THERE are few things better than being curled up next to the fire with a fast-paced thriller set in snowy climes. Here, we pick three of the best new reads to while away a winter’s afternoon.
Shiver by Allie Reynolds (Headline, £12.99)
Set in a ski resort and written by a former freestyle snowboarder, the newly published Shiver is a deftly plotted and gripping thriller that follows a group of erstwhile friends and rivals as they meet in the French Alps for an uneasy reunion.
The quintet lived and breathed pro snowboarding together – an adrenalin-fuelled, high-stakes world glittering with danger – but haven't seen each other since the mysterious disappearance of a member from their once tight-knit gang a decade ago.
Woven throughout is a flashback thread which reveals the seismic chain of events that led to secrets, betrayal and everyone scattered to the four winds. Until now. And someone is determined to make them pay for what happened.
READ MORE: A new travel guide celebrating Scotland's most remarkable rail journeys
The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse (Bantam Press, £12.99, published on Thursday)
This spine-tingling read has been generating buzz and anticipation for weeks, capped off with Reese Witherspoon choosing it as her February book club pick (the actor and producer has a good eye, having already brought the Oscar-nominated Gone Girl and Wild to the big screen).
A former sanatorium-turned-hotel on a remote Swiss mountain is perilously cut-off from the outside world after a massive snowstorm. As the hours tick by, people are being stealthily picked off – but by whom and for what reason?
Among the guests is a police detective who faces a race against time to figure out what malevolent forces are at play before the next victim is claimed in a dark, creepy and suspenseful tale.
One By One by Ruth Ware (Harvill Secker, £12.99)
A contemporary homage to Agatha Christie's classic And Then There Were None, this twisting thriller and murder mystery opens with chilling news report: a deadly avalanche, a series of grisly deaths and the authorities blamed for not stepping in sooner.
READ MORE: Are these Scotland's best train journeys? 10 great railway routes
Shaky allegiances are forged at a corporate retreat in a luxury Alpine chalet where its occupants must decide whether to go ahead with a billion-dollar buyout that could bring riches – or be a huge mistake. As battle lines are drawn, an avalanche hits and traps them in a snowy prison.
Mobile phone reception is cut off, the temperature drops, food begins to dwindle and, one by one, the body count begins to climb. A galloping page-turner.
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