Snowblind
Horror fiction has introduced us to evil mists and evil fogs, so why not evil snow? Golden’s latest storms in with a breathless 50-page intro in which we meet the town of Coventry, New Hampshire, as its residents batten down the hatches against a monster blizzard. Wait, did someone just say “monster?” Twelve years after that whiteout, during which more than a dozen people vanished, survivors remain haunted by the “terrible, slender, icy figures” they saw stealing their loved ones. Our cast of characters is older now and more troubled, especially when another mythic-level tempest begins churning their way. Among them are former young lovers, now embittered spouses; a young man still shaken by the kid brother he lost; and a full-time loser ready to risk everything during a snowstorm heist. The so-called ice men are tucked off-screen for most of the book, but their eventual revealing is terrifically unsettling. What gives the book its heart is a return of sorts of those taken away 12 years earlier, offering brief, bittersweet reunions. Great fodder for a dark and snowy night. --Daniel Kraus