romance, but no, mine are all thrillers. Yeah, mine are too. Because I DNF, four books this week. Four? I'm in the worst lump.

I'm like depressed. It's just been the worst week ever. Oh my God. I didn't know four. That's terrible. That's terrible. That's terrible. Yeah, which just sucked.

I've had like just no time to read since Monday. Like, or Monday was the last day I, like, really read like long enough form that I got into a book. You know what I'm saying? And I just haven't since then. So mine's just been like a neutral experience. But four is terrible. Three in one day and one in the next. Like three in like one day.

I was like, I'm not fucking doing this anymore. Oh my gosh. Well, maybe, but probably not. Maybe I'll have something on here that sounds appealing to you. But I think you've probably read them all already. I have so many saved because I'm like, are we going to have? How many repeats are we going to have? I know.

I wondered to because there are two or three that I'm like definitely might might have brought these up. Yeah. Both of us. Yeah. All of mine have like, I have a memory of like a goldfish. So I like, I'm like, did she read this? Should I creep her good reads?

I was having that. I was having that memory issue, but in the sense that I was like, I'm pretty sure there's snow in this book, but then I couldn't be totally sure. So on a couple of them, like I wasn't seeing anything like winter in the synopsis or the reviews. And I was like, I talked to myself out of it. I was like, maybe there wasn't. Because I have one that I definitely think that I cheated a little bit on. Oh, well.

Do you want to kick us off? I will. So my first one made me feel nice and sure that this one was wintry. because it's called the deep deep snow by Brian Freeman. So was that one of yours or no? No, but like how did I not think of that? I know. It's like one of our most successful buddy reads.

I know. And I couldn't remember if the Ursulina had snow in it. I felt like both of them did. And then the way that I ended up choosing this one, I was like, well, this one I can be sure. Because it's snow in the title. So that's why I picked this one. But it is, it is one of our most successful buddy reads. And it's a series or a duology.

I mean, it says series, but there are only two. And I don't know that he's going to write more. The prequel is the Ursulina that we both loves as well. But the deep, deep snow is the one I'm talking about now with Deputy Shebby. I can't talk today. Oh my gosh. Deputy Shebby. Liberty, Bivit.

Shelby Lake was abandoned as a baby, saved by a stranger who found her in the freezing cold. Now years later, a young boy is missing and Shelby is the one who must rescue the child. The only evidence of what happened to 10-year-old Jeremiah Sloan is a bicycle left behind on a lonely road. After a desperate search fails to locate him, locate him, the close bonds of Shelby's hometown begin to fray under the weight of accusations and suspicions. everyone around her is keeping secrets, her adoptive father, her best friend, her best friend's young daughter, they all have something to hide. Even Shelby is concealing a mistake that could jeopardize her career and future. Unerthing the lies of the people in Jeremiah's life doesn't get the police and the FBI any closer to finding him. And as time passes and the case grows cold,

Shelby worries that the mystery will stay buried forever under the deep, deep snow. But even the deepest snow melts in spring. I made it. Clearly I'm just going to be mixing my words up today, but we made it. This is going to be, I was like laughing. And I always think of that commercial for Liberty Mutual. It was like, Libby-Bibbyty. Yes, that's pretty much me. You're like, she was abandoned as a baby, and I was still laughing at my Liberty Baby note. So like, that's what's going to get me canceled. It's like, somebody's going to take a clip of you being like she was abandoned as a baby and I'm like, ha ha ha. Oh my goodness. That book is so good.

I think the Ursulina is winter or fall. I think it was too. That's what I can remember. I knew it was fall and the cover looks fall-ish, so I couldn't. I just couldn't decide. So I went with that one. You can definitely read them in either order, but I liked reading the Ursulina. for first.

Forest. When you live where we live, you can get snow in the fall, so that's fine. That's a good point. I mean, these are like wintry vibe books, but even if there isn't

like a ton of snow and freezing weather in them, it's just something to keep you home so you're safe and warm. Yes. I know. Hibernation vibes are the coziest vibes. It's just if you're trying to convince yourself to like get shit done in your life, it's the hardest time to do it.

One of my favorite things, though, I will say is like when there's like bad weather coming, I love to like run an errand and be done like an hour before it starts. So I can like pull into the driveway on two wheels as like the first snowflake falls. This is your action thriller. It is. I would be so good at that, like, game show in the grocery store. Yes. Like, shop till you drop one. Yeah, like where you have to, like, spend the most amount of... Yeah. Oh, my God. I would fucking crush that. I bet you would. That in your shorts. My shorts. My shorts and my crue neck sweatshirt. Princess Diana's coming through.

I'll tell you where I don't want to be during a blizzard. where a rest stop oh like my girl derby and no exit by taylor adams that was good is that one of yours no but i love that transition cool um i love this book it is like action thriller like mystery like so hard to put down it's so so fast-paced oh my god there's twists and turns everywhere it's so good um so no exit by taylor adams is about Darby Thorne, who is on her way to Utah to go see Lisa Barlow. She's on her way to Utah to go see her dying mother. When she ends up in a blizzard in the Mellons of Colorado, the roads are shitty.

She just basically is like forced to wait out the storm in a remote highway rest stop. So when she goes in, there's four other people there. and she's like trying to call home, figure out when the storm's going to pass. But when she's outside trying to make a phone call, she finds that there is a van in the parking lot that has an animal cage in the back of it with a child in it. So Darby basically is like this child's been kidnapped, but I'm in the middle of a snowstorm. I can't call the cops and have them be here in 20 minutes. I don't know who to trust inside because I don't know who the van belongs to and I don't know who I can trust. But I need to save this little girl.

So I'm going to do everything I can. And the blizzard is blizzarding. And it's so freaking good. Love it. Do you want to be surprised? I have not read it. It's one of those that like I've always known and see everywhere and I've just never read it. I don't know.

know if that means I didn't put it on my like TBR like on good reads but I've just never ended up reading it and every time someone talks about it I'm like this is it feels like one of those books that like as a thriller reader you're like just supposed to have read so I need to yeah you've read him before though right no I haven't read any of his you didn't read the one random you didn't read the one about the last word yeah no Oh, and everyone loves it. And for some reason, I just have never read. He's one of those odd authors where like, I just haven't read his books. So I loved all three. I loved no exit. I loved Hairpin Bridge and I love the last word. You will love them. Like, that should be your goal this weekend when you're hibernating is to binge all of Taylor Adams books. Because they're like 300 pages, super fast pace, like quick to the point, like the twist and turn. are so good, like you never see them coming.

Yeah. And they're like all got some sort of element of action to them. Yeah. I'm adding it. Oh yeah, 287. That'll be a fast one. Mm-hmm. You'll love them. I need to. Ooh, it's Kindle Unlimited too. Woo-hoo. Yep, that is your task. Well, if everyone else has read this book, then they probably need to. need another another recommendation I have for snowy vibes.

And that is rock paper scissors by Alice Feeney. This was another one I thought you might have. Did I take it? Well, I have like, it's hard to like scroll through and not be like, oh, that's a winter book. I'm kind of like glad that I have like five others that I can talk about if we have any in common because like us being Alice Feeney stands and like doing this doing this like sort of episode.

If neither one of us mentioned it, it would have been like... It would be so weird. That was strange. Yeah. So this one is... Oh my gosh. It's so good. It was so hard to put down.

So good. Things have been wrong with Mr. and Mrs. Wright for a long time. When Adam and Amelia went a weekend away to Scotland, it might just be what their marriage needs. Self-confessed workaholic and screenwriter Adam Wright has lived with face blindness his whole life. He can't recognize friends or family. or even his own wife.

Every anniversary of the couple exchanged traditional gifts, paper, cotton, pottery, tin, and each year Adam's wife writes him a letter that she never lets him read until now. They both know this weekend will make or break their marriage, but they didn't randomly win this trip. One of them is lying and someone doesn't want them to live happily ever after. There's just so many things that go on in this book. I literally want to read like a romance about facial blindness now Ooh yeah

Do you imagine like the kinky roleplay you could do if you were like Who is this today? And like the person that you can't say. You're like I really don't know who this is. Yeah. Oh my God. That would be a really good thing. I wonder if it exists.

It might exist. I know. It could. That would be also like a really good thriller if you were like, oh my God, I can't see this person that is in my house and you like murder your spouse. Yeah. Oh. That would be rough. I would love to have facial blindness at some point in my life so that like I wasn't so shallow when it came to the men I picked out.

Oh my gosh. I don't know that he would fix that though. Why? Because there's all kinds of parts of body The body that you're attracted to And just not just not being able to remember someone's face Probably won't I don't think you can see their face though

It's like a Right I don't know I think out their features was like the way they describes it It's just that your brain doesn't like It doesn't learn how to Translate what it's seeing into a memory Specifically with faces

I think they kind of see But also like, don't you think even if Jacob Allorty's face was a little bit blurry, but you saw everything else, would you still not want to hook up with them? Of course I would. Exactly. But if Jacob Allorty came along and had like one ear that was bigger than the other or like something on his face. that I was like, I don't like that. I wouldn't pay attention to it because I have facial blindness. Right.

But you were saying it would make you less shallow. And I was like, I think you would stay shallow, was my argument. And you just proved my point. Well, have you ever heard of a butterface? Yeah. So it would be kind of like that where it's like somebody could be butt ass ugly. Oh, their face. I love a dad bod.

right? Like I love a dad bod. I don't like abs. I don't like six packs. I love like a dad bod. Like I just love like somebody that's like bulky and like could crush me in 20 seconds. Right. Like so. Do you like Seth Rogan? No, because of his face. Oh, cool. Nice. Go on. I mean, that's kind of like right. Like as long as they had like a body that I was like attracted to, I wouldn't care because I wouldn't be able to see their face. Oh, okay. I'm. I'm. I'm with you. Yeah. Well. Hopefully you keep remembering faces. Yeah. And hopefully Alice Fini keeps writing books just like that because I love that. I know.

She's amazing. And her books are always so different. I know. It's like literally like it just seems like a friend group that like each one of them tells a story. But they're like the cool friend group. You know what I mean? Like the popular like thickies. Yeah.

But they all have like really cool style. and like legs that are good for flare jeans. Definitely. I love that one. I have one. I don't think you've read. And I haven't talked about. So I met this author. His name is Eric Rickstad.

And he is just the nicest man in the entire world. He's so down to earth. And all of his books take place in Vermont. So this is called The Silent Girls by Eric Rickstad. It is the second book in a series, but it can be read as a standalone. So with the dead of a bitter Vermont winter closing in, evil is alive and well. Frank Rath thought he was done with murder when he turned in his detective's badge to become a private investigator and raise a daughter alone. then the police in his remote rural community of Canaan find an 89 Moni Carlo abandoned by the side of the road and the beautiful teenage girl who owned the car seems to have disappeared without a trace.

Soon, Rass investigation brings him face to face with the darkest abominations of the human soul. With the consequences of his violent and painful past plaguing him and young women with secrets banishing one by one, he discovers once again that even the smallest towns on the map, evil lurks everywhere, and no. no one is safe. It's so scary that it scared Bruce. It was like the bark was like not really that just, oh my God, not really that distracting. I just saw you jump. Yeah.

And I was like cracking up. Yeah. Yeah, the book is so scary. So I'm in a tiny room and I don't have things on the wall. So when Bruce Barth, barks, it like echoes and is like a lot. I feel like I'm always like, I can hear Murphy barking and I'm like, can you hear that? And you're like no.

But so that's what it sounded like. It sounded like it was like coming from like way over here, but then you jumped. So I was like, okay, it's not my dog. For once, for once it's not Murphy. He is all kinds of energetic because he's, we can't take them out when it's like negative. Yeah. He's, well, he wants to go out with that. But this is the book.

I love the cover. Wintery cover. It's a very cool cover. It's really good. It's really good if you are like me and you're kind of like living in, well, you two. I think you have a little bit more like, what's the word I'm looking for? I think you have like a little bit like more bigger things closer to you. Oh, yeah.

Like you're not like as like out in the middle like. boonies as I am. You have a little bit more culture where you where you are. I mean, culture's pushing it, but I know what you're saying. I know what you're saying. If culture is Wendy's and McDonald's and

Chipotle and all of that, then yes. Topole is culture. Let's just get that straight. I have to drive an hour and a half to get a Chipotle. Actually, I've got to correct myself. We have Kudoba and I prefer I don't like Kudoba. I just don't. I'm sorry. Oh, wow. So actually we have Kudoba and I wish we had

Chipotle. So I was clearly trying to manifest that for myself. When I lived in Boston, I would go to Katova all the time. Less rural. That's what I am than you. That's, yeah. Yeah, I'm not really rural, but my neighborhood is surrounded by cornfields. So it's just a different. I don't have sidewalks.

Yeah, I have sidewalks. So culture. That's the difference. But yeah, if you're like us and you are sick of like thrillers that are like, Los Angeles, New York City. like all these big areas and you want something that like takes place in a small town to creep you out. Eric Rick's out. Yeah.

I agree. So it's really good. It's really good. I actually liked the whole series. But that was the one that was like wintery. So I was like. No, that checks out. Yeah.

Well, if you want to go the opposite of rural, it's kind of the opposite. I'm pushing it a little bit. There's the hunting part. party by Lucy Foley. Did I take one? No, no. Nice. There's so many dogs barking. It's like distracting.

So the hunting party by Lucy Foley is what I would call a wintry popcorn thriller. So like this is like when you're in the mood for just like some kind of wild twists with a vacation theme. That's this one. During the languid days of the Christmas break, a group of 30-something friends from Oxford meet to welcome in the New Year together, a tradition they began as students 10 years ago. For this vacation, they've chosen an idyllic and isolated estate in the Scottish highlands, the perfect place to get away and unwind by themselves. They all arrive on December 30th just before a historic blizzard seals the lodge off from the outside world. Two days later, on New Year's Day, one of them is dead. The trip began innocently enough, admiring the stunning if foreboding scenery, champagne in front of a crackling fire, and reminiscences about the past.

But after a decade, the weight of secret resentment has grown too heavy for the group's tenuous nostalgia to bear. Amid the boisterous revelry of New Year's Eve, the cord holding them together snaps. It's like wild. It's like, but it is like, we've all like, we've all like. read the trope of a group of people in a vacation type setting. And then there's the locked room part because they're like snowed in. Yeah. It was it was crazy. It's a crazy twisty, wintry popcorn thriller. And I will say this is good to read during a snowstorm because I remember when I read this, I put the book that I was reading aside and picked it up because we were having a snowstorm.

Oh, nice. So I, like, drew a hot bath and, like, got into a bathtub with that book. And it was beyond the best way to celebrate. I bet. So. It's so good. It's so good. I love that book.

I love that book. I, um, I love that one and the wedding one. Yeah, the guest list. Yes. Yeah. Those are definitely my two favorite of hers. Yeah. Well, I didn't read the.

Paris apartment. I wouldn't. That's okay. Not my favorite. There are some people, I feel like that book is like definitely. I think it didn't intrigue me clearly enough to like get to it. So I thought it was a very refreshing way for her to do the locked room mystery. Mm-hmm.

Kind of like the apartment building that Peter Swanson wrote. Yeah. I just didn't, the story didn't work for me. And it's one of those books where like, people are like, I didn't really like that at all or like people are like, I loved it. Like there's no one who's like, oh, that was good. Like people are just like, I did not like it or I loved it. Yeah. Which those are sometimes fun to read because you kind of want to know where you land.

Hopefully you will. But if you want to know a book that everyone will love because they should love it because it's amazing and I love it. The Overnight Guest by Heather Guttenkopf. I haven't thinking I need to bump this one up too. You haven't read it? Mm-mm. Well, let me tickle your fancy. Yes.

So the overnight guess, Heather Gudenkoff, so good. I don't know about you, but I love a main character who has a really cool unique name. Ooh, yeah. Like Darby and... Yes. And this character's name is Wiley Yark. We are just killing it with the names today. You said it with so much confidence, too.

Wiley Lark is her name She is a true crime writer Who does not mind being snowed in in an isolated farmhouse Where she is saying to finish her new book Complete silence a cozy fire It could be perfect But decades earlier at this very house Two people were murdered in cold blood

And a girl disappeared without a trace As the storm worsens Wiley finds herself trapped inside the house haunted by the secrets contained within its walls and secrets of her own. Then she discovers a small child in the snow outside. After bringing the child inside for warmth and safety, she begins to search for answers. It soon becomes clear that the farmhouse isn't as isolated as she thought and someone is willing to do anything to find them. Wow.

So. I need to read it. The vibes will match. So good. Oh, my God. It's just. Amaze. It sounds awesome.

I just got approved for her her one that's coming out. Everyone is watching, I think is what it's called. Yeah. I think it has, it has like a reality TV aspect to it. Yeah. I know.

I was like, ooh. I know. I thought of it. I thought of you when I saw that. I was like, I wonder if this is going to be talked about with like upcoming like 2024 that we've talked about.

Yeah. That's really exciting. Yeah. I know. I literally. I literally got approved this morning and I was super happy. That's exciting. I wanted to just stop what I was doing and read. She's really good.

Yeah. I see her a lot on social media too. I started reading her in 2011, I believe. Oh, wow. When I lived in Boston, I read her book The Weight of Silence. I haven't read that one Oh my God It is so so good It's so good

It's one of my favorite books in the entire world It's just phenomenal I read that And I remember like giving it to my boss When I lived in Boston Because it was just so good And it kept me like Immersed the entire time

That's how I feel about This is how I lied I was obsessed with that one Yeah Yeah It's so good Um I think it's like

I need to read her backlist yeah you do she's really good it's basically like the weight of silence is like two families that live next door to one another and they both wake up and their little girls are both missing and one of them one of the little girls is mute because of

something that happened. Oh, okay. So they're trying to find her in the woods and she doesn't speak. Yeah. That sounds terrifying. Yeah, it's really good. It's really good. And I think, I don't know if this is like 100%, but I think the families kind of like start

to like blame one another. Yeah, that checks out. So it's really good. Her backlist is incredible. Well, speaking of another person with a really incredible backlist. Oh. Next one is White Out by Danielle Gerard. Ooh, good one.

I love her. She's so cool, too. She's incredible. But this is probably her most wintreous book. She's written so many that who knows. But after surviving a car accident on an icy road in Hagen, North Dakota, Lily Baker regains consciousness with no idea where or who she is. Scattered Bible verses in the image of a man lying in a pool of blood hunt her.

memory. The same night of the accident, a young woman is murdered and tossed into a dumpster. Kylie Milliard, Hagan's only detective, doesn't immediately recognize the victim, but Kylie soon discovers that Lily and the dead woman share a dark past, if only Lily could remember what it was. Lily and Kylie both want answers, but Kylie has to play by the book. Lily has to play it safe. And the more Lily learns about her identity, the more she fears the truth. And this is also a series. Mm-hmm. That is very fun. I love that book.

Two more. I love that book. It was so good. Yeah. Yeah. She did an incredible job on that one. That's so much fun. Yeah.

And then she has multiple series. She just has books for days. There's one. It's like ex-zum, expose, excise. That series is very good. Yeah. I haven't read that one. And it takes place in San Francisco.

so you don't have to worry about missing out on that with the snow aspect. Nice. Well, I have one that's part of a series and I've only read the one book in the series. And I love it. And I will always recommend

this much of people. Creepy, creepy, creepy, creepy, creepy, creepy. The Snowman by Joe Nezbo. Yes. love this book so much. There's so many creepy elements in it. Like, it's just so good, but you do not have to read any of the other books in the series. But it takes place in Oslo. The first snow of the season has fallen, and a boy named Jonas wakes up in the night to find that his mother is gone. When he looks out the window in the cold moonlight, he sees the snowman that inexplicably

appeared in his yard earlier in the day. And around the snow. man's neck is his mother's pink scarf. So Detective Harry Hull comes in and suspects a link between the menacing letter he received and the disappearance of Jonas's mother and perhaps a dozen other women, all who went missing on the first day of the first snowfall. As his investigation deepened, something else emerges, he's becoming a pawn in an increasingly terrifying game whose rules are devised and constantly revised by the killer. Yeah, that sounds terrifying. I still haven't read that one.

Oh, good. It's so good. It's very, there's, there's some aspects of it that I can't say because it's a spoiler, but there are some things in the book that I think you would like more than I did, but I was still able to follow. Ooh, nice. So there's some things in there that I'm like, I think this would be good for you. But it's just good. It's creepy.

like you have a missing person that could be related to other cold cases you have a killer who built a snowman in your front lawn right like how unhinged terrifying yeah so if you like Lars Kepler then I think you'll love this

yeah and it just has like some really good cinematic creepy don't watch the movie the movie's awful I'm sorry for the movies it happens sometimes horrible but it just has some like creepy cinematic moments in the book that like remind me of like stalker you know oh nice like something i don't know if it's this book or another book but i mean it's not really a spoiler but like you know like the the thing where like you look outside and you see the footsteps leading up to your house in the snow but none going away like stuff like that yeah so it's really scary

that's really scary that sounds very that sounds very scary. Yep. I'll just, I'll have all the nightmares again. Just kidding. So I kind of broke my own rule, but I reminded myself that I'm allowed to for this last one. This is your last book? Yes.

Okay. So my last book, I kind of got the rules too. Nice. That's perfect timing then. This was one that Susan Walter, an author who I talked to on my other podcast. recommended to me at the end of it and said that she thought I would really love. And so I just wanted to talk about it because it's also a super wintry book called Shiver by Allie Reynolds. That was one of my books. Oh, is it really? Because you said you had read it. So Gareth read it.

So you guys can hear some perspective of someone who's read it. But when, is it me, oh, sorry, when Mila is invited to reunion in the French Alps resort that saw the peak of her snowboarding career. She drops everything to go. While she would rather forget the events of the winter, the invitation comes from Curtis, the one person she can't seem to let go. The five friends haven't seen each other for 10 years since the disappearance of the beautiful and enigmatic Saskia. But when an icebreaker game turns menacing, we better watch out with our icebreakers, they realize they don't know who has really gathered in there and how far they will go to find the truth. In a deserted lodge high up on a mountain, the secrets of the past are about to come

to life. This is another cover that is Winery A-F. So good. So good. I'm excited. It does sound really good, and I will read it sometime soon. Yeah. And it's like, I don't want to say it's like super actiony, but like because they are like, she said it kind of was sports. It's sports kind of people. Yeah. You know, then like there's that. element, but it's just so good. And the cast is fantastic. Cast is fantastic. Yeah.

It sounds so fun. It's really good. It's really good. I think you would really like it. I just want to read, read, read, read. I don't think that was as much cheating as I did. But you can one up me. So I picked one.

this book's not out yet oh well that's okay it comes out january 30th but i'm sure it's going to be a long winner um or you can request it on that galley if you should if you do so i also don't know if there's snow in it but it said when it was pitched to me it said it was Nordic noir and very atmospheric So I've never read an atmospheric Nordic noir that's like 4th of July hot hot summer So like I'm assuming that it's going to be a chilly weather in this one Yeah But it just sounds really good and it said it was for fans of Joe Nezbo so well there we go It is called the Mountain King by Anders de la Mote MOTI.com

TE. Yeah. So it is about criminal inspector Lenore Asker, who seems to have the leading position in the Malmo major crime division. But things go awry when in the middle of a high profile kidnapping case management re... Oh, relegates. I was just reading it with you. Relegates her to the so-called Department of Lost Souls. which is the unit for cold cases in the basement of the police station. So despite the humiliation, she is drawn into one of the more peculiar cases

where someone is placing small ominous figures in town, and one of them seems to represent the missing woman from the kidnapping case. So as she investigates going to, like, abandoned buildings, she reaches out to a local architecture expert, and together they explore the sinister reset, of the city and discover that an unusual kind of evil lurks in the shadows. Whoa. Well is right.

That definitely sounds like it's wintry. I would think so. And also is giving Chestnut Man vibes a little bit. It is. It is. And I am so pumped for it because I am all about that. Oh, it looks like it was published in a different language. Yeah. That's why it was showing me I could buy it.

And I was like, that doesn't make it. So it was published in 20. 22. Yeah, it's been translated and it comes out January 30th. That is very exciting. So yeah, I'm really excited for that. That sounds perfect. Very, very new war. Yeah, yeah, that sounds really good. And I guess some of like the early reviews are excellente. Yeah, it has a lot of great reviews right now. Yeah. So, there are your wintry reads. if it wasn't that, I did have Shiver, which I deleted. And I had In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware.

Oh, yeah. Because I really do love that book. I feel like a lot of people who want to read it are going, I've already read it. Yeah, probably. But I just love a sinister all-female cast. But I was like, that'll be one of my extras I can talk about if, I run out, which I didn't. Actually, we didn't have as many in common as I thought.

Yeah. That reminded me, well, it's probably because it's a really similar title, but I read Tiana French's in the woods around the same time that I read that one. And that was like a very wintry series multiple times. So there was, there's a musical called Into the Woods. Oh, yeah. I literally for the longest time thought it was the Tana French book turned into a musical. So I didn't read the book for a while because I was like, if you could turn this book into a musical, like, I probably don't want to read it. But then I would like, then I realized there was a difference.

And so I read Tana French's in the woods, but I kept calling it into the woods based on the musical. It's been a whole thing. Yeah, that's funny. I mean, it did come out in 2007. I know I found it. Same thing with the secret history. I called The Secret History a Secret History for years and years. Oh, that's funny.

Until my friend Cindy was like, it's the secret history. I'm trying to think if I have any that I do that with. Maybe not. I always get Crystal Smith-Paul confused and sometimes call her Crystal Paul-Smith in my mind. Oh, I can see that. I do it with. I do that with. Taylor John Smith

from where the Croddads thing I always call him John Taylor Smith So nobody knows what we're talking about Yeah But yeah So hopefully everyone Get some Good grub

stays warm And hang out with your fur babies While you read All weekend