Dead of Winter

by Patricia Parkinson

Murders don't happen in the cozy, mountain town of Windy Creek, Montana. Kate Madison is both overcome with grief and determined to find the killer who murdered Harley Wilson. When Kate was a child... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1599981289
• ISBN13: 9781599981284
• Release Date: July 2006
• Publisher: Samhain Publishing
• Length: 292 Pages
• Weight: 0.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.7" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

VERY GOOD READ

I am a big fan of romantic suspense and have been reading it for years. I really enjoyed DEAD OF WINTER. I disagree with the reviewer from Joyfully reviewed about the romance being so subtle it is in the background. I had to visit Samhain's website to get a feel for this book. This book is not billed as erotica at the publisher's website, so I'm not sure why the reviewer compared it to the erotic books at Samhain. The publisher lists their erotic books under RED HOTS. There was plenty of romance in the book to satisfy me. A relationship starts developing early on between Kate and Steve, and continues to grow throughout the book. No, they are not making out on every other page, but that's the norm for romantic suspense. Each time Kate was in danger, Steve went ballistic. I found Steve an attractive, appealing male hero, while I could relate to Kate because of her strength, her determination to find the killer of the man who helped raise her, and her vulnerability where Steve was concerned. The characters are definitely quirky and three dimensional in this story. The author did a great job of giving the reader a feel for a small mountain community in Montana during the winter. This is one of the reasons this book caught my attention, since I live in Montana. I would agree this is a plot driven book. There's mystery, suspense, romance, love, and sex all intertwined in this book. And that's what I look for when I buy romantic suspense. As a reader and not a professional reviewer I don't feel it's necessary to split hairs between mystery and suspense. This is a really good book. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I was personally satisfied with the combination of romance, mystery, and suspense in DEAD OF WINTER.

Captivating

February in the Montana mountains: 36 hours of unending snow, piling up to 18 inches and more. A rural home without smoke rising from the chimney is a sure sign; something here is wrong, very wrong. Kate's sensing something is wrong; she last saw Harley three nights ago, and realized then he was troubled. Just an hour ago, he had not answered his phone. Kate owes Harley for helping enable her to grow up in an emotionally stable environment. After her biological dad disappeared when Kate was only two, Harley had stepped in, becoming the father of her heart. He and his wife Grace befriended Kate and her mother and treated Kate as much like their daughter as they did their own child. Kate's suspicions are correct; she finds Harley dead behind the woodpile in back of the house and notifies Deputy Sheriff Steve Lambert. Steve has long admired Kate Madison from afar, but assumes her divorce turned her against males in general. Kate's in her early forties and writes mysteries, supplementing book royalties with part time work at the local café. To Steve, she seems to be a self-sufficient woman with time only for her writing, her work at the Pine Branch Café, and her sixty-pound mutt, Sunny. Romance isn't the heartbeat of Dead of Winter; rather, the plot and some character development are. I found this story intriguing and it kept me reading along to solve the mystery. Dead of Winter is simply not the erotic-laden type of story I've become accustomed to reading lately. Since the plot is the engine driving the story, I would have billed it as Mystery, not as Romantic Suspense. The romance is included, but it's so subtle as to be nearly in the background. I've always enjoyed mysteries, so I didn't find this a problem, but it was a little surprising coming from a publisher of erotic romance, and readers who desire erotica in the foreground of the suspense might be disappointed. I found Dead of Winter captivating. Kate's dedication to her "father of her heart," Harley, is compelling, far exceeding that of the man's own daughter, or the friendships of the townspeople for Harley. As I've mentioned, the mystery is suspenseful and drives the plot engine. I enjoyed it and recommend it as a Mystery. Annie Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed