As an avid thriller I've spent my share of time having to drag through novels that were lackluster, easily identifiable, with 'loose as goose' characters lacking appeal.
This had everything a thriller should with vibrant characters, plenty of hip swaying action, and non stop suspense.
Having read other reviews I will clarify that this book has two MC's suffering memory loss and for darn good reason. Lily was in a car accident while Iver was a veteran (Afghanistan) who's also in AA as a recovering alcoholic. This doesn't take away from the story in fact for me it enhanced my appeal to read the novel because of the air of mystery.
As for clumsy,dumb, lackluster,misguided officers, and or detectives- easy answer- we have one detective in Hagen and that's Kylie Milliard our lone female and sure as hot air rises I'm on board to support strong feminine roles as I've not read anything that pointed to her intellect as subpar or below norm.
As for small town politics that's in here too and so too is the tight knit community of on lookers.
What subsequently happened with White Out is we have two cases occurring almost simultaneously with nobody able to recall events. If that's not your thing then move on but for me it's a fascinating write up with excellent writing skills being presented and I don't grade on my personal beliefs about medical injuries but I do know many who suffer from PTSD, cognitive impairment be it alcohol or medically, abuse of various forms, trauma, dementia, alzheimer's, and much more and it kills me to see low grade reviews because the author wanted to use two main characters with similar ailments.
This story kept me flying by the seat of my pants both literally and figuratively and the setting kept me feeling trapped with cabins, cottages, low key bars, rural dark icy roads in North Dakota. There's a chill and sense of foreboding danger which permeates the entire plot as we progress nicely with an even pace to the incident with Abby's accident and Brent Nolan's death.
A drug issue and a hostage situation also ensue which captivates readers attention even further.
Another character that reviewers failed to mention is Derek Hudson and his activity in this piece who was anything but kosher. He was a man we loved to hate and for good reasoning with plenty to hide and even more to uncover.
Keep in mind that when the body of a woman was found in a dumpster behind Ivar's bar he was the most likely candidate for take down especially with his lack of memory. This incident happened while Lily was trying to uncover her own mystery with her car accident which led to great trepidation and fear of the unknown moving forward for readers.
I'd dare to add that I've read commentary about the scene in the hospital in which Lily limped in, disoriented, with possible head trauma and was asked to help out with a fellow patient that was just rushed into the Emergency Room. As a child of an Rn/Obgyn yes this happens often and for reasons that you may not understand especially in this day and age of a major pandemic as everyone is on call around the clock. So, take things with a grain of salt without being so overtly critical; especially considering Lily was a nurse.
Ok, so with all this noted to clear up the air -I leave you with this the ending; that was not expected and totally left me feeling complete.
It's as if the heaven's opened up and allowed these two unsuspecting individuals to find love again in the most unlikely of places.
Sometimes you have to live a life of hard knocks to understand it and for this couple they both lived it. Twelve years of knowledge led to a three month wait for treatment, and happiness for a lifetime.
I'm so thrilled it ended this way after all the turmoil and trauma that they both had to endure.
I would love to read the next work by this author as this is the first in the Badlands Thriller.
Thank you to Danielle Girard, the pub, NetGalley, and Amazon Kindle for this fab arc in exchange for this honest review.
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