- Hardcover: 304 pages
- Publisher: Jo Fletcher Books (September 24, 2013)
- ISBN-10: 1623650224
- Source: Wunderkind PR
After Cass’ husband, a soldier, is declared missing while serving in the Middle East, she packs up her son, Ben, and returns to Darnshaw, a village she herself lived in as a child. The village has a dark past of missing children and witchcraft, but despite this, Cass is certain this new life is the best for her and her son. Their new home is an apartment in a revitalized old mill. Since Cass’ job is a website designer, she can literally work from anywhere. Internet access allows her to work and keep in touch with the outside would while Ben is at school. Yet when a blizzard knocks out the phone lines (and Cass’ access to the internet) she soon learns just how remote they are.
Cass’ hope that the locals would be welcoming is quickly shattered. Her only “friend” in town is the principal at Ben’s school, Theodore Remick, a “substitute” of sorts taking over for sitting principal who is on leave due to a family emergency. Cass can’t deny her attraction to Remick; an attractive man, attentive to her son, providing her with essentials when the stores run out. To the reader, Remick is odd from the beginning, a strange connection to the children, whom he refers to as his “troop.” Unfortunately, it takes Cass a bit too long to see Remick’s true colors.
In A Cold Season, Littlewood creates a dark and foreboding feeling from the moment the book begins. Cass & Ben pick up a stranger alongside the road, one that Ben claims “smells bad” and seems…off. The blizzard that storms through immediately adds a sense of foreboding, isolating Cass and the others from the outside world. Cass’ flashbacks to her childhood in Darnshaw have the readers on edge of their seats, dying to know more about what drew her back to the village. All together, the perfect ingredients to a great horror novel.
Despite this, there are some faults. Cass’ character seemed quite naive, not picking up on subtleties that, all connected, would allow her to realize the danger she and her son are in. From Ben’s rapid behavior changes to the strange wound that shows up on his hand, as a mother I would think that these events would somehow be related. Understandably, Cass is under a tremendous amount of pressure and strain. Her husband is assumed dead. She has no other connections or family due to her denouncement of her father due to his religious obsession (who has a connection to Darnshaw). Her business, her way of life, is threatened when they lose their phone connection. Making matters worse, the blizzard starts a panic among the villagers and soon the market shelves are empty and Cass is struggling to find food. I get that all these things would build up in a person, perhaps making them unable to think properly.
Given the chilling and terrifying world that Littlewood creates in this novel, I can overlook the character issues. After all, how many of us have found ourselves shouting words of warning to characters in horror movies (Don’t go upstairs! Don’t go to the basement! Look behind you!) and can, without reservation, recommend this to fans of horror fiction, especially that with rich, atmospheric setting. The ending leaves the reader wondering, with terrifying anticipation, if there will be more to Cass and Ben’s story. Recommended!
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