The Cameron Winter Series by Andrew Klavan
As I dive into writing about pop culture and promoting my new novel, this is my first post about books I’ve read — and it feels right to start here.
Over the years, I’ve tried to read as much of Andrew Klavan’s fiction as possible. I especially enjoyed his Weiss & Bishop detective trilogy — fast-paced, gritty, and packed with sharp dialogue, moral complexity, and a narrator who wrestles with faith. It was one of Klavan’s early efforts to weave Christian ideas into mainstream fiction.
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His latest series, featuring Cameron Winter, has gotten better with each book, in my opinion. I’ve come to see Klavan (through his writing and worldview) as something of a spiritual mentor, a political sage, and — yes — an all-around annoyance to my wife (she insists women are perfectly capable of reason).
I can’t remember exactly when I realized Klavan was politically conservative, but I do remember discovering that he wrote the books that became the films True Crime and Don’t Say a Word. Since then, I’ve followed his work closely — and the Cameron Winter series might be his most layered creation yet.
The Cameron Winter SeriesWhen Christmas Comes (2021)Summary:
English professor — and former covert operative — Cameron Winter is drawn into the murder of a beloved small-town librarian, Jennifer Dean. Her boyfriend, an ex–Army Ranger, confesses to the crime, but Winter senses something deeper. As he investigates, he confronts his own haunted past and the loneliness that shadows his quiet academic life.
Why it matters:
This first book establishes the tone and structure of the series: a crime story entwined with Winter’s inner life. His “habit of mind,” the ability to mentally reconstruct crime scenes, becomes his defining gift and burden.
My thoughts:
The plot twist wasn’t particularly shocking, but the book’s emotional depth stood out. Klavan uses the story to explore Winter’s childhood and his first love — Charlotte, a few years older than he was when they met. That early attachment shapes how he sees women and love for the rest of his life.
Summary:
When a former student texts Winter “Help me” and then leaps to his death from a San Francisco rooftop, Winter travels west to uncover the truth. His search leads to Gerald Byrne, a sinister tech billionaire whose empire manipulates minds and lives. Winter’s investigation blurs the lines between psychological control and personal guilt.
Why it matters:
This entry moves the series into the modern world of Big Tech and power, expanding Winter’s moral and investigative scope.
My thoughts:
I don’t remember this book as clearly as the others, but it marked a shift — showing Winter stepping beyond the classroom and into a world shaped by corruption and control.
Summary:
A mansion in an affluent Chicago suburb burns to the ground, leaving four people dead — all shot before the fire started. Only a young boy survives. Winter is drawn into the investigation and discovers layers of deceit, privilege, and long-buried sin behind the tragedy.
Why it matters:
This novel deepens Winter’s inner conflict and places him squarely in the role of investigator rather than reluctant observer.
My thoughts:
I thought this was one of the best in the series. It returns to a smaller-town setting and introduces a new possible love interest, Gwendolyn Lord, who adds emotional complexity to the story. There’s also an unforgettable flashback sequence that reveals more about Winter’s secret past.
Summary:
Winter becomes entangled in overlapping mysteries — a missing college student, his long-lost love Charlotte, and a resurfaced mission from his covert-ops past. As political unrest and violence spread through major cities, Winter finds himself confronting both external danger and his own ghosts.
Why it matters:
The personal and the political collide here. Klavan uses the story to explore themes of faith, violence, ideology, and redemption.
My thoughts:
This is my favorite book in the series so far. It brings back Charlotte, ties together multiple threads from earlier novels, and unfolds during a time of left-wing riots and moral confusion. It’s also where Klavan experiments with structure — using a novel-within-the-novel device that I usually dislike, but here it works surprisingly well.
Summary:
Cameron Winter is falling in love. After finally working up the courage to contact the attractive therapist Gwendolyn Lord, he finds himself immersed in a passion that feels heaven-sent. When Gwendolyn tells him about a true-life “locked room mystery,” Winter feels compelled to investigate.
In Tulsa, Oklahoma, a solid citizen named Owen McKay suddenly went mad and killed his wife and child. Locked in a padded cell and monitored on video, he was nonetheless discovered dead from a projectile fired into his head. As Winter begins to ask questions, he finds Tulsa officials have been intimidated into silence by a killer who once tried to attack Winter during his days as a government assassin.
What’s more, another mysterious death — just like McKay’s — has taken place in Connecticut. And both murders seem linked to a sinister billionaire who once clashed with Winter’s old mentor, the Recruiter.
Winter’s past and present are coming together in a single dangerous conspiracy. And though he desperately wants to escape his career as an assassin, his love for Gwendolyn is deepening quickly — and he will do anything, and kill anyone, to protect her.
Why it matters:
If the previous four books chart his fall and self-discovery, this one may bring him face to face with the darkness he’s spent his life escaping.
The Cameron Winter novels aren’t overtly political or religious, but they do reflect Andrew Klavan’s worldview — moral, spiritual, and unapologetically conservative. That’s not a flaw; it’s part of what gives the series its identity. Klavan writes from a deeply moral perspective, which naturally shapes his characters and their choices.
Some readers on Goodreads have criticized this, saying it distracts from the mystery, but I disagree. Some of my favorite authors — John Sandford and Michael Connelly, for instance — weave their worldviews into their stories too. It’s believable. Real people bring their beliefs into everything they do, so why shouldn’t fictional detectives?
Klavan seems to have designed the Cameron Winter series to explore these deeper questions — not through sermons, but through Winter’s haunted conscience. Each book balances the outer mystery with Winter’s internal one, revealed through therapy sessions and flashbacks with the Recruiter, the enigmatic figure who once brought him into a covert agency. In the audiobooks, the Recruiter’s voice is fantastic — manic, darkly witty, and philosophical.
Storytelling and StructureI’ve always been fascinated by the way authors choose to tell their stories. Some go straight through the timeline; others play with structure, weaving past and present together until they mirror each other.
Richard North Patterson was the first author who showed me how powerful that can be — his novels often pause the main story and jump back decades to reveal something essential. Gillian McAllister does this too, using shifting timelines and overlapping realities. Her Famous Last Words uses a book-within-a-book device that didn’t quite land for me, but Just Another Missing Person pulls off the shifting timelines beautifully.
In my own writing — particularly The Day She Died — I use time travel to split the story into two distinct parts: Part One in the past, Part Two in the present. My upcoming novel, The Road to Ruin, doesn’t rely on time travel but still uses flashbacks to reveal key moments from the main character’s past.
Final ThoughtsWhat makes Klavan’s work stand out — and what keeps me coming back — is his willingness to tackle spiritual growth in a genre that usually avoids it.
When I think of my other favorite writers — Harlan Coben, John Sandford, and Michael Connelly — their main characters (Myron Bolitar, Lucas Davenport, and Harry Bosch) evolve professionally and personally, but rarely in matters of faith or morality.
Cameron Winter, by contrast, is a man wrestling not only with crime but with his own soul. That’s rare, and it’s what makes this series so memorable. With the fifth book arriving soon, I’d say this five-book journey is absolutely worth taking.
Andrew Klavan remains one of the best — an author unafraid to tell the truth as he sees it, and to let his characters live in the light and shadow of that truth.
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