A Wicked Snow

Though this is Gregg's first fiction book, you'd never realize it if you were to pick it up and read it without knowing so. Without giving away the entire plot, Hannah, devoted wife, mother & "county" (as she likes to say) investigator has been living her own personal hell since her traumatic childhood experience. Though she never has been able to live a 'normal' life, she's perhaps accomplished much more than she thought possible. Those who were there in her time of need as a child are there for her NOW, when her past comes back to reclaim her life. Also there at this time are those who are intent on making sure her nightmare never ends. I rarely read fiction now, since discovering the true crime genre, but hope that Gregg continues with a novel every so often. It's a nice break, especially when written by someone who has the knowledge and experience to make it read like a true crime book. High 5 Gregg!

Gregg Olsen understands the hearts and minds of the truly wicked. For his previous True Crime books, he has researched some horrific crimes, the people who committed them, the victims and the families involved. In A WICKED SNOW, his first novel, Olsen uses the knowledge he has gleaned over the years to bring his fictional characters to life. There are plenty of twists and turns to make this a wickedly delicious read.

I'm a Civil War writer, monologues and research. That said, I'll add that in the type of writing I do, accuracy is paramount. If you make "little errors," you'll find that no one is hiring you any more, and the specialty journals don't wanna' hear from you. Not so with Gregg Olsen. He's without a doubt one of the finest, most accurate, most interesting writers I've encountered in many years. First rate characterizations, well done descriptions of the area he's writing about, interesting dialogue (that's the hardest to do!), and in summary, keep' 'em coming, Gregg! We live in the Pacific Northwest on a mountaintop tucked under the Canadian border. Your descriptions of the area are right on.

It reads like a true crime story, not surprising as Gregg Olsen normally writes true crime books. Very suspenseful, was unable to put it down until I finished it. Good ending too. I highly recommend this to all who like this genre.

True crime writer Gregg Olsen has stood out in that crowded field with meticulously researched and adeptly written accounts of crimes, criminals, and their victims. His strength in this genre, and what set him apart from his true crime peers, was his assured voice and his empathy for the people he was writing about. Good or bad, he made you care enough to loathe or love. Now, Olsen shifts gears and sets his sights on writing suspense fiction, and if A WICKED SNOW is any indication, the shift is an unqualified success. Olsen's true crime background serves him well in getting the details right in his story of a haunted CSI (who was a childhood victim that narrowly escaped her serial-killing mother) and the challenges she faces in her work and in her life, as old nightmares seem to be being resurrected to torture her and to put her own life, and the lives of those she loves, in jeopardy. A WICKED SNOW marks the debut of a gifted suspense writer, one with all the right tools for creating crime fiction that we care about: a strong voice, expert plotting, and the kind of attention to detail that puts you right into Olsen's world and doesn't release you until the very last page (and sometimes long after that--his writing haunts).