Cold : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: What trailer park do these people live in?
Review: A classic story of a blossoming relationship playing out against an old lover's triangle. I found the relationship between the sheriff and Liesel to be much more interesting than the two brothers fighting over an underachieving woman like two little children fight over a toy. Unfortunately, the book focuses more on the trailer-park antics of drunken, drug using convict brothers rather than the sheriff and his new found romance.

I believe Mr. Smolens could really write a good descriptive story if he didn't have to pepper it with four letter words and sleazy situations. I'm not clear as to whether this is his own idea or something his publishers believe will sell books. In either case, this tactic sold one book, but will not sell any more to me.

Rating:
Summary: Good writing style, hollow characters
Review: In search of a good suspense novel, I was drawn to this book because of its very unexotic setting of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and the positive remarks on Smolens' writing. The prose is very good, a sign that Smolens knows his stuff as a wordsmith. The writing style and plot immediately drew me into the book, but the characters I found to be very disappointing in their lack of depth or appeal. Del Maki, the sheriff, and Warren Haas, Norman's sleazy brother, are the only characters of any real complexity. Norman Haas, the prison inmate who walked away from a work detail (in the middle of a blizzard!), just barely registers as an actual personality. Are we really supposed to care about this empty character or what happens to him? He walks away from the prison in a storm without thinking, he walks away from an injured woman in the snow who was trying to help him, he walks away from a horrible accident that he caused and that left two men dead. He should have walked straight out of the book.

And the women in the story are very problematic. Liesl Tiomenen is supposedly a complex character who lives in an isolated after the accident that left her husband and daughter dead and her face marred. She rescues the fugitive and inexplicably feels drawn to this creepily vacuous man in some way, even after he abandons her in the snow. She exhibits about as much personality as the clay she forms into pottery. Why is the sheriff attracted to this emotional ice cube? I sure don't know. And Noel Pronovost, Norman's ex-fiancee and now Warren's estranged wife and the mother of Norman's child, is really more of an insulting caricature of women than a character. She is a mindless, pill-popping twit who is too passive to be either a hardcore (...) one can hate or a gutsy survivor one can root for.

Norman is the catalyst who brings about the violent confrontation as old enmities and ruthless greed clash. Maki and Liesl are caught in the middle as the truth behind Norman's imprisonment unfolds and those who have the most to lose struggle to keep it hidden. The denoument is very bloody and high on the death count. I kept rooting for the death of Norman Haas. The novel did improve with the intricate action and the interaction among various characters and the wll-developed atmosphere of cold and isolation. The eventual denoument is bloody and rather high on the death count. Better characterization would have vastly improved this novel.And the actual residents of the Upper Peninsula in Michigan have nothing to feel flattered about.

Rating:
Summary: Definitely a page turner
Review: The unjustly low rating of this book by other reviews seem to stem from their issues with Finnish names and deer carcass than with the actual plot and story being presented here.

That said, Smolens delivers a page-turner that rivals the turnability of Stephen King, while keeping the story a little more grounded. Some characters are indeed flat, and maybe they should be. After all, there's not room for every character to be well-rounded.

Some may say this story is about Norman, but the true character change comes in Sheriff Del Maki who, in the pursuit of the escaped Norman, takes a trek down memory lane to the "one that got away". Maki's inner resound is where, I feel, the real story dwells.

Smolens next book is set on the east coast, which should justify it for better reviews since hostile Yoopers won't be able to pick apart names and settings.

And also, having lived in Michigan's Upper Peninsula for six years, yes it does get that cold.