THE LAST CHRISTMAS
AT WINTERMERE

The Confession

Every patient has a story.
This patient has three—and Jack knows two of them are lies.

Twenty-two years ago, a Christmas Eve blizzard sealed Wintermere off from the rest of the town. By morning, six people were dead, one woman had disappeared, and a stranger was found beneath the outdoor Christmas tree wearing someone else’s coat.

Now that stranger is one of Jack Steen’s patients. She tells him she was the innkeeper’s daughter, trapped inside her family’s home as old secrets began appearing beneath the Christmas tree. Then she claims she was a stranded traveller who had never set foot in Wintermere before that night. In her final account, she admits she came to the manor intending to kill someone.

Each story explains part of the evidence. Each contains details the police never released. But only one of those lives belonged to the woman sitting across from Jack.

To discover what really happened that Christmas, Jack must unravel twelve carefully wrapped gifts, a cassette recorded by a dead girl, a clock stopped at 11:47—and the truth about a locked room that wasn’t supposed to exist.

The patient has waited twenty-two years to finish her confession. She isn’t going to make it easy for him.

Now that stranger is one of Jack Steen’s patients.

Each story explains part of the evidence. Each contains details the police never released. But only one of those lives belonged to the woman sitting across from Jack.

To discover what really happened that Christmas, Jack must unravel twelve carefully wrapped gifts, a cassette recorded by a dead girl, a clock stopped at 11:47—and the truth about a locked room that wasn’t supposed to exist.

The patient has waited twenty-two years to finish her confession.
She isn’t going to make it easy for him.