Silent Snow

By: Steve Thayer

Narrated by: David Birney

In this sequel to the best-selling thriller The Weatherman, an investigative reporter embarks on a personal quest for justice and revenge.

In the midst of a savage Minnesota blizzard, investigative reporter Rick Beanblossom receives an anonymous note—much like the one Charles Lindbergh and his family received when their infant son was kidnapped many decades ago. As he searches for his own son, Rick must not only relive the horrors of his Vietnam tour when Napalm destroyed his face, but also research the tragic circumstances of the Lindbergh kidnapping. Fighting the perilous weather and racing against time, Rick desperately searches for clues in history's most infamous kidnapping—clues that may solve his own painful loss.

©1999 Steve Thayer (P)1999 Phoenix Books, Inc.

More Steve Thayer!!

WOW- this book really hooked me. I loved the way he wove the Lindbergh baby's disappearance with the story. Very captivating and hard to "put down." I found the characters complex and interesting. The mystery moved along nicely through past and present. I really enjoyed this book and look forward to more from Steve Thayer.

Literary Genius

Steve Thayer takes the mystery genre and turns it into literary greatness. This book is spellbinding in its intricacies. The manner in which Thayer weaves the real Lindbergh kidnapping case with his fictionalized version leaves me amazed at his talent. By the time the book comes to an end, you will feel you've been through an ordeal, albeit a good one.

One note: The audio is muffled and causes the listener to miss passages. If possible, this should be corrected. David Birney works so hard and the sound quality thwarts him often.

Silent Snow

Any additional comments?

Audiobook read by David Birney, a 10 plus hour listen. The story is about the modern day kidnapping of a baby with a paralell to the Lindbergh case of 1932. The author mixes fact with fiction, creating a historical scenario of wild speculation. If you’re looking for factual detail regarding the Lindbergh case, please don’t depend on this book. Some of it is true, most is not and is a fictionalized version of actual events. If you take historical fiction seriously, you may take a pass on Silent Snow, there really is no detail about the world as it was in 1932, only fictionally created characters. If your interest is simply a good mystery, the book is well worth a purchase. It may take time to get into the voice and rhythm of the reader, David Birney, as a few characters sound a little too decrepit.

IMAGINATION AND MYSTERY

“Silent Snow” resurrects one of the most notorious crimes of the century, the kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh’s son in 1932; i.e. Steve Thayer reincarnates the history of the kidnapping by creating a modern-day’ abduction by a possible mystery accomplice of the original crime.

Thayer weaves a tale of intrigue ranging from World War I to the modern day. He manufactures new criminal characters, cops, and news reporters with detailed obsessive/compulsive backgrounds. He creates heroes, and heroines of a terrible crime. “Silent Snow” is a re-creation of a crime of the past, the Lindbergh baby’s kidnapping and bludgeoning. Thayer may or may not have the same ending in his modern-day version of the kidnapping. David Birney’s telling of Thayer’s mystery keeps listeners waiting for answers until the last chapters’ closing.

Thayer has great imagination with excellent descriptive' skill. The recorded facts of the Lindbergh’ kidnapping are nicely recreated, including involvement of General Schwarzkopf Senior (America’s “Desert Storm” General’s father) in the original investigation; i.e. the kidnapping is an important incident in American’ history because it led to the Lindbergh law that shifted investigation of kidnapping from local to national control. The irony of that shift plays out in “Silent Snow” as a questionable federal government usurpation of power. Mistakes are made by the federal government as readily as they are by local government. Putting that observation aside, the story is interesting; overly melodramatic, but worth the time for a mystery’s unfolding.

Addictive

Brilliant and moody, it skillfully blends past and present, history and fiction to the point that the edges blur. The narrator's weary, plaintive reading perfectly reflects the characters portrayed. Excellent!