COVER OF SNOW

Why did Nora Hamilton's husband, a policeman, commit suicide? That's the intriguing question that powers Jenny Milchman's debut novel. Set in Wedeskyull, a small town in the Adirondack mountains of New York, the story makes much of the cold, the snow, and the differences between seasoned locals and those "from away." Cassandra Campbell offers a low-key Nora, depressed and confused, searching for answers and finding only more questions. Campbell's character voices paint vivid portraits of townies and tourists. She is nicely understated as Dugger, the local boy with autism. She makes Nora's mother-in-law sharp-edged and pitiless, and she invests local police and good old boys with smarmy self-satisfaction and menace. The writing bogs down as the facts are uncovered, but Campbell makes the listening chilling. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine [Published: MARCH 2013]