title: Dead of Wynter
author: Spencer Seidel
pages: 292
genre: fiction/suspense
published: May 2011
source: sent for review by Booktrib
first line: The ghost, the dead man, was still following.
rated: 4 out of 4 stars
About:
Alice Wynter receives a phone call from her mother telling her that her father is dead. When she goes back to her hometown of Redding, Maine, she discovers that her twin brother Chris is missing. Alice grew up in a troubled household with an alcoholic and abusive father. As a result, her twin Chris was a troubled teen and developed his own drinking problem. Alice was able to move away and start a life of her own, but now that she's back in town, bad memories are resurfacing as the police are trying to figure out what happened to Alice's father and brother.
As the story goes on, there are flashbacks to 1984 when Chris was a teen and getting into deep trouble as well as glimpses into Alice's homelife.
My thoughts:
Dead of Wynter is one of those novels that slowly draws you in. I enjoyed uncovering the story layer by layer.
I wondered if Chris was responsible for his fathers murder and what secrets Alice and her mother were keeping. I felt bad for Alice having to go back to her hometown where so many painful memories were waiting.
The flashbacks were done well and were a necessary part of the story in order for the reader to get a glimpse into these characters lives.
Author Spencer Seidel does a great job at creating a creepy atmosphere. This was a good mystery and I enjoyed getting caught up in it.
Like she had reached some great destination, some great place, but had forgotten how she'd gotten there. It was the journey, the connection to the past that was gone. And she'd carefully constructed her life that way. And now that curtain was being pulled back, just a little, to remind her that the lies she'd told herself and others over the years were just that: lies. She wasn't a real person. She was a facade.
p.27
About the author:
Spencer Seidel lives and works in suburban New Jersey but has also called Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Portland, Maine home. He is an honors graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University and attended the Berklee College of Music to study guitar, which he has been playing for over 25 years. His love of reading and books began as a child after discovering Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Later, he was drawn to darker work by authors such as Stephen King, Peter Straub, and Jack Ketchum, who continue to influence his dark novels and short stories.
Special thanks to Booktrib.
