Snowblind

October 21, 2013
Stephen King fans in the mood for another tale of a community under supernatural siege should enjoy this somewhat derivative horror thriller from Golden (Strangewood). The action opens on a strong note with a once-in-a-century storm hitting the American city of Coventry. The blizzard essentially locks down the city, but the dangers posed by extreme cold and downed power lines are quickly dwarfed by flying “blue-white figures” dubbed the “ice men” by a child. The creatures, who can move at incredible speed, claim several lives, while other people just vanish. At the climax of the terror, Golden fast-forwards the narrative 12 years into the future, when the onset of another huge snowstorm awakens fears among the survivors. Those feelings are soon justified, as the bad weather brings disturbing reminders of the tragic events more than a decade earlier. As in many such stories, once the threat becomes explicit, the sense of menace diminishes. Agent: Howard Morhaim, Howard Morhaim Literary Agency.

November 15, 2013
Something icy this way comes in Golden's latest ghostly thriller, in which the Massachusetts town of Coventry is never the same after a massive snowstorm leaves behind spectral presences. The storm upends the lives of a Stephen King-like cross section of residents. Hardest hit is Afghanistan-widowed school teacher Allie Schapiro, whose 10-year-old son, Isaac, is bizarrely yanked through his bedroom window to his death and whose love interest, Niko, runs off for help and never comes back. Isaac's older brother, Jake, who had dismissed Isaac's fears over seeing ice monsters in their backyard, and Niko's daughter, Miri, were on the verge of their own teenage romance. But following the tragedies, she moves to Seattle--only to be drawn back 12 years later when she receives an unsettling phone call from her father. At least she thinks it's him. With another giant snowstorm gathering force, strange behavior is spreading in Coventry, where a little girl begins acting and sounding eerily like her late grandmother, and, at the same time that a young boy goes missing, a frighteningly altered Isaac appears before Jake begging for his company. "They're coming," warns one character. Who is coming, and why, is deftly handled by Golden, who keeps things on edge from start to finish. As in The Birds, the supernatural attackers signify psychic unrest as much as physical threat. The book falls short of King-ian frights largely because Golden errs on the side of restraint in his employment of the evil spirits. But the book--which leaves itself open to a sequel--still has its full share of tingling moments. A chilling contemporary ghost tale that will make you think twice about braving the elements to buy a carton of milk the next time it snows.

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November 1, 2013

Ever since a major snowstorm killed 18 people, the residents of Coventry, MA, get a little...edgy when snowstorms hit. Maybe because some of the people who died in that storm seemed simply to vanish, there one second and gone the next, until their bodies were found after the storm was over. And there are some who thought they saw something in that storm, something that shouldn't be there, something that couldn't be there, but some thing that took their loved ones away from them. Now, 12 years later on the eve of an equally severe storm, strange things are happening again in Coventry. The ghosts of those who died are back, and so are the things that took them, and so the question is...who's going to die this time? VERDICT Two-time Bram Stoker Award winner Golden (contributor, Four Summoner's Tales) has written a fast-paced ghost story that will chill readers to the bone, and the surprise twist at the end just might leave them frostbitten. So grab the cocoa and wrap up in a warm blanket--the storm is about to hit, and once you start this book, you won't want to stop until it's over. [See Prepub Alert, 7/29/13.]--Elisabeth Clark, West Florida P.L., Pensacola

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2013
Horror fiction has introduced us to evil mists and evil fogs, so why not evil snow? Golden's latest storms in with a breathless 50-page intro in which we meet the town of Coventry, New Hampshire, as its residents batten down the hatches against a monster blizzard. Wait, did someone just say monster? Twelve years after that whiteout, during which more than a dozen people vanished, survivors remain haunted by the terrible, slender, icy figures they saw stealing their loved ones. Our cast of characters is older now and more troubled, especially when another mythic-level tempest begins churning their way. Among them are former young lovers, now embittered spouses; a young man still shaken by the kid brother he lost; and a full-time loser ready to risk everything during a snowstorm heist. The so-called ice men are tucked off-screen for most of the book, but their eventual revealing is terrifically unsettling. What gives the book its heart is a return of sorts of those taken away 12 years earlier, offering brief, bittersweet reunions. Great fodder for a dark and snowy night.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)