No one liked CC de Poitiers - not her family, not her lover, not her neighbors in Three Pines. Still, when Chief Inspector Armand Gamache is called to investigate CC's sudden death on the day after Christmas, it seems like an impossible murder. How could she have been electrocuted in the midst of Three Pines' annual curling match without anyone seeing a thing? In the beautiful but deadly Quebec winter, Gamache digs for secrets beneath the surface of village life. But something more chilling than the bitter wind is coming for him.