Cold Winter Nights my sound like just another weather forecast to my friends in NY's Adirondack Mountains. For author Anne White of Glens Falls, however, it is the new winning title in her Lake George Mystery series. My review below, written for BookPleasures.com, will warm you just enough to send you scurrying to Red Fox Books or Dog Ate My Homework (for those of you in the Glens Falls area) or Borders in Saratoga Springs to buy a copy. Also available on Amazon, it's a great book to snuggle down under the covers with on, um, cold winter nights. Read on, please.
Cold Winter Nights, A Lake George Mystery
by Anne White
The serene backdrop of the Adirondack Mountains’ pristine Lake George seems an unlikely place to find the ugly snarl of infidelity, deception and murder, but mystery writer Anne White offers just that in Cold Winter Nights, the fifth in her Lake George Mystery series. We willingly follow White’s deft transformation of that idyllic northern New York setting into center stage for the killer’s desperate attempt to silence the too-perceptive (and delightful) Emerald Point mayor, Loren Graham.
It all begins at a holiday concert featuring a solo by the teenaged daughter of Graham’s good friend, Kate Donohue. Sheriff’s deputy Jim Thompson pulls the mayor out of the concert to tell her that Denise McNaughton, a respected RN from the area, has been murdered. It doesn’t take long before the small town is abuzz with gossip and theories about who might have killed McNaughton, and why. While Thompson and other law enforcement officials methodically investigate, Graham can’t help evaluating the evidence herself. Was it the Adirondack hermit, who reportedly had broken into cottages near McNaughton’s home? Could it have been Kate’s ex-husband, said to have been “involved” with the murdered nurse?
As the tale progresses, the reader is transported to various sites in the Adirondacks – from the New Year’s Day festive Polar Bear Plunge in the icy waters of Lake George to the snowy slopes of Gore Mountain Ski Resort, as Graham spends time with friends, conducts her official duties and does a bit of sleuthing. Throughout the fast-moving plot we meet more and more characters from the Lake George area – Don Morrison, Loren Graham’s fiancé; Dr. Kennison, the philandering physician; Teddie Murray, the incorrigible gossip; radio announcer Billie Jorgensen; newspaper reporter Stephanie Colvin; and Lucas Prendergast/AKA Luke Prenders, called by many “the Woodsman.”
Anne White weaves these characters and their motives so skillfully into the fabric of the story that we are at a loss to know just where to point the finger of guilt. As the plot reaches its apex, we find ourselves shivering on the shore of Lake George, trying to enjoy a skating party, but feeling the ominous approach of what we know to be the efforts of a killer to silence Loren Graham. The arctic-like waters kept unfrozen by ice-eaters just beyond the skating area threaten death as the killer makes the fatal move.
This reviewer predicts you’ll find a stack of White’s novels as irresistable as a high-carb snack; nobody can read just one. I’m already waiting for the next.
Fiction: Mystery
Publisher: Hilliard and Harris
ISBN: 1-59133-298-2, 978-1-59133-298-5.
Other Lake George Mysteries by Anne White include:
An Affinity for Murder, 2001, Oak Tree Publishing
Beneath the Surface, 2005, Hilliard and Harris
Best Laid Plans, 2006, Hilliard and Harris
Secrets Dark and Deep, 2007, Hilliard and Harris
Persis Granger, a reviewer for Book Pleasures.com, authored of two works of historical fiction, Adirondack Gold and A Summer of Strangers. She edited and coauthored Shared Stories from Daughters of Alzheimer’s: Writing a Path to Peace, and also edits Adirondack Guest Informer, a travel magazine, and the John Thurman Historical Society Quarterly, as well as organizing and hosting events for writers. www.PersisGranger.com
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