Cold (Charnwood Library)

Publishers Weekly

Set in Michigan's cold, harsh Upper Peninsula, this third novel by Smolens (Angel's Head, etc.) uses its frigid backdrop as the perfect setting for an astute examination of six lives wrecked by fate, betrayal and tragedy. Norman Haas, an inmate at a nearby prison, turns up nearly frozen and starved on the isolated property of Liesl Tiomenen, a widow whose life was derailed by the deaths of her husband and daughter in a car crash. Liesl has a gun, and she decides to escort Norman into town on foot, since the snow is too deep for driving. When she falls and can't get up again, Norman leaves her alone in the snow. Though he was jailed for assaulting his older outlaw brother, Warren, and pill-popping girlfriend, Noel, who were cheating on him together, Norman still loves Noel and is determined to return and set things straight. Heading home through a relentless blizzard, he picks up Noel and their three-year-old daughter, Lorraine, and together the three hole up in a lodge deep in the snowy woods. Meanwhile, Liesl has been rescued; recovering, she joins forces with dogged local sheriff Del Maki to find Norman, though both suspect he got a raw deal from the law. When all of the major players including treacherous Warren and Noel's sinister father come together for the final confrontation, nothing prepares the reader for the startling chain of events that lead to a violent, shattering ending. Smolens's skill in rendering scenes of stunning brutality and uncommon tenderness, his crisp dialogue, vigorous writing style and keen descriptive powers all make this a first-rate thriller. Agent, Noah Lukeman. (Sept.) Forecast: A rave blurb from Jim Harrison suggests the cut-above quality of thisexcellent thriller. Smolens's previous novels were critically acclaimed, and this one should help build his readership. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

The cold can kill in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, so prisoners who escape either turn themselves in or die. But when Norman Haas walks away from a work detail during a blizzard, he's determined to make his way back to the woman he loves and lucky enou gh to stumble on the help he needs to do it. Norman has been harshly sentencedfor assaulting his fiancEe, Noel Pronovost, after finding her with his older brother Warren, then shooting in self-defense a man sent to kill him. But he is still an appealing character (despite his actions, there's an innocence and na vetE about him), even to widow Liesl Tiomenen, who helps him and puts herself at risk, and to Sheriff Del Maki, who tracks him back to the scene of his crime. Noel, who bore daughter Lorraine during her subsequent marriage to Warren, now over, is still under the thumb of her powerful father, as the characters converge on an isolated hunting lodge during a virtual whiteout for an encounter that leaves half of them dead. In prose that is as pure and clear as the cold it evokes, Smolens (Angel's Head, LJ 6/1/94) probes intimate relationships and reveals nefarious schemes in a gripping story. Absolutely compelling; for all fiction collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/01.]Michele Leber, Fairfax Cty. P.L., VA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Temperatures plummet while emotions reach fever pitch in a melodrama that also runs hot and cold. "A very hard place to live," says Sheriff Del Maki, born and bred in Michigan's bleak Upper Peninsula. Still, he's resigned, accepting the fact that desolate as the U.P. is-and often as he's thought of pulling up stakes for somewhere softer-he's the stuff of a permanent Yooper, the half-mocking term U.P. residents use for themselves. The sheriff's base is Yellow Dog Township (pop. 800), a few miles below the Canadian border, where not a lot happens, particularly in the winter, although now a young man named Norman Haas manages to stir things up. He begins by breaking jail and arriving, nearly frozen, at a local farmhouse owned by the reclusive Liesl Tiomenen, at 40 a bereaved and still-grieving widow. Norman is 25, self-involved and resentful, but in a curious way loneliness forges something of a bond between the two. Liesl warms him, feeds him, provides him with a change of clothing, swaps sad stories with him-yet feels honor-bound to turn him in. Once again, however, Norman escapes, spurred on by his determination to confront the woman who first wronged him. Despite her betrayal of him to his detested brother, the inescapable truth is that he's still in love with her. Sheriff Maki-a dedicated and indefatigable lawmen on the model of Inspector Javert-tracks him doggedly. Norman, his worthless brother, his faithless sweetheart, her heartless father, the relentless sheriff, plus some added starters, come together in a remote mountain lodge where old hatreds are released, bullets fly (also two arrows), and few are left standing at the bell. Smolens ("Angel's Head", 1994, etc.) can writeriveting scenes, but far too much of what's in between them is derivative or predictable.