Cover of Snow by Jenny Milchman

by:  Jenny Milchman
published by:  Ballantine Books
publish date:  January 15, 2013

Waking up one wintry morning in her old farmhouse nestled in the Adirondack Mountains of New York, Nora Hamilton instantly knows that something is wrong. When her fog of sleep clears, she finds her world is suddenly, irretrievably shattered: Her husband, Brendan, has committed suicide.

Following her husband's suicide, Nora begins to unravel a web of lies that has been shrouding their tiny town for decades.  Once she does, the bodies begin to pile up and the houses start to come down.  It's a story of small town secrets, police corruption and the lengths families will go to protect their own.

Jenny Milchman was being hailed as being on the same level as Gillian Flynn, Chris Bohjalian and Nancy Pickard.  Those are three sort of bizarre choices to string together, but I think she would align more closely with Nancy Pickard if I were forced to pick one.   Her writing didn't have that darkness or depravity that the reader expects with Flynn and Bohjalian.  However, the mystery did eventually become interesting.  In the beginning, I felt the "mystery" was weak, there needed to be a bit more of a hook.  Other than the fact that her husband committed suicide, I didn't understand what was driving Nora to keep digging.  Or I knew she was looking for answers, but I didn't know what her question was?

Cover of Snow was not exactly what I was expecting.  It wasn't exactly the deep, dark, scary thriller I hoped it would be, but it wasn't terrible either.  I felt like the book was right on the verge of falling into the world of dark and scary, but the writer just wouldn't/couldn't go there.  My thinking is, if you're going to go there, go all out.