The Dead of Winter: Ten Classic Tales for Chilling Nights

by Cecily Gayford

Not everything that goes bump in the night brings gifts ...

As the nights draw in, the veil between worlds thins, and all sorts of ghosts and ghouls come tumbling in. In the shadows, under the bed, in wind-whipped snowy landscapes and in rooms lit by guttering candles, the dead of winter are waiting for us ... and their hearts are cold as ice.

From the mysterious occupant of an ancient tomb to the Christmas visitor who is troubled by violent dreams, these are ten ghost stories from the masters of the genre that will chill your blood and haunt your dreams through the darkest months of the year.

With stories from Lennox Robinson, M. Burrage, Ruth Rendell, E.F. Benson, Arthur Conan Doyle, H. Russell Wakefield, M.R. James, Margaret Irwin, Algernon Blackwood and W.W. Jacobs

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Fiction, Christmas, Mystery, Paranormal, Anthologies

181 pages, Paperback

First published November 23, 2023

Reviews

[Ken · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Pair of Muddy Shoes
It's a really strong opener with a weird twisted tale of a young girl with disturbing dreams.

Smee
Another memorable creepy tale with a wicked twist on a simple childish game of Hide and Seek.

A Bad Heart
More of a modern tale as a business mogul must spend the night with a family he has wronged. It does jump out as being slightly different to the other stories in the collection.

The Gardener
A spooky gophic tale, foreboding doom and a slight bit of gore of the gardener doom.

The Case of Lady Sannox
A nice dark twist involving an arrogant surgeon, liked the mention of opium considering this was written by Conan Doyle.

Lucky's Grove
Such an effective creepy story, especially as the slow foreboding of what's to come after a sacred ground having been disturbed.

The Story of a Disappearance and an Appearance.
Like the weirdness of M.R. James, an actual story set over Christmas too!

The Book
A really atmospheric tale of a gap in a bookshelf.
This was another strong story in the collection.

The Kit-Bag
A nice effective story. The setting is good and the manner that the tension racks up works really well in one of the shorter stories in the collection.

Jerry Bundler
The last story in the collection sees two men telling ghost stories, which seems fitting.
A nice impactful tale.

[Mizuki · Rating 3 out of 5]

(1) The first story is okay-ish, 2.8 to 3 stars.

(2) the second story Smee, I once read this story as a child and it's still so damn good, the suspense is so finely built up! 5 stars!

(3) the third story: A Bad Heart, is suspenseful enough but not very outstanding, 3.5 stars.

(4) Lucky's Grove, featuring a Christmas tree from a cursed place! However, I don't think I understand the ending well, did the house burn down with the children and everyone else trapped inside!? 4.5 stars!

(5) There are a few more stories but they are not very memorizable.

[Anissa]

Not until I began reading did I realize this is a collection of Christmas and winter ghost/scary stories. Beyond A Christmas Carol, I'm not a Christmas ghost story person (broadly horror is not my preferred reading genre) so, no rating.

I do love Gayford's winter mystery and summer vacation mystery anthologies and recommend them. If you're into ghostly chillers, this is likely for you.

[Daniel Myatt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A series of darker Christmas short stories.

And as always I found some captivating and some a bit boring. But an actual set of Christmas short stories that did have me reading the whole set rather than looking for something else off of the shelves.

I do enjoy E F Benson's ghost stories and The Gardener (his story here) was very good I also enjoyed Smee by A M Burrage, who I'll be seeking out more works by.

[Bart Verdeyen (cafeaulivre on Youtube) · Rating 3 out of 5]

A delightful collection of ten classic ghost and horror stories, all set in winter.
The tone-of-voice and the writing does tend to change one story to the next and sometimes, I did find it somewhat difficult to phase from one story and writing style into another.

A nice collection for Halloween or a spooky Christmas though.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Dead of Winter is a slim collection of 10 tales, by different authors. Although the title may suggest it, not all of the tales are ghostly. And, as you often find with a collection of short stories, there are some which feel more successful than others.

For me, the stand-out stories were:
A Pair of Muddy Shoes - Lennox Robinson
Smee - A. M. Burrage (second favourite)
The Book - Margaret Irwin
The Kit-Bag - Algernon Blackwood (my favourite)
A Bad Heart - Ruth Rendell

Smee and The Kit-Bag managed to create a great sense of unease, but even the others that I enjoyed didn't really create the chilling read that I was hoping for. Not a collection that I would return to.

[bea · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5.0

[Laura (Reading is a Doing Word) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book from Profile Books and it was perfectly timed and greatly appreciated!
A wonderfully varied collection of spooky, suspenseful and wintery tales - this was the perfect read for the grim weather and dark nights.
The selection varies from modern to classic with authors such as Ruth Rendell, E F Benson and M R James being included. Stories vary from sinister, spirit-induced sleepwalking to a malevolent Christmas tree. There are gruesome murderers, haunting tales of ill deeds past, and modern guilty consciences. This was a great selection. I enjoyed every story and the mix of some deeply sinister tales with some more light-hearted ones was a good balance.

[(:Alexia:) · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3,5 stars)

Hmm, finally done with this short story collection... And trust me, I am more surprised than you are at this high rating, but as a fellow book reviewer once said, sometimes the whole can be much more than its individual pieces (all ratings put together equaled to 3 stars in total, but 3,5 just feels right)...

Overall, only two stories managed to truly impress me to some extent, "A Bad Heart" & "Jerry Bundler" (thrill, unexpected twists, well-integrated commentarry, chills check), while "The Kit-Bag" and "The Book" were also really really good, however unfortunately the others definitely did not raise to my expectations of a good horror story. Some still had, however, interesting elements regarding the storytelling (e.g. one was only told through anonymous letters sent to a publisher) or regarding the overarching theme/vibe of the story. And what I really liked about the overall feel of the collection was the fact that each and every story focused on a different side of human nature and its downfalls/frightening elements, so when you look at the whole in the end, it truly feels complete and well put-together. Although I've had issues with the difficult and exaggerated writing style of a couple of stories (though they might just have been written in earlier times) and some also lacked the fearsome/thrill/surprise elements and depth, this is also extremely hard to achieve in short stories, let alone in HORROR short stories, where a lot of elements need to be there in order to succeed. For this reason, I don't really have the highest expectations from such individual short stories, however there were definitely some gems in the rough. Also, these ones are the classics, some of the stories which paved the way for the modern creepers, you cannot not give them some credit🙃

[Saskia Swets · Rating 3 out of 5]

First half of the stories were fun and very memorable! However the writing of some of the stories just wasn’t for me, I couldn’t get into it, and the fact that the second half just wasn’t that intriguing makes it a 3/5.
A Pair of Muddy Shoes, A Bad Heart, The Gardener, Lucky’s Grove, The Kit-Bag, Jerry Bundle, and The Book were very fun though!

[Julia Harding · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mixed bag, but some genuinely chilling tales, particularly H Russell Wakefield.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

These stories are a mix of mysterious crimes and, something rather other. They're all great and worth dipping into.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of the stories were good, in particular The Book, The Kit-Bag, A Bad Heart but Lucky's Grove just didn't make sense to me! Felt like there were paragraphs missing.

[Jeff Howells · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Dead of Winter is the 9th in the ‘Christmas crime’ series edited by Cecily Gayford. Although for this collection the stories have more of a ghostly, supernatural bent. I’ve already read a few of these but the standard of the rest is high. As long as they keep releasing these, I’ll be along for the ride.

[Paula B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ten Classic Tales for Chilling Nights.

I’m not usually a fan of short stories because although each tale ends, there’s not always a conclusion to them. But this collection is fantastic. Each one had me gripped and amazed by the imagination of the authors.

If you only ever read one short story book, make it this one. I’ll definitely be adding it to my ‘forever books’ collection to re-read in the future.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review is for the actual book, not the Kindle edition

Another wintery collection from Cecily Gayford; she seems to have run out of inspiration for crime based winter/Christmas stories and turned to ghosts and horror. I had read many of them before but the collection was none the worse for that albeit a little lacklustre.

I paticularly enjoyed two stories, Ruth Rendells' A Bad Heart, and Arthur Conan Doyles' The Case of Lady Sannox. The former I have read many, many times before and am still impressed at how skilfully it is constructed. The latter I have never previously come across: my enjoyment was probably partly reading something by the author sans Sherlock Holmes and partly because the piece, with no supernatural undertones, manages to horrify.

[Clara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨ (3 1/2 stars)

I picked up this book as an introduction to the horror genre, as I’ve been thinking lately that I might enjoy it. Overall, I found the stories quite enjoyable, there were definitely some that I loved, although a few others felt a bit dull. On the whole, I had a great time reading and would recommend the book. However, if you're not very proficient in English, it might be a bit challenging. The stories were written quite some time ago, and the vocabulary and writing style are older and more complex.

That said, I thoroughly enjoyed it and will definitely give a full horror novel a try!

[Plum-crazy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mix of "ten classic chilling tales for chilling nights", which I think were all new to me. That said, I've read others in a similar vein to "Smee", although it was still one of the ones I enjoyed most. The remainder were a reasonable mix, some better than others but none I disliked or didn't get (makes a change!)

A nice collection although slightly spooky rather than chilling.

3.5 stars

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.15⭐

A Pair of Muddy Shoes - Lennox Robinson 4⭐
Smee - A. M. Burrage 3.5⭐
A Bad Heart - Ruth Rendell 5⭐
The Gardener - E. F. Benson 4.25⭐
The Case of Lady Sannox - Arthur Conan Doyle 5⭐
Lucky’s Grove - H. Russell Wakefield 3.5⭐
The Story of a Disappearance and an Appearance - M. R. James 3⭐
The Book - Margaret Irwin 4.25⭐
The Kit-Bag - Algernon Blackwood 5⭐
Jerry Bundler - W. W. Jacobs 4⭐

[River · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a lot to say about this one really. It’s a collection of ten short stories all set in winter time. They were fine, I rated it 3 stars overall as I tend to do with most short story collections. Smee by A.M.Burrage and A Bad Heart by Ruth Rendell were probably the standouts to me but yeah. Nothing particularly noteworthy here but none of them were bad. If you want some quick spooky reads then maybe check it out.

[Natasha O'Brien-Fernandez · Rating 1 out of 5]

In all honesty this was not a very entertaining book. I figured these short stories would be entertaining given who some of the authors were but there was nothing to keep me entertained. Very slow and nothing chilling about any of them. In fact I wondered if a couple were even complete stories as they seemed unfinished.

[Isabel (kittiwake) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ten classic tales for winter nights.

Naturally, no materialist will entertain such an explanation for an instant, but then there is no one so obstinately unreasonable as the materialist.

I have read two of these stories before, The Kit-Bag (which is the scariest story in the book) and The Story of a Disappearance and an Appearance.

[Amanda Sloan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun little book full of chilling short stories. Some were more captivating than others, some I loved, and one took me four attempts to read because I kept falling asleep 😅

Perfect for that period between Christmas and New Year's.

[Lynne Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite enjoyable . Some stories more chilling than others. All well written and by well known authors such as Ruth Rendall and Arthur Conan Doyle.
I enjoyed being able to dip in and out of the book over the busy Christmas period - reading a short story here and there.

[Gem · Rating 2 out of 5]

My daughter brought this for me, for Christmas so I really wanted to read it. I did enjoy a few of the stories particularly the first one muddy boots. But equally I struggled to motivate myself to read some of the others.

[Amy Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a wonderful collection of Ghost stories! My favourites were:
*Smee by A.M Burrage
*A Bad Heart by Ruth Rendell
*The Case of Lady Sannox by Arthur Canon Doyle
*Lucky's Grove by H. Russell Wakefield
And The Book by Margaret Irwin.

[Terri Stokes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Filled with ten short stories, each one has a chilling and spooky aspect to them, each with their own theme and horror.
I found that some of the stories stuck out more than others and some were a little more confusing with the ending on some as well.

[Michael John Paul McManus · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very enjoyable read indeed. I've never read any of the ten stories featured in The Dead of Winter book before, so it was a pleasure to read stories of ghosts from past authors. Well worth the read. 10/10

[Stephanie Miceli · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first collection in a series of ghostly/horror winter tales selected by Cecily Gayford I have read and it does not disappoint. I look forward to reading more of these anthologies put together for winter and summer.

[Jay Rothermel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent starter collection for those who enjoy horror fiction but are ignorant of the classics.