“Winter: The Story of a Season” by Val McDermid

c.2025, Atlantic Monthly Press, $22, 160 pages

You’ve shoveled your last snowfall.

That’s what you tell yourself about now. No more 6 a.m. driveway clearing. No more chancing year, when there are lots of snow-free places to live. Well, as in the new book, “Winter” by Val McDermid, the season does have its appeals…

At the beginning of every year, right after the holidays are over, McDermid takes out the a backache. No more – until the next snowstorm. So why do you put yourself through this each notes she’s been keeping for weeks, and she begins her next novel. When it gets dark early in her native Scotland, it just seems like the right time for a crime story.

“I’ve always had a soft spot for winter,” she says.

The season, she believes, is “Janus-faced,” harsh and stern on one hand, beautiful and filled with promise on the other. It’s a good time to take long walks, bundled up, of course. McDermid says there’s nothing like train-travel in winter, watching frozen countryside pass by the window of a train car and being rocked to sleep. As she writes at home, she enjoys seeing the “road map” made of frozen tree branches outside.

She loves the holidays over wintertime and, counting it as a winter fete, she has fond memories of the Halloweens of her childhood. She recalls cold-weather foods in her mother’s household, including “good rummage” winter dishes and the kind of deliciousness that “bottom of the fridge soup” can make.

“Winter birds are much easier to observe…” McDermid says, and it’s fun to see some (but not all) the other visitors to their feeder. She loves the idea of winter sports, and recalls the fun of skating on icy ponds. She revels in the “bright shiny things” of winter but is shamed by the number of homeless people outdoors in it. 

And she waits for spring, knowing that “There’s a promise… in the darkest days that the light will return and restore the gardens to their reliable glory.”

So, there you are, cozily wrapped in a warm blanket, watching the snow fall outside. You want a book that puts you in the mood for hot cocoa and low lights.

“Winter” might not be it.

To be precise, this is not a bad book. It’s nostalgic and gently, sweetly humorous in places, and it offers some insight to a writerly life. Yes, this book is about winter, but in a biographical way specific to McDermid and her memories of growing up in Scotland.

You can take that as a warning: that alone means you’re going to either want patience for the appropriately Scot-centric narrative, or a good bit of foreknowledge to understand her many cultural references. The charm is there, the sentimentality is there, and the universal references are there, but so are terms, words, and possibly unfamiliar territory.

Go into this book, therefore, with eyes wide open. If you can’t, let this book drift away. Take “Winter” slowly, though, savor it, and you’ll experience a blizzard of delight.