Review ~ Cover of Snow by Jenny Milchman

Ballantine Books
15 January 2013

Cover of Snow

by

Jenny Milchman

Nora Hamilton wakes one morning to find her police officer husband gone from the bed they shared, and their old farmhouse in the Adirondack Mountains of New York seemingly deserted. Whilst the coffee pot splutters, Nora makes a fearsome discovery and unleashes a story that is as powerful, as it is frighteningly accurate. Suspenseful from the very beginning, Cover of Snow describes perfectly the controlling atmosphere of a small town, where all newcomers are viewed with suspicion. Where, even in the aftermath of sorrow, and as Nora yearns to depend on her husband’s brotherhood of police officers; there are sinister forces at work within the town community who are equally as powerful in forcing Nora away.

Without doubt, Jenny Milchman has written a very good debut novel. It is evident throughout Cover of Snow that she has an undeniable talent, and as the story leaps of the page, it is obvious that she has a wonderful descriptive ability. She paints such a picture with words that this reader thousands of miles from the Adirondack Mountains can still feel the cold, cold breath of snow, and as the chill settles over the mountains, you realise that there are shadows creeping into the darkest crevices.

Cover of Snow is one of those books that you easily lose sleep over, not just because you want to continue reading long into the night, but also because you want to believe that good will triumph in the end.

My thanks to NetGalley and Random House / Ballantine Books for a digital copy of Cover of Snow to read and review.

4****