Search - A Wicked Snow

In his first novel, true crime writer Olsen (The Deep Dark) brings complex mystery and crackling authenticity to bear on a cold case police procedural. Hannah Griffin has spent most of her life trying to forget the notorious Christmas Eve house fire that claimed her family and turned up almost two dozen other bodies buried in their yard; though the case remained unsolved, Hannah's mother became, posthumously, the de facto prime suspect. Twenty years later, Hannah's a happily married mother of one, a crime scene investigator for Santa Louisa, Calif., and a lifetime away from her traumatic Oregon childhood¿until a series of mysterious events indicates that her mother may still be alive. Hannah reopens the case, as well as old wounds, after enlisting the help of FBI Special Agent Jeff Bauer, the still-haunted chief officer from the original investigation. Thanks to Olsen's true-crime work, the case's particulars both grisly and mundane all carry genuine weight, though his characters can be cloying: Hannah's neuroses occasionally seem more dingbat than damaged, and Agent Bauer's tough-but-tender act is a familiar one. That said, Olsen's flashback narrative shines with lurid, carefully distributed details, and if it ultimately overshadows the present-day plot, his bizarre, many-layered mystery will keep fans of crime fiction hooked.

This was a GREAT read....................I will definitely read more of Olsen's books!

Excellent story line and good writing, and characters were well developed. However, if you're looking for a good twist at the end or an explosive ending, this book is not for you. The book just ended. A little disappointing.

Hmmm... I haven't completely made up my mind whether or not I liked this one. It was certainly pretty exciting, but it wasn't terribly well executed. The main character had a lot of issues, or not enough of them to be really intersting... And while the whole physique of most of the characters wouldn't have stuck out that much to me if Ndugu hadn't have pointed it out, it did become a little distracting the way that "good" people were pretty and the bad were very ugly. Mostly, the book was a big crack against mothers, as there wasn't a good one to be found in the whole book! The killings were rather unmotivated to me, other than I suppose, greed... On top of that, the whole thing was a rather a let down from its very exciting premise. Another female serial killer was a nice change for the drama, however.