Winter's End

Rating:
Summary: incredible police procedural
Review: Aroostock County, Maine Sheriff Dale Townsend and Deputy Andy Miller are driving south of Winter's End in a storm when a flash of lightning enables them to see a twenty something male out in the rain holding knives. The two law enforcement officials get closer only to see the young man hovering over an obviously dead woman with stab wounds all over her chest. The cops arrest the culprit for murder.

The victim is quickly identified as forty years old nurse Angela Lamond, but the Sheriff has no idea who his incarcerated suspect is. The guy has no record and refuses to even divulge his name. Dale calls his friend former FBI interrogator Alex Rourke to help on what appears is an open and shut case. Now a private investigator, Alex leaves Boston for Maine to see if he can coax answers from the apparent culprit. Though he slowly has some success, Alex concludes that this relatively silent soul anticipated his arrival, but why this seems so remains unknown.

WINTER'S END is an incredible police procedural that hooks the reader from the opening grisly scene to the final unexpected twist even with readers expecting a final curve ball, but not one that would make Blyleven proud. The story line never slows down as the Sheriff and the ex-Fed try to break a vicious case that seems so obviously resolved. The cast is strong and believable so that readers will appreciate spending December in WINTER'S END, Maine.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Playing by the rules
Review: As an avid reader of mystery and crime novels I was happy to stumble upon a new author in this area. The description on the back sounded interesting enough. Ex-FBI Agent Alex Rourke gets called down to his New England hometown to help the local sherrif with a puzzling murder case. Unfortunately, the author writes his book by the rules, sticking to a predictable plot carried out by one-dimensional characters. None of the so-called plot twists are surprising, and the outcome of the novel becomes clear about half-way through.
It has to be said that the writing is decent and made the book an enjoyable read despite all its shortcomings. If Rickards works on his characterization and plotline, he might yet write a great book.

Rating:
Summary: Psychological thriller with a surprise ending
Review: Ex-FBI agent turned private investigator, Alex Rourke, is called back to his hometown of Winter's End, Maine by old friend, Sheriff Dale Townsend to help solve a murder of a woman found lying dead on a dark roadway. A young man wielding knives sits besides her naked corpse. The man refuses to give his name and to answer any questions. Rourke is an expert interrogator, but suspect is more adept at playing mind games than he could have imagined. Rourke struggles as he confronts his own demons brought into the forefront by this mysterious suspect who has too much personal knowledge of him.

WINTER'S END was an engrossing page-turner from the very first page; a very hard book to put down. The plot while not exactly realistic, was intricately plotted and very suspenseful. An excellent debut novel to what hopefully will become a series.

Rating:
Summary: Playing by the rules
Review: I am only about halfway through this book right now, but as any avid reader knows, the true test of a good story is how eager one is to find out what happens. I can't wait!! This is a real page turner, and if you like mysteries, you won't be sorry you picked this one.

Rating:
Summary: Gripping Read
Review: I am only about halfway through this book right now, but as any avid reader knows, the true test of a good story is how eager one is to find out what happens. I can't wait!! This is a real page turner, and if you like mysteries, you won't be sorry you picked this one.

Rating:
Summary: Winter's End by John Rickards
Review: In this very good and very dark mystery set in Maine, Alex Rourke is asked to come home and help with a murder investigation. Alex is a former FBI agent born and raised in Winter's End, Maine. He hasn't been home once since he left years ago and now has resurrected his life as a private investigator in Boston.

But Sheriff Dale Townsend, brother of his best friend in school, needs his help. Sheriff Townsend has a suspect in the recent murder of a local woman. While the suspect was seen standing over the nude body holding knives in his hands during a heavy rain, there is not any proof that he actually committed the murder. The man won't confess or say anything meaningful at all and the Sheriff is stumped. The Sheriff and Alex worked another case a couple of years ago by phone with Alex suggesting a couple of things and that fact along with the fact that Alex had a reputation as a very good interrogator before his mental breakdown several years ago, convinces him that Alex is the man for the job. They need identification of the suspect and a confession fast as the local population is very upset and the pressure is on to close the case.

Alex agrees to help and soon finds himself back home in Winter's End dealing with a suspect that seems to be playing with him for his own amusement. At the same time, Alex begins to confront why he left in the first place and his actions the last several years. Alex is forced to deal with the past as dark forces move around him, pushing him towards a final confrontation and not just with the suspect.

Vast stretches of this debut novel reminded me tremendously of work by James Lee Burke. The author's use of imagery that, in this case is often the play of light and shadow evoked the association, as did his use of disturbing dreams and visions. Much like in James Lee Burke's works where the dead take visible form and have a message for the living, the same sort of thing happens in this novel several times. Alex's subconscious is very active and as this nearly three hundred-page novel works to its conclusion, the line of sanity becomes increasingly blurred.

At the same time, the character of Alex like many of the other characters in this novel is slowly developed. Unlike many first time novelists who perform a sort of data dump on the reader, each piece of background info is slowly doled out to the reader. As such, along with the other elements of pacing, plot, action, etc. everything is slowly but consistently moved forward tightening the grip on the reader as the novel unfolds.

This is a complex and very enjoyable novel and one of the best books I have read in a long time. Hopefully, this is the beginning not only of a series, but also of a novelist's career. If so, it is one heck of a start.

Rating:
Summary: A fine debut!
Review: Think: Stephen King and Thomas Harris meet Ed McBain. This is a fine debut by an author who, the back bio blurb says, lives in England. The book is about a small town in Maine: Think Salem's Lot. But the first person phraseology and dialogue of allegedly all-American middle class folk ring stiltified and British to this American ear: "I've not found," "midday" "half past six."
But Dialect be Darned - it's a fine debut! That's all I'm saying - to say more would engender giving away the genre in which this finally finds itself - and I just hate it when reviewers divulge too much!
/TundaVision, Amazon Reviewer

Rating:
Summary: A fine debut!
Review: Think: Stephen King and Thomas Harris meet Ed McBain. This is a fine debut by an author who, the back bio blurb says, lives in England. The book is about a small town in Maine: Think Salem's Lot. But the first person phraseology and dialogue of allegedly all-American middle class folk ring stiltified and British to this American ear: "I've not found," "midday" "half past six."
But Dialect be Darned - it's a fine debut! That's all I'm saying - to say more would engender giving away the genre in which this finally finds itself - and I just hate it when reviewers divulge too much!
/TundaVision, Amazon Reviewer

Rating:
Summary: Winter's End: Fresh Start
Review: This book is certainly interesting reading.

The story of a man who solves mysteries for a living running into a suspect he can't crack, in the town he grew up in of all places? Certainly a nice premise, and one that the author does his best to play through to the end.

I read this book while travelling in Europe, and after having spent a few days in England I was certainly aware of some Britishisms in the book, but otherwise the dialogue is clean and the characters range from interesting to tolerable. The lead character is tough and smart without being "hard boiled" or invincible, and even when some characters seem a little one-dimensional they are at least engagingly so.

Some of the relationships between characters are a bit thin at times, but the exploration of what it means to "go home again" with the express purpose of digging up the unpleasant corners of your past is built carefully. Certainly there are moments where the reader (or at least this reader couldn't) can't help but imagine what secrets might be lying beyond the edges of our own vague memories of home.

The twists and turns kept me reading, and the generally smooth writing made it enjoyable. I recommend this book for any casual reader's mystery list, as long as police procedurals and New England settings don't grate the nerves. They don't bother me at all, and I plan on picking up any other books from this author that I see.