Cover of Snow: A Novel (edition 2013)

Nora Hamilton wakes up one morning to find that her husband has hung himself. This is especially surprising to her because just the night before they were getting busy with each other and everything seemed fine. Apparently a lot more was going on with Brendan than he let on to his wife.

The first hundred pages had me hooked. Was Brendan murdered or did he commit suicide and if so why? After that the plot wore thin and it ran out of gas for me. Nora spent too much time dilly dallying all over the place without advancing the plot. The pacing was not very good.

This novel is a little reminiscent of a Louise Penny mystery. Both authors chose small, icy towns with an omnipresent police force for their settings. Also in both books the townspeople know a lot more than they are willing to say. The main difference is a Penny novel has a more developed, intriguing mystery to anchor it. In Milchman's book everyone in the town knows what's going on except for clueless Nora. The only one who is willing to talk is Dugger who is autistic and he only speaks in gibberish rhymes.

The most unforgivable thing for me in this book was the lazy writing. A major character tells Nora that they will tell her everything .......tomorrow! You know they are never going to see another sunrise, come on give me a break! Really? It made me lose respect for the novel. Another troubling thing thing was the tie up to end of the novel was resolved so fast that plot points were not adequately addressed. I still do not have any idea why Brendan chose to end his previous relationship. The problem is once you have read Gone Girl which is so wickedly and brilliantly plotted, other novels in this genre fail to live it up to the expectations.

I got this off the She Reads thriller list. Usually their suggestions are stellar but I could have passed on this. For more on this book click here. http://www.shereads.org/2013/02/some-thrillers-to-chill-you/ ( )

One of my biggest pet peeves is when a young widow (who literally just buried her husband) is being hotly pursued by a brand new suitor. I don't buy into that scenario and frankly, its disrespectful. It makes me loathe the character and from there, the whole novel is a lost cause.

Another huge disappointment for me was the lack of atmosphere and setting. I love a good frozen, cold, hostile environment and for me, the story fell flat in this respect as well. ( )

Ugh.....Not a happy story. Everything goes wrong in this woman's life. Her husband committs suicide and is on hunt to find out why. The reason he did is so sad and awful that I cannot recommend this story. There is nothing in this story to make you keep reading. The author tries to have cliffhangers but they are disappointing. The story isn't even realisitic, the local police department covering up accidents so they look like crimes. I cannot recommend this book unless you like depressing stories. ( )

"Cover of Snow is the story of Nora Hamilton, a young woman who discovers her husband, a police officer, has killed himself at the beginning of the book. After a quite slow first half of the book, the action picks up in the second half of the book as Nora discovers more and more about her husband’s suicide."

The setting is a small town in upstate New York in the Adirondacks, and the setting and mood are the best parts of the book. Nora is an outsider, having only lived in Wedeskyull for the eight years she was married to her husband, whose family has lived in the town for generations. The actual mystery of why her husband killed himself is not the best part of the story for me, and I think that’s because the villains were not very well developed in the story. The book has an interesting premise and setting, but I left the book wanting more: more action and more developed characters.

The setting and mood of the story is even colder than the northern midwestern winter here at home, and I think I’ll try books in warmer climates this time of year for a change of pace."
source: publisher via NetGalley

It was interesting enough that I wanted to finish it, but it certainly doesn't compare to the authors/novels the description mentions (well, especially not Gillian Flynn...)!

For the last few pages, I thought the end might pick up the pace a bit, but the suspense just wasn't there. ( )