Winter Mysteries

Grab a nice hot cup of tea, put a blanket over your legs and settle in for an evening of mystery and intrigue.

A Fine and Bitter Snow by Dana Stabenow

[MYS STA] - Set in the Alaskan outback. Private investigator Kate Shugak’s friend, and the chief park ranger, is being forced to take early retirement because of his views against drilling for oil in the local wildlife preserve. A fight to save his job ensues.

Death, Snow and Mistletoe by Valerie Malmont

[MYS MAL] - Set at Christmas time in small Lichen Creek, PA. Tori Miracle, the town’s newspaper editor, finds she must help to solve the mystery of a missing boy, as well as a long-ago mystery that has just resurfaced. Full of humor and eccentric characters.

Murder on the Iditarod Trail by Sue Henry

[MYS HEN] - Determined to track down the vicious killer of Iditarod dog-sled race contestants, state trooper Alex Jansen finds himself in the heart of the Alaskan wilderness--where merciless nature can kill as fast as any bullet. He must save Alaska’s premier female “musher,” who fears she will be the next victim.

Open Season by Archer Mayor [MYS MAY] - A wealthy young man seeking his stolen dog is killed by a frightened widow who has been set up to expect an intruder; a young woman is assaulted by a ski-masked man with a false tattoo. Police Lieutenant Joe Gunther connects the victims to their service as jurors on a trial three years before, in which a Vietnam veteran was quickly convicted of murdering a young woman. Set in the middle of a Vermont winter.

Silent Snow by Steve Thayer [MYS THA] - Rick Beanblossom, known as the man without a face - a face he lost to napalm while saving lives in Vietnam - is now married to beautiful television anchor Andrea Labore. They have a baby boy, who is kidnapped on the same day as the famous Lindbergh kidnapping in 1932. Reporter Beanblossom sets out to find his son. Set in Minnesota.

Smilla’s Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg [MYS HOE] - Living in Copenhagen, childless, part-Eskimo Smilla Jaspersen has only one real friend--her six-year-old neighbor Isaiah. When he's killed in a fall on a snow-covered roof, Smilla doesn't believe it's an accident and decides to investigate--even though the police warn against it. Smilla is a minor Danish authority on the properties and classification of ice. Her search for what had frightened the boy leads her to uncover information about his father's mysterious death on a secret expedition to Greenland, a mission funded by a powerful Danish corporation.

Winter of Discontent by Jeanne Dams [MYS DAM] - Amateur sleuth Dorothy Martin, an American now living in England, sets aside Christmas preparations in order to look into the disappearance of her best friend's beau. When the body of Bill Fanshawe, curator of the local museum, turns up in the museum's basement, Dorothy decides to find out who killed Bill and why, not only for the sake of her friend, Jane Langland, but for herself. With only a few puzzling clues to guide her, including a map of Indiana, she must sort out the conflicting information she gathers from the quirky and elderly characters who knew Bill during WWII.

You’ll find a comprehensive listing of author pseudonyms, searchable alphabetically.

Previous Issues of Book Notes

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September/October 2004
November/December2004
January/February 2005
March/April 2005
May/June 2005
July/August 2005
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January/February 2006
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Meet the Author

Stewart O'Nan

O’Nan was born in Pittsburgh, PA, in 1961. His award-winning fiction includes: Snow Angels, The Names of the Dead, The Speed Queen, A World Away, A Prayer for the Dying, Everyday People, Wish You Were Here, The Night Country, The Good Wife, and In the Walled City, stories. His non-fiction includes: Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season (co-authored with Stephen King), The Circus Fire: A True Story of an American Tragedy, and The Vietnam Reader. In 1996, O’Nan was named by Granta as one of American’s 20 Best Young Novelists.

“O'Nan is an experienced explorer of the irrationalities of being human.” --The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

" I think that if you haven't read Stewart O'Nan . . . you have some catching up to do."
--Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly

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