We’ve reached the most miserable part of summer. By this point in July, you’ve probably already been to a cookout or two, oohed and aahed at fireworks, and shown off your cutest swimsuit at the pool. Pride Month is over. The jaunty tunes of the ice cream truck have lost their novelty. The summer joy has come and gone, and yet the punishingly hot weather remains. How are we to survive the scorching months to come? With some bone-chilling thrillers, of course!
While you’re sweating excessively and bemoaning the horribly hot outdoors, it’s crucial to remember that cooler days are ahead. That’s why “Christmas in July” has become a bizarrely popular thing. Personally, I’m a Christmas-hating Scrooge, and there’s nothing I want to think about less in July than that corny, commercialized holiday. But an icy, winter-set mystery? Now we’re talking! I’ve got three book recommendations for mystery/thrillers with snowy settings that will send chills down your spine, plus one book coming out this fall that you can pre-order now. Pull your reading chair over to the strongest A/C vent in your home, put an ice pack on the back of your neck, and cool off with these thrillers.
Bone-Chilling Thrillers to Cool Off With This Summer
City Under One Roof by Iris Yamashita
This thriller has an icy setting just as gripping as its mystery plot. Point Mettier is a tiny town so isolated that, when heavy snows block the only tunnel connecting it to the rest of Alaska, there’s no way in or out until spring. All 200 residents live in the same building, and they’re united in their distrust of detective Cara Kennedy, who traveled from Anchorage to investigate a disembodied hand and foot that washed ashore in Point Mettier. But when a blizzard traps Cara in town indefinitely, she can’t escape the theory that she’s sharing a building with a murderer. It’s also got an excellent wintery sequel, Village in the Dark.
The Living and the Dead by Christoffer Carlsson, translated by Rachel Willson-Boyles
Swedish criminologist Christoffer Carlsson has become an internationally beloved author of Nordic thrillers, and this gripping small-town mystery is a great place to start with his work. On a snowy night in a rural farming town in western Sweden, two teenage best friends venture out into the cold to attend a house party. When the body of another party attendee is found in the trunk of a car the next day, both boys become suspects. Can their friendship survive the suspicions and secrets between them — even if the investigation drags on for two decades? It’s an atmospheric mystery full of surprising twists.
Unusual Suspects
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The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo, translated by Louise Heal Kawai
This 1946 Japanese thriller is a classic locked-door mystery with a chilling twist. An entire rural village in 1937 Japan is preparing for the highly anticipated winter wedding of the heir of the powerful Ichiyanagi family. But horrifying screams heard on the eve of the wedding lead the family to discover the vicious murders of the bride and groom — somehow killed inside their locked cottage, with the only clue being a bloody samurai sword stabbed into the snow outside. It’s the first of over 70 books starring sleuth Kosuke Kindaichi, a detective who belongs among the greats like Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot.
It Looks Like You in the Dark by Mathilda Zeller (coming Oct. 13 from Tor Nightfire)
This phenomenal horror/thriller debut is sure to keep you frozen in your seat until you find out how it ends. Tapeesa was raised with folkloric tales about the hungry supernatural creature that haunts her family, who might pose as a loved one to lure her away from her Indigenous Arctic village. Tapeesa remains vigilant against this evil spirit as white men arrive in town to build a lead mine. But when her sister Esther goes missing, Tapeesa won’t rest until she finds out who took her — an ancient supernatural creature or someone terrifyingly human.
We hope this list of bone-chilling thrillers helps keep you cool until winter! You might also enjoy:
Mysteries and Thrillers Set at Amusement Parks & Summer Camps
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