Ordinary people might’ve been driven mad by death’s relentless proximity, but Sara was far from ordinary. In fact, a sorceress had even taught her how to raise the dead and she had penned the incantation into her diary. The reader learns about Sara’s life via her diary entries, which tells the horrific story of Sara’s loss and anguish and the superstitions surrounding ‘The Sleepers’, people who have returned from the dead.

Sis Cotter has lived in her cottage by the beach for many many years. Alone now, with just her dog for company, her children are scattered through the world, her husband is dead. Sis had a long marriage, but the legacy of her husband's behaviour means that her twilight years will not be as she had hoped. Her children are abrupt and appear uncaring, with her daughters holding grudges about their childhood and her son is such a disappointment.

The ageing Sis lives by the beach in a small Irish town. Her husband has died, and her children live away and are all but estranged from her. Sis is stoic yet lonesome; her faithful companion is Laddy, her dog. One of the first authors that came to mind as I was reading this was Donal Ryan. That's not just a lazy comparison, but rather Gráinne Murphy also captures the quiet lives and isolation of people living in rural Ireland, this time on the Atlantic coast. (I think West Cork, though place names aren’t mentioned. I noticed a few yerra's in it, hence West Cork/Kerry).

The title Winter People contrasts those who live in the book’s setting the whole year (with the ravages of West of Ireland weather) with those who visit the place in the more amenable summer months. Winter People may also be a reflection of those who prefer the more hostile months, and are content to wrap up, take the elements face on and maybe even revel in the bleakness. Do these three characters’ lives reflect this in a metaphorical sense? It was the spring before Papa sent Auntie away—before we lost my brother, Jacob. My sister, Constance, had married the fall before and moved to Graniteville. It’s that time of year when I find myself in the mood for a creepy tale of horror. Normally, I pull out an old favorite, like Peter Straub’s ‘Ghost Story’ or perhaps something by Poe, but this year I went in search of something new, or at least new to me.

Success!

This book had the very nice feature of making me question everything and everyone. I didn’t trust anybody here. *lol* And the usually cold and snow-covered landscape didn’t actually help with the growing sense of unease. Is there a supernatural element? Is it some crazy person playing a very long and sinister game? There was just no telling and I very much enjoyed the sensation of being creeped out constantly. The Winter People blends the anguish of loss and the yearning for connection into one great story, well told.”—Kate Alcott, author of The Dressmaker

I remembered my two sisters with the parents who were taken into the woods (“Sometimes it just happens”) and knew they belonged in there, too. The sisters would live in Sara’s house in the present day and somehow, what happened to them would be connected to Sara, to something that happened over a century ago.

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An edge-of-your-seat scary ghost story. . . . I will never look at the woods behind my home in the same way again!”—Heather Gudenkauf, author of The Weight of Silence At the heart of the novel is the longing to be reunited with a loved one who has died. How would you respond to this possibility, even if you could only see your beloved for one week? What risks would you take to take to experience such a reunion? McMahon has developed a subgenre of psychological mysteries that pit female characters with humanizing strengths and vulnerabilities against old secrets posing present dangers, forcing them to confront mystery and legend in creepily seductive settings. This mystery-horror crossover is haunting, evocative, and horrifically beautiful, a triumph…” Each of the three protagonists is steadily plodding along through the banality of life while quietly battling against their troubles and traumas while using the sea as a soothing balm - Sis, in particular, almost has saltwater running through her veins as she is so dependent upon the beach for anchorage.

Sis finds herself dealing with the reappearance of an event that has scared the Irish Psyche - the repossession of her home. Her only companion is a dog called Laddy, but she is sustained by her daily walks along the seashore, which faces her home. She has three children, long gone, and her thoughts continually return to ghosts from the past - her sister Bunty and her husband Frank. These two women watch each other through a picture window, with this in itself is a kind of loneliness. They make assumptions about one another, each ascribing to the other a splendid robust life filled with love - as the reader knows it's far from their lived reality. In The Winter Peopleand previous novels by Jennifer McMahon that you have enjoyed, how is the author able to make surreal situations seem highly realistic? What role do fear and courage play in each of her books? About this AuthorThe Great Alone is one of the best Winter books of survival set in a harsh climate. The Allbright family is dealing with the PTSD of the father, Ernt, who was a POW in Vietnam. The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon is gripping novel about a small town in Vermont, West Hall, where people disappear and farm animals to be slaughtered. No one knows where these people go or why these animals are killed. Many would love to believe some have just escaped the mundane that is life in this meager community, but others know the truth... or at least the legend of Sara Harrison Shea. I went into this book completely blind, only knowing that quite a few of my book friends have loved it.