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.
The first few hours following Nora’s devastating discovery pass for her in a
blur of numbness and disbelief. Then, a disturbing awareness slowly settles in:
Brendan left no note and gave no indication that he was contemplating taking
his own life. Why would a rock-solid police officer with unwavering affection
for his wife, job, and quaint hometown suddenly choose to end it all? Having
spent a lifetime avoiding hard truths, Nora must now start facing them.
Unraveling her late husband’s final days, Nora searches for answers—but meets
with bewildering resistance from Brendan’s best friend and partner, his fellow
police officers, and his brittle mother. It quickly becomes clear to Nora that
she is asking questions no one wants to answer. For beneath the soft cover of
snow lies a powerful conspiracy that will stop at nothing to keep its presence
unknown . . . and its darkest secrets hidden.
BOOK DETAILS
Hardcover: $26, eBook: $12.99
ISBN: 978-978-0-345-53421-7
Adult Fiction / Thriller, 336 pages
Ballantine / Random House
Jan. 15, 2013
Author Bio:
Praise for Jenny
Milchman and
Cover of Snow
“Everything a great
suspense novel should be—tense, emotional, mysterious and satisfying. Let’s
hope this is the start of a long career.”
–Lee Child
“COVER OF SNOW is a
luge ride of action and atmosphere, a terrifically suspenseful read. A
suicide in a creepy town, clogged with snow and secrets, starts a young widow
on a perilous hunt. Soon we’re careening along with her as she chases clues and
as the full horror of what really happened to her husband is revealed. Reading
COVER OF SNOW feels like racing across a frozen lake. Heart-pounding,
exhilarating, frightening.”
–Louise Penny
“Milchman’s intricately
plotted and aptly titled COVER OF SNOW is layered with suspense, sorrow,
and a strong sense of place and character.”
–Linwood Barclay
“Absorbing from start
to finish: Jenny Milchman writes a deeply felt and suspenseful story of a
woman whose life is upended by a death and a dark secret. While perceptively
reflecting on community and our connections to one another, COVER OF SNOW is
also an insightful look at the intimacies and secrets of marriage.”
–Nancy Pickard
“COVER OF SNOW is a darkly atmospheric first novel that
challenges all sorts of romantic notions we might harbor about small towns and
the people we think we can trust. Luckily, heroine Nora Hamilton—and writer
Jenny Milchman—have the skill and fortitude to lead readers through a
suspenseful story of switchbacks and surprises. A mystery that will draw in
fans of darker fare as well, reminiscent of Margaret Maron’s work, which is
about the highest praise I can bestow.”
–Laura Lippman
“In her debut outing,
Jenny Milchman has succeeded in a way many veteran writers can only envy. COVER OF SNOW is a tightly plotted, wonderfully unpredictable, and immensely satisfying
novel. All the elements—character,
setting, pace, language—are pitch perfect.
Believe me, it doesn’t get any
better than this.”
–William Kent Krueger
“COVER OF SNOW is what
every reader wants—a terrific story,
beautifully told. Heartbreaking, sinister, compelling and completely original. I love this book.”
–Hank Phillippi Ryan
“Jenny Milchman's
expertly crafted, dark and smoothly
suspenseful page-turner slowly reveals the layers of terrifying secrets
hidden in a small Adirondack town under cover of snow. I only wish I had
written this novel! Watch for this stellar
debut on the Best First Novel lists.”
–Julia Spencer-Fleming
“Jenny Milchman proves
she is a master of psychological
suspense in this page-turner of a novel. With its compelling protagonist
and haunting setting, COVER OF SNOW makes for an outstanding series debut.”
–Stefanie Pintoff
MY REVIEW:
The Cover of Snow by Jenny Milchman
Love where this one takes place, in snow country. After she wakes up and goes searching for her policeman husband and finds he's committed suicide she is beside herself.
Things don't fit in as to why he did it. He's had many secrets over the years that he never told her about and she finds out over time. Every little clue she uncovers leads to
answers to some but opens more possibilities.
Never imagined all she went through to piece this puzzle all together.
And just when I thought it was over, it's brought to more conclusion that I didn't see coming.
Like that there are not many people involved to keep up to date with but just enough to make this a worthwhile story.
Beauty of the snow and locale I really appreciated. Love how she hooks up with some to help her gain knowledge of past events and they in turn were using her to gain knowledge of the present events.
Interview Questions:
·
What other genres would you consider writing? I
don’t know if I could write another genre. I feel like crime fiction is one of
the richest ones there is, with a literary history that includes the likes of
Dostoevsky and Edgar Allan Poe, and which covers topics as deep and dark as the
human heart. Getting to write in this genre is one of the greatest privileges
of my life. My publisher feels that Cover of Snow has elements of
women’s fiction in it as well, and other people have identified threads—horror,
occasionally literary. I don’t know if that is all there—although it would be
nice if they were—but for me the books that I love to write and read boil down
to just plain good stories. If I can be transported for a few days by a book, I
am happy. And if I can do that for someone else, it would be an honor. I think
we all need to be transported sometimes.
·
Do you have other novels just waiting to be
published? I wrote seven novels before Cover of Snow. So
my first published novel is actually my eighth written. (It took me a while to
learn!) I would say that six of those are not ready to be published, although
perhaps a few are worth revisiting someday. But my seventh novel, about a woman
who runs into trouble while on a family vacation, nearly sold before Cover of
Snow did. And I dearly hope it is published one day.
·
Did you physically go to the town the book is
located or did you do research work on the net? Actually, neither. Wedeskyull is a
fictional town so I didn’t have to go any farther than my own mind while I was
writing. My parents have some property deep in the Adirondacks, which they’ve
never been able to afford to develop. We’ve camped on it though, and it’s lived
a long time in my parents’ hearts as a dream. I guess it got into my blood
somehow, and became a region I never wanted to leave.
·
Where did you get the idea to write this book? The
idea behind
Cover
of Snow was a question that grabbed me around the throat
and just wouldn’t let go. What would make a good man do the worst thing he
possibly could to his wife? Of course, first I had to figure out what that
‘worst thing’ would be, but once I did, I had a premise and an opening scene
that persisted over many years and about twenty-two drafts. Another way to
describe
Cover of Snow is with this log line:
When her police
detective husband commits suicide in the middle of a frozen Adirondack winter,
Nora Hamilton must lay bare the secrets a town has always kept...as well as her
own.
·
Love your site and the pictures of your trips.
What state/national park have you wanted to visit that you have not yet? Thank you! I
would love to visit Arizona. Actually, the whole southwest, including most of
California, is a part we haven’t gotten to go to yet. There are some great
bookstores in Arizona, Texas, and California that I dream of visiting!
·
What authors do you read? The biggest
influence on me as a writer is Stephen King. I started reading him as a child,
and still get whole new things from his books today. Crime fiction writers
starting with Edgar Allan Poe and Shirley Jackson were some of my favorites.
Contemporary authors are too many to mention, and I always fear leaving someone
out, but I love what reviewer Oline Cogdill calls “family thrillers,” about the
intersection between the domestic and the disaster.
·
Hobbies: walking, photography, knitting,
baking? Sigh. I wish I could say I do any of those. Well, sometimes I
bake. I’d like my kids to have memories of mom and hearth, but to a certain
extent, life has been about writing and reading for me for a very long time. I
hope that I’m teaching my children something about passion—finding your dream
and following it with all your heart. Because there’s been very little time for
anything else, once everyone is fed and brushed and, of course, read to!
Jenny
Milchman is a suspense novelist from New Jersey whose short stories have
appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Adirondack Mysteries II, and in an
e-published volume called Lunch Reads. Jenny is the founder of Take Your Child
to a Bookstore Day, and the chair of International Thriller Writers’ Debut
Authors Program. Her first novel, Cover of Snow, is published by
Ballantine.
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