First published 2024
December 1953. Detective Grasby stares at the fisherman's corpse sprawled on the beach at Uthley's Bay, a stocking twisted around his neck. The remote village seems peaceful enough until hundreds of stockings in cellophane packages begin washing ashore. Then a blizzard traps Grasby and his partner Juggers in the village with no way to call for backup. The local innkeeper turns up dead. The villagers clam up, offering nothing but suspicious glances and false leads. Grasby notices something odd about the hosiery everyone wears, even under their work clothes. A mysterious man with spectacles lurks around their hotel. Every resident becomes a potential suspect. The snow keeps falling, the bodies keep piling up, and Christmas approaches with deadly inevitability.
Genres: mystery, crime, thriller, detective
Vibes: atmospheric, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: amateur-sleuth, locked-room-mystery, snowbound
Setting: Uthley's Bay, Village
Period: 1953, December
368 pages · Hardcover · Bantam
Content warnings: death, murder