This is the first story I've read in this genre which falls under fantasy and historical fiction. I've always been a fan of suspense and mysteries so when I saw this on sale, it made me want to pick it up. Something compelled me to buy it and no it's not a little voice in my , and it's also not the half-price tag. Maybe I'm reading too much paranormal stuff but somehow it seemed to say "buy me! buy me!" I knew I was risking an impulse buy because the author wasn't familiar and after I saw the other two books (Threads of Malice and Valley of the Soul) I bought them as well. After getting home and browsing the reviews, I was appeased. It certainly piqued my curiosity.

I had a somewhat high expectation and not that the story wasn't good. It was great, but after reading a load of mysteries, I've learned to speculate and connect the dots so I was able to guess who the culprit was. Tamara Siler Jones was able to mislead the evidence to the wrong person who happens to be framed and I found that too obvious for the plot. While reading it I know they're pinning it on the wrong character and I was wondering how long would it be before they catch the real one.

Despite of that, this book was really refreshing with the whole different world, with a different god (in this case, goddess), different customs, expressions, curse words and the like I found them entertaining. And the angle of the story is the behind the scenes. When reading historical fiction (mostly romances), the hero and heroine are usually of noble or aristocratic birth and in this case, the supposed heroine was a linen maid, and all of the victims were maids.

The killings were brutal, psychotic, maniacal, and very gory. This is descriptive writing at its finest and that earns the high marks for me. The forensic take on the story was also interesting, as I expected from other reviewers, it's CSI set in medieval times. I liked that a lot and I'm on to the next in this series. ( )

Ghosts in the Snow might not have been a waste of time reading, but I couldn’t bring myself to finish it. The premise had been attractive—the book had originally been described to me as a magical forensic mystery—but I couldn’t stand the characters. Any of them. I was particularly taken aback by the prevalent viciousness against the female characters. And that’s not even taking into effect that this is a murder-mystery novel, and the murderer sought is a serial killer who is attacking young women. The women in this book are either characterized as sluts or bitches, or they’re being verbally accused of being sluts or bitches.

Remainder of review (with detailed quotes) has been moved offsite to accommodate more flexible HTML formatting. ( )

Tamara Siler Jones's work is different from other fantasy books. Half fantasy, half thriller, her stories have both magical alluare and edge-of-your-seat suspense as the characters race to stop the killer before the bodies pile too high. Ghosts in the Snow, Jones's first book, is a very gripping story. It's got magic, mystery, and romance, and though it's a tough call, I'd have to say that this is my favorite of the author's three books. I definitely recommend it. ( )