The Dead of Winter

The Dead of Winter For the hours when the lamps burn thin, and mysterious footfalls cross the frozen ground... Winter has always been the season when ordinary life falters, when hearth-glow feels fragile, and when the dark corners of England stir with old, unwelcome things. The Dead of Winter gathers five chilling tales of snowbound nights, uncanny visitations, and the quiet dread that settles upon the land when the year is at its weakest. In The Three Duties of Josiah Hemming, a lonely widower receives an unexpected visitor promising him a final inheritance-if he will undertake three seemingly harmless tasks before the year turns. Each duty appears simple enough, yet each comes with consequences he cannot foresee. As the frost deepens and the final task approaches, Josiah discovers that fate, once tempted, exacts a price no man can refuse. The Snowman at Hobbs's begins innocently, with the sight of a snowman in a shop window as decoration. But is it more than that? There is, after all, a reason that nobody, when making a snowman, puts a mouth on it... A winter crossword becomes a quiet torment in 13 Across: Extraneous Pin Did Fatally Turn. A gentleman is ready to complete the day's word cross in the newspaper, when an annoying interruption by a strange visitor makes the completion of the puzzle a matter of life or death. In The Figure on Old Latchcombe Field, a solitary man, crossing the rise at dusk, notices a shape standing on the crest of the snow-covered field. Whether he walks directly toward it, or shifts his path, or retreats, the distance never changes. The watcher remains fixed-patient, silent, and wholly indifferent to the rules of perspective. As night gathers and the way home grows uncertain, the man must confront a presence that refuses either to advance or to vanish. The title tale, The Dead of Winter, follows a village besieged by a cold unlike any natural frost-a creeping, ancient chill that returns once in a generation. While the storm rages across the moor, the villagers take refuge in the church, where legends of frozen travellers, a breathing well, and a presence in the snow begin to feel less like stories and more like memories. When the storm reaches its height, one man must descend into the heart of winter itself, knowing that not all who confront the cold return to tell the tale. Full of atmosphere, unease, and the lingering chill that settles long after the last page is turned, The Dead of Winter offers a journey into the season's quiet horrors-stories best read by lamplight, while the wind prowls at the door and the frost thickens on the glass.