Teaser Tuesdays: Snowbound by Blake Crouch

"Her wrists and ankles were comfortably but securely bound with nylon restraints. Her mouth wasn't gagged."
~Page 9

Title: Snowbound
Author: Blake Crouch
ISBN: 9780312425739
Publisher: Minotaur Books/2010
Pages: 309

Snowbound is a disturbing book. It touches certain issues which most of us want to avoid. Rather we wish not to know about those although these things are very much happening, all over the world with the nexus of the mafia and powers that are.

Snowbound does has its drawbacks. Yet it is compelling, a page turner. One has to know what is going to happen next. With totally cold blooded evil characters, the situation does get sticky but we are engrossed.

Will Innis' wife Rachel vanishes one night and he and his 11 year old daughter, Devlin, are left with only each other. The police suspect that Will has a hand in her disappearance and want him to confess the crime. Will knows that once he is arrested for the suspicion, he would be lost to hi daughter. Devlin has a terminating illness and needs his care for always. So Will and his daughter, live their home and settle down in Colorado, assuming different identities.

After five years, a woman Kalyn, finds them. She claims to be a FBI agent and tells Will that Rachel is not the only female, who has vanished. There are others, including her sister, Lucy. Kalyn asks for his help to search for those disappeared women. Will is in two minds. Whether to go around searching for his wife or stay and look after his daughter. He, along with Kalyn and Devlin, embarks on a journey to know the truth. They go right into the wilds of Alaska, to a snowbound lodge in the midst of nowhere. Here they find that they are plunged into something they have not fathomed. How can they deal with it? Would Will be able to accept what has become of his wife? And what about all the other women?

As I said before, the novel has its drawbacks. The way Devlin, goes around killing people, somehow did not gel with me. She, who hadn't handled a gun before this, does it easily enough. My doubts about Kalyn too came true. She is not what she claims to be. Yet, I couldn't put down the novel until I finished it. I also liked the way the bonding between Will and Devlin is brought out in the novel.

This novel deals with human trafficking, something which is happening all over the world. The people involved with are totally evil. And we need to made aware of such issues. To prevent it. To be able to stop it.

This book is to be released on June 22, 2010. Thanks to the author for my copy.