A review by myrdyr
Winter at the Door by Sarah Graves

3.0

It was ok. I had two problems with this book. The first was the use of the word "freaking" instead of the actual swear word when characters found themselves in circumstances under extreme stress - it just didn't ring true for me. Graves would have been better off changing the dialogue completely instead of making this weak substitution. I get it that some people don't like to write with swear words, and that is fine. However, Graves does use other obscenities, albeit sparingly, so I assume this isn't the reason. The second problem I had deals with the underlying premise of the book. The main character gives up her entire life to move to Nowheresville because a man she was previously involved with shows her a picture of a nine year old girl in the bush. This girl is possibly her niece whom she hasn't seen in 8 years. There was absolutely no information provided to support the idea that this might be her niece. So there is some girl who might be living in unusual circumstances out in the wilderness. Why would she think this has anything to do with her niece? It seems completely random to me. I could maybe see it if she saw a closeup of the girl and realized she looked EXACTLY like her murdered sister - it would have been a stretch, but I could maybe have suspended disbelief. As it is - hey, there's a blonde-haired, blue-eyed nine year old girl who lives in Florida who doesn't resemble her parents - maybe it's your niece! If you showed me either of my own children at age nine after they had been missing since the age of one, I doubt I could identify them from police lineup, and I am their mother; I can't imagine that an aunt would be able to distinguish between her niece and some unrelated girl. Where is the investigative work Ms. Law Enforcement Lady?