Title: Girl in Snow
Author: Danya Kukafka
Publication Date: August 1, 2017
Pages: 368
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Date Started: June 14, 2017
Date Finished: June 21, 2017
Format: Kindle

*I would like to thank the publisher, author, and NetGalley for providing an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

Yet another crime book! (I’m telling you, I was seriously craving the genre while in Japan for some reason). What I love about the genre is that there exists such a continuum of stories and the distinct subgenres. For example, there are the detective mysteries that are by the law and nitty gritty. You have the civilian murder mysteries where ordinary people investigate. There are the more thriller types where the narrator may in fact be a victim, or is fending off attack. All give me a rush.

Girl in Snow combines elements from several types of crime books, as there are three main narrators to the story. Taking place in a quiet town in Colorado, the state I wish I lived in, the novel opens with the discovery of a teenage girl’s body, coated in a fresh layer of snow. The official investigation is headed by narrator number 1, Russ. Throughout the novel, Russ is put in the tough situation of investigating his ex-partner’s son, Cameron (narrator number 2), who appears to be a top suspect in the murder. You see, Cameron stalked the victim. And then there is narrator number 3, Jade. She despises Lucinda (the victim) and worries that she died because of her ill wishes.

I have to say, I never became super attached to any of the characters, so it was hard to get involved in the novel. Yet, I don’t think this is the kind of novel designed to have you get attached to the characters. They are all three shrouded in loneliness and their own problems. In other words, they are all struggling to get by. And while that fact usually hits home for many, these characters just aren’t the kind you feel sorry for. They are the kind that if they were real people, you would advert your eyes and walk right by. And that kind of feeling hits you straight where it hurts, in the truth of our nature. We are the people that allow this loneliness to continue and worsen.

All of this aside, it was a fast and enjoyable read. In fact, it is one of the only times I have ever been able to solve a murder in a novel (for reading so much mystery, you would think I’d have it figured out by now).

Overall, 3/5 moose