The Winter People, by Jennifer McMahon (2014)
I picked up this novel solely because it was set in Vermont, my mother's home state.
The story follows the live of Sara Harrison Shea, who lived in West Hall, Vermont in the early 1900s, and jumps to present time with teenage Ruthie, who lives with her mother and young sister in Sara's old farmhouse.
Sara's young daughter, Gertie, died in 1908 during a brutal cold winter, when she ostensibly fell into a well. Sara has a hard time overcoming her grief over losing her daughter. Soon after Gertie's death, Sara is discovered brutally murdered ~ her mutilated body found in a field.
Jump to present day, where Ruthie has been out late and sneaks into her house hoping not to face the wrath of her mother, only to find her mother has gone missing. Ruthie searches the house for a clue as to why her mother may simply have vanished. She comes across copy of Sara Harrison Shea's diary hidden in the floorboards of the house. In her diary, Sara discussed her dead daughter. Critical pages, however, were missing.
Ruthie continues to search for her mother and runs across Katherine, a recent widow who moved to West Fall to discover why her dead husband was visiting the town on the day of his death. (Really? You suspect your husband is having an affair, so move to the "scene of the crime"?)
Katherine and Ruthie realize that Katherine's husband had met with Ruthie's mother on the day the husband died and the mother vanished. Is this a coincidence?
The book was mildly interesting, but not one I could highly recommend.
Read: October 3, 2017
2.5 Stars
No comments:
Post a Comment