The Dead of Winter Review

Title: The Dead of Winter
Author: Chris Priestley
Release: October 2011 by Bloomsbury
Synopsis:

Michael Vyner recalls a terrible story, one that happened to him. One that would be unbelievable if it weren't true! Michael's parents are dead and he imagines that he will stay with the kindly lawyer, executor of his parents' will ...Until he is invited to spend Christmas with his guardian in a large and desolate country house. His arrival on the first night suggests something is not quite right when he sees a woman out in the frozen mists, standing alone in the marshes. But little can prepare him for the solitude of the house itself as he is kept from his guardian and finds himself spending the Christmas holiday wandering the silent corridors of the house seeking distraction. But lonely doesn't mean alone, as Michael soon realises that the house and its grounds harbour many secrets, dead and alive, and Michael is set the task of unravelling some of the darkest secrets of all. This is a nail-biting story of hauntings and terror by the master of the genre, Chris Priestley

One thing’s for sure Chris Priestley knows how to scare the bejesus out of you. I love horror books. I have been reading them since I was a teen and I cannot remember a book freaking me out the way The Dead of Winter did. I am not sure what it was about Chris's writing but I had to stop reading at night because it was giving me nightmares.

Michael has lost both parents at a young age - his father saved the life of another man whom Michael has grown up resenting. His mother has recently passed from an illness, and when he finds out his guardian is the man his father saved - the last thing Michael wants is to go stay with this man. Being forced to go live with him is like a slap in the face. On the way to the estate Michael sees a strange woman in distress - but when he stops to offer help she has disappeared.

Michael’s weird encounters don't stop there; Michael feels like someone is watching him all the time and there are strange noises coming from an enclosed room. Michael seems to be the only one hearing the noises - but the help seems to know something and they are not willing to share.

Even though I figured out the gist of the book early on the writing is so engrossing that I could not put the book down.