Gregg Olsen, A Wicked Snow

A Wicked Snow

Gregg Olsen

Pinnacle, Mar 2007, $6.99

ISBN: 0786018291

When Hannah was a young girl, she watched the inferno destroy her family barn with the pure virgin snow making quite an eerie panoramic backdrop to the yellow orange. When the blaze was finally put out and the area cooled enough to investigate, the police found numerous corpses, including that of Hannah's mother whose pink halo in the snow will be inside Hannah forever. The arsonist-murderer was never caught and eventually the case went as cold as the wintry night that it occurred on.

Her mother's homicide was the impetus that led to Hannah becoming a crime scene investigator though she has never worked on trying to uncover who the killer was. Now, two decades later in Southern California, Hannah is married to Ethan Griffin and raising their daughter Amber together as she hides what happened that fatal day from even her loved ones. Her current assignment involves a child abuse case when a message from the grave reaches out to her forcing Hannah to begin an investigation before history repeats itself with her and perhaps even Amber being the target.

The vivid use of contrasting colors provides a powerful background to a deep, psychological, suspense, investigative thriller. The storyline is action-packed as the audience wonders whether the heroine has gone over the edge after receiving the dramatic note of "Your mom called" when she had buried that day deep inside her mind. Gregg Olsen writes a terrifically tense thriller that grips the audience once Hannah realizes she must become the predator before the culprit targets her loved ones to get at her.

Harriet Klausner