A Cold White Fear

 Author: R.J. Harlick

 Release Date: November 7th, 2015

 Publisher: Dundurn Press

 Summary:

Stranded by a blizzard at her isolated cabin, Meg Harris finds herself in a desperate and terrifying situation when two strangers arrive.
As night approaches, a major blizzard has cut off road access to Meg Harris’s isolated wilderness home, Three Deer Point. She is alone with her young friend Adjidamo, preparing for Christmas, when a knock suddenly echoes through the house. She finds two strange men at her front door, one of them bleeding. Against her better judgment, she lets them in.
At that moment, the power goes out, plunging the group into total darkness and severing all phone links to the outside world. So begin a terrifying twenty-four hours that have Meg summoning up a courage she didn’t know she had to get herself and Adjidamo out alive. (Goodreads)

First Line:

I was sitting in the kitchen, agonizing over my Christmas grocery list, when I heard the noise. 

Review:

**I received an advance copy of this book for review from the publisher. This does not affect my opinion or review.**

I haven’t been a very avid mystery reader throughout my history as a bookworm but since reading Hungry Ghosts and now A Cold White Fear I think I’m sold! I love the heart-racing, what-the-heck-is-happening, and often terrifying moments of mystery. I also love the challenge of piecing everything together before it actually all unfolds.

I love how Harlick wrote the characters. I had such a clear mental image of every single one, even down to hearing the different voices while reading dialogue. I didn’t necessarily like all the characters but they were well-developed. I also love how each one of the adults came with their grey areas, the good ones showed their flaws and even the most heinous had some moments (few as they may be) of good.

A majority of the action takes place just in Meg’s home. Usually I’d think this would make things monotonous however Harlick managed to keep the story ‘active’ with movement between rooms, characters popping in and out of the ‘scenes’, and the odd glimpse of the real world outside the boundary of her walls. Sometimes I even managed to forget that they hadn’t really left the house at all because so much was going on. I was too busy worrying about the two incredibly suspicious AND intriguing visitors that showed up on her doorstep. It was also amazing to see how the flow of time was written into the story. As I got a good chunk of the way through the book, it felt like it had been many days since the men had arrived and then something in the text would remind me that they hadn’t even been through 24 hours. It was like an episode of 24, seeing how many things really can happen through the course of a day.

The twists and turns in Harlick’s A Cold White Fear kept me at the edge of my seat the whole time. Pulse racing, mind racing, eyes glued to the book. I didn’t see how things could end well and I needed to know how the encounter ended. There were definitely a couple of nights I stayed up past my bedtime trying to piece together more of the story. I was trapped from the very beginning and the jaws wouldn’t let me go until I knew how everything turned out. 

FINAL VERDICT: 

This was a very quick, exciting, and captivating read. I definitely recommend this one (and already have..I’ll be passing on my copy tomorrow!) to people that love mysteries and a good old heart-pounding read. I cannot wait to read the previous Meg Harris books down the road.