Unveiling Winter’s Secrets: Val McDermid’s Riveting Journey Through the Season’s Darkest Mysteries
At sixteen years old, I decided I was going to attend college somewhere with snow. Having grown up in subtropical Hong Kong and amidst year-round evergreens in Seattle, I wanted to experience a proper winter. My initial fascination, and subsequent frustration, with blizzards and knee-high snow eventually gave way to a quiet appreciation, and I was curious to review Winter: The Story of a Season (Atlantic Monthly Press; Jan. 2026) for a new perspective.
Winter is a beautifully meandering journey through childhood, local history, and a writer’s life. Although centered in Scotland, our glimpses of the season go wherever Val McDermid’s travels, memories, and daily life takes us. She evokes the intangible allure of the season with deceptive simplicity, almost making me want to give my childhood goal of building a snowman another go. In Winter, she takes readers across the full span of a Scottish winter, from staring out at leaves falling off trees to the various festivals dotted across the season, the winter solstice, and the new year.
