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(More customer reviews)My copy of WINTER BY DEGREES is a ratty, water-damaged mass market paperback I found. It's out of print, obviously, but it shouldn't be. This is the fifth John Smolens book I have read and I can't figure out why this guy isn't a nationally known and bestselling author. He is a master at creating a well-defined sense of place, whether it's in New England (where Smolens grew up) or northern Michigan (where he has lived for many years). His characters are equally well-written, people who seem so real you would almost swear you know them. Two families dominate the plot and action in WINTER BY DEGREES - the aristocratic 'old Yankee' family of the Smyths, whose class has become a bit frayed around the edges over the last several generations; and the Rideouts, more lately arrived Irish working class types. Nelson Rideout is the protagonist and his younger brother, Tuna, is a kind of lesser sidekick. Both have had little luck in making any success of their lives, failed at jobs, college education, marriage and relationships, etc. Forbes Smyth is the villain, and Pell is the hired gun, or enforcer, from "outside," come to collect bad debts left by another Smyth, who has died under mysterious circumstances. So yeah, there's a murder mystery here, but the characters are what make this novel so, so ... well, so GOOD. Smolens writes like a screenwriter. You can picture these guys, both the good ones and the bad ones. And you can imagine it all as a chilling suspense film, or perhaps as a TV miniseries. His dialogue is spot on and his people are all so just so REAL, so precisely realized. I have said this about Smolens' other books, but I'll say it again. I want more of these people. I want sequels. I want a whole SERIES of books about these people, and I mean this about the characters in not just THIS novel, but the ones from COLD, FIRE POINT, and THE INVISIBLE WORLD too. I'm rambling here, I know, so I'll wrap this up by simply saying that this is not just another mystery or suspense thriller (although they are that too); this is simply fiction writing of the highest caliber. Period! - Tim Bazzett, author of SOLDIER BOY: AT PLAY IN THE ASA
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