[amazon_link id=”0307718417″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]Title : A Cold and Lonely Place
Author : Sara J. Henry
Genre : Mystery
Publisher : Crown/Random House
Pages : 304
Source : Netgalley/Publisher ARC
Rating : 4/5

Troy Chance is a journalist at a small newspaper in Saranac Lake, in the cold snow-filled Adirondack mountain country of New York. As she is covering the construction of the ice palace, a yearly ritual in their small town, she and others come across a dead body encased in the thick ice of Lake Flower. The body is of someone known to Troy and others – Tobin Winslow, a recent addition to their town, a well-to-do, handsome and charming drifter, seemingly estranged from family, making do with odd jobs and his trust fund. The death is not being considered an accident and the prime suspect is Jessamyn Fields, Tobin’s girlfriend and Troy’s housemate (Troy rents out rooms to visitors and other townspeople).

Tobin’s death brings his sister Jessica Winslow, who goes by Win, to town. When Troy is entrusted to write a series of articles on Tobin’s tragedy, Win offers to help Troy find information about Tobin’s life. It comes to light that Tobin and Win’s elder brother Trey also died by drowning. But that’s not all – there are more skeletons in the closet and Troy can’t help herself from digging further inspite of the furtive attacks on her home and car.

This book develops as an atmospheric mystery. The cold weather, the snow, the ice are a big part of the story. This is a “cold and lonely place” but it is home to Troy, our intrepid and curious heroine, and the narrator of this book. An introvert, Troy has a few, strong friends and many acquaintances. There are also some romantic entanglements but never to the point where she feels strongly enough about it. I found her a likeable heroine – she’s measured and calm and dependable, a good friend and a decent person. Much of her character came through in her interactions with her housemates, with Jessamyn and with Win. On the negative side, I found her relationships a bit one-sided; friends applauded everything she wrote, and halted their lives to rush to her side when she needed succor – I didn’t see her reciprocating. Troy, involuntarily, seems to be the star here. This isn’t really a problem, except we seem to harp a bit too much about it which seems to conflict with her otherwise self-deprecating character.

The book itself was engrossing – I breezed through it. In the first half of the book, Henry’s writing flows through the narration – she tells us all the important bits with a little bit of philosophy thrown in. Succinctly, no words wasted; just wonderfully constructed sentences which seemed to string me along.

I’ve never seen the logic in drinking to excess – it makes people act stupid and feel bad later. But plenty of locals drink hard and regularly, and many vacationers seem to think it’s a requisite for stepping foo in town. More than once I’ve hollered out of my bedroom window at two a.m. at firemen here for a convention and so drunk they couldn’t find their way back to their motel. Maybe visiting horse-show people got plastered as well, but didn’t wander the streets being loud about it. Maybe they sat around in their trim riding jodhpurs and nest buttoned shirts and got quietly, desperately, privately drunk.

Even I knew if somebody had imbibed enough they might think it a great idea to amble across a half-frozen lake. Alcohol seems to go a long way toward convincing people they’re immortal.

Towards the second half, the writing got clunkier. Unrelated events seem to seep in to the main story and we meander into off-shoots that may have no relevance to the current investigation. This is a murder mystery, so I was a little puzzled that Troy’s investigations seem to hark back into past events that much. Of course it becomes clear in the end – a rather anti-climactic end, I might add.

I’ve never read Sara Henry before. Wondering what the references to Troy’s earlier case were, I looked her up to find that her first book “Learning to Swim” was an Anthony, Agatha, Marry Higgins Clark award winner for 2012, and the start of the “Troy” series. Well, this book seemed just as good, halfway in. I couldn’t put it down; it was riveting. Post the halfway mark, things started to slow down for me and the end was somewhat of an anti-climax. I believe that it might be in how this book is viewed – this is not a standard “mystery”. Rather, if you come at it from a “the story of the mysterious murder” kind of way, you might find greater satisfaction.

Still, this is a wonderful read. If you are looking for a literary novel with a strong element of mystery to it, this would be a great pick.