As Night Falls

May 18, 2015
Sandy Tremont, the heroine of this gripping but flawed thriller from Mary Higgins Clark Award–winner Milchman (Cover of Snow), has a fulfilling career, a loving husband, a beautiful house, and a troubled teenage daughter. She also has a dark secret. One night, two escaped convicts invade Sandy’s Adirondacks home, demanding supplies and directions so they can trek to Canada. As snow begins to fall, trapping the men with Sandy and her family, she recognizes one as Nick, the sociopathic brother whose existence she has denied for 20 years. Her husband and daughter are furious and feel betrayed when they learn his identity, but as Nick becomes increasingly volatile, their survival may depend on their ability to trust Sandy. Flashbacks show Nick’s progression from spoiled child to killer, but both he and his doting mother, who pampers him while ignoring Sandy, remain one-dimensional and clichéd. Still, Milchman effectively builds suspense in a fast-paced tale that should keep readers eagerly turning pages. Agent: Julia Kenny, Dunow, Carlson and Lerner Literary Agency.

January 1, 2015

Somewhere in the Adirondacks, Sandy Tremont is home cooking dinner when two escapees from a nearby prison burst in--one of whom is her bad-seed brother. Milchman's Cover of Snow won the Mystery Writers of America's Mary Higgins Clark Award.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2015
After winning the Mary Higgins Clark award for Cover of Snow (2013), Milchman returns with her third stand-alone thriller set in upstate New York. The suspense starts building right from the get-go when we learn that Sandy, a therapist, and her husband, Ben, have built their dream home in a desolate area, which they share with their sullen teenage daughter and a sweet old dog. Meanwhile, Nick, who has been in prison for more than 20 years, has devised a brilliant plan for escape, and he takes fellow inmate Harlan along on the breakout. The pair end up invading Sandy's home. The story moves back and forth between the home invasion and Nick's childhood; often such flashbacks are intended to make the bad guy more sympatheticbut not in this case. The tense finale is fueled by a shocking twist involving a walloping secret Sandy has kept from her family. Another excellent psychological thriller that should appeal to readers who favor such authors as Lisa Gardner and Lisa Unger.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)