Customer Reviews

Ice: A Novel

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Gabriel McQueen was home for a weekend on leave from the military and his father is the Sheriff of a small town in Maine but the minute Gabriele arrives there is trouble. Gabriel is anxious to get to this mother's home to see his young son, Sam, but the Sheriff needs him for an important job first. Young Sam lives with Gabriel's mother after becoming a widower the year before when his wife Marianne died. It's been tough on both of them.

Sheriff McQueen wants Gabriel to drive up the mountain to the old Helton place to check on Lolly Helton who is here for the weekend herself to get her deceased father's home ready for sale. However, they believe she is unaware that a huge ice storm is coming and coming fast and there would be no way down off the mountain if someone didn't get to her right away.

With trepidation, Gabriele agrees to go but first stops at his Mother's house to see his son, collect some warm clothing and boots and a thermos of hot coffee and soup. Quickly saying good-bye to his son, and promising him he'll back in a couple of hours, Gabriele sets off on the rescue.

However, the weather isn't playing nice and the ice storm is advancing much quicker than everyone had thought and Gabriel's big Ford F250 truck is having great difficulty manoeuvring the steep, icy mountain road. He drives as far as he possibly can then decided he'll have to walk the rest of the way.

Through much slipping and sliding, enduring sharp, stinging ice pellets in the face, Gabriele reaches Lolly's house but sees two people with guns through her living room window and quickly realizes that Lolly is in terrible danger. With his military training, Gabriele kicks into high gear and helps Lolly escape but her captors discover she's gone and go after them.

It doesn't take the bad guys long to catch up when suddenly bullets are whizzing by Gabriel's and Lolly's heads. Can they make it out and back down the mountain alive? And do Gabriel and Lolly get more than they bargained for in the end?

Excellent read for a snowy afternoon!!

I used to be a huge Linda Howard fan, but her last three books make me wonder if she's been taken over by a pod person. This story was mindless and didn't take a lot of imagination to write. It didn't show Linda Howard's wit and humor, even in times of danger. If you're looking for a great story from an author who wrote 'Cry No More', 'Dream Man', 'Kill and Tell', and 'Mr. Perfect' I don't think she exists anymore.

Linda Howard is one of my favorite authors, and several of her books will sit on my shelf forever rather than be carted off to the used book store.

But this one was a give-away. Not because of Howards writing...she always does a superb job...but because I could never get past the feeling I did not get value for my money. Way too short for the price.

The book is advertised as a "Novel", but contains only 224 pages. As one who wears tri-focals, I can appreciate the comfortable type and leading used, but I am also aware that those can be calculated to maximize page numbers.

And while I understand that the number of pages is not necessarily a criteria for classifying a book as a Novel or Novella, I am still asked to pay 7.99 for a 224 page story. Compare that to the 7.99 I pay for a 500-600 page book by Ward (where the type and leading are much smaller) and ... I rest my case!