Cover of Snow
Jenny Milchman, 2013
Random House
336 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780345534217
Summary
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 an explanation—but finds a 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. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1970-71
• Raised—Montclair, New Jersey, USA
• College—B.A., Barnard College
• Currently—lives in Morristown, New Jersey
Jenny Milchman is a suspense writer, whose debut novel, Cover of Snow, was published in 2013. Her short story "The Closet" appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and another story, "The Very Old Man," has been an Amazon bestseller. The short work "Black Sun on Tupper Lake" was chosen to appear in the anthology Adirondack Mysteries II.
Jenny is the Chair of the International Thriller Writers Debut Authors Program, and the founder of Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day, which was celebrated in all 50 states and four foreign countries in 2011.
Jenny also hosts the Made It Moments forum on her blog, which has featured more than 200 international bestsellers, Edgar winners, and independent authors, co-hosts the literary series Writing Matters, which attracts guests coast-to-coast and has received national media attention, and teaches writing and publishing for New York Writers Workshop and Arts By The People. Jenny lives in New Jersey. (From the author's website.)
Watch a video interview.
Book Reviews
…quietly unnerving…Milchman reveals an intimate knowledge of the psychology of grief, along with a painterly gift for converting frozen feelings into scenes of a forbidding winter landscape.
Marilyn Stasio - New York Times
When house restorer Nora Hamilton finds that her policeman husband, Brendan, has hanged himself, her image of their idyllic life in Brendan’s Adirondacks hometown of Wedeskyull, N.Y., is shattered in Milchman’s evocative debut. Yet Nora is not content to accept her husband’s death as a suicide. As she tries to make sense of the tragedy and investigate, Brendan’s mother and his police co-workers stonewall her. Refusing to simply move on, Nora discovers more and more things about Brendan that don’t add up. Why did he get a prescription for sedatives a week before committing suicide? What does the death of his brother exactly 25 years before have to do with anything? The townsfolk’s reticence to answer these questions only further compels her to uncover the truth about Brendan’s past. Milchman expertly conveys Nora’s grief in a way that will warm hearts even in the dead of a Wedeskyull winter.
Publishers Weekly
Well-defined characters take us on an emotional roller-coaster ride through the darkest night, with blinding twists and occasionally fatalturns. This is a richly woven story that not only looks at the devastating effects of suicide but also examines life in a small town and explores the complexity of marriage. Fans of Nancy Pickard, Margaret Maron, and C. J. Box will be delighted to find this new author.
Booklist
Milchman's debut novel follows Nora Hamilton as she puzzles through the inexplicable and sudden suicide of her young husband, Brendan.... The clues with which Nora pieces together the mystery of what's actually happening in Wedeskyull and why a happily married man like Brendan would kill himself are so obscure and easily overlooked that it's difficult to believe a grieving widow would zero in on them with such unerring precision. The ensuing investigation seems illogical and disjointed with the introduction of characters whose only apparent function is to take up literary space. Nice writing, but Nora's meandering investigation only makes a confusing plot even more so in a tale populated by irrelevant details and vague side journeys.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher.