A Cold and Lonely Place (Troy Chance, #2) in Crazy Challenge Connection

Feb 05, 2013 Gina rated it really liked it

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, female-detectives, mystery, kindle, relationships, death, drama, murder, suspense, ccc-club

Goodreads Description- Freelance writer Troy Chance is snapping photos of the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival ice palace when the ice-cutting machine falls silent. Encased in the ice is the shadowy outline of a body--a man she knows. One of her roommates falls under suspicion, and the media descends. Troy's assigned to write an in-depth feature on the dead man, who, it turns out, was the privileged son of a wealthy Connecticut family who had been playing at a blue collar life in this Adirondack vil Goodreads Description- Freelance writer Troy Chance is snapping photos of the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival ice palace when the ice-cutting machine falls silent. Encased in the ice is the shadowy outline of a body--a man she knows. One of her roommates falls under suspicion, and the media descends. Troy's assigned to write an in-depth feature on the dead man, who, it turns out, was the privileged son of a wealthy Connecticut family who had been playing at a blue collar life in this Adirondack village. And the deeper Troy digs into his life and mysterious death, the murkier things become. After the victim's sister comes to town and a string of disturbing incidents unfold, it's clear someone doesn't want the investigation to continue. Troy doesn't know who to trust, and what she ultimately finds out threatens to shatter the serenity of these mountain towns. She must decide which family secrets should be exposed, what truths should remain hidden, and how far her own loyalty can reach.

A Cold and Lonely Place, the sequel to Learning to Swim, follows Troy on a powerful emotional journey as she discovers the damage left by long-hidden secrets, and catches a glimpse of what might have been.

This book caught my eye because of it's hauntingly beautiful cover and because it is a sequel to a book that I found randomly through my book club that I thought was wonderful. Henry, again, does a wonderful job setting her mystery in the cold of the Adirondack mountains near Lake Placid. She writes her setting so well that I could feel the cold quiet of the lake and the biting cold of the snow that fell on the characters. It felt like I was there all snuggled up in a blanket reading this quiet story.

Troy Chance is a sports and features reporter for the local paper in Saranac Lake, New York. She has been asked to cover the building of the annual Ice Palace on Saranac Lake, capture the work it takes to cut and haul the huge blocks of ice that will be carved into a beautiful palace that will sit on the lake all winter. While out on the lake covering the construction, the men notice a shadow in a block of ice that they are cutting. As they continue to work, they realize that this isn't a shadow at all but a dead body...the body of Tobin Winslow, a prep school boy who seemingly came to the cold and cut off Adirondacks to get away from his life back East. Troy is particularly shocked because Tobin has been dating her roommate Jessamyn and now Troy has the job of telling her roommate of her boyfriend's fate before the town's gossip mill gets to her first.

Rumors start fast in this small town and soon suspicion falls on Jessamyn due to a newspaper report that implied that she had something to do with his death. Troy wants to get her friend out of the limelight and approaches her editor to fix the article and he offers her the chance of a lifetime to write about Tobin, his life and his death, and becomes entangled in the events that led him from his high society life and Princeton education to a middle-of-nowhere cabin in Saranac Lake eventually to his death.

As she begins her research into Tobin's life, she becomes close with his sister, Win, and this friendship allows her entry into even more of the private details of Tobin's life. Then strange things start happening. Tobin's cabin, where his sister is staying, is trashed. Troy starts getting strange hang up phone calls. The air of Troy's tires are let out. Troy's car is pushed off the snowy road into a ditch. Someone doesn't want anyone digging into Tobin's death and they are making it very clear by their threatening actions.

This is a slow and quiet book and I don't mean that it is boring. The book is well paced and flowed beautifully. There weren't any events that felt out of place, no dangling threads, and every character had a purpose. The author takes her time to give each major character a backstory that enables the reader to care what happens to them. Henry also does a great job of connecting each of the characters in a way that is was easy to see that all of the major characters were either friends or foes. She writes in a way that makes the reader understand how Tobin's death affects each character differently.

Henry's novel is more than a mystery, it's a story about secrets and how they affect people. And it's a story about how we all affect each other. It's a "what really happened" and "how did it happen" kind of book instead of a whodunnit. Even though the focus is on Tobin and what happened to him out on the ice that night, we are really concerned with the people who have been left behind. Tobin's death brings to light a lot of secrets regarding his family--secrets that his friends and family need to hear. Through his death and Troy's investigations following it, friends will be made, a father will be found, and lives will be touched. And so will the reader.

Sarah Henry has written a powerful second book in her Troy Chance series and I look forward to reading more about Troy and the people of Saranac Lake and Lake Placid. It seems that many readers don't know that this book is part of a series so I recommend reading her first book, Learning to Swim, first so you can get the backstory on Troy and understand who her Ottawa, Canada friends Philippe, his son Paul, and Jameson are and why they are important to Troy. The only thing I found distracting were the sidebar chapters that involve Troy and her old flame Philippe. They really weren't important in the story other than maybe set up some circumstances to happen in the next book in the series. These chapters were the reason I gave this book 4 stars. If I could I would give the book 4.5 stars but Goodreads and Amazon don't give half stars. However, I still highly recommend reading Henry's works. She truly is a gifted writer and it is well worth the time spent to read her works. 4 stars.
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Jun 11, 2022 Rusty rated it really liked it

Shelves: contemporary-fiction

Sequel to Learning to Swim, the author takes the reader to a small community in upstate New York where athletes come to hone their winter sport skills. Saranac Lake is the center of the novel, almost as a character, it looms over the story and worms into the reader's mind as the plot unfolds. Troy Chance, once a sports writer now does free lance. As the story begins, she is photograhing the building of the annual ice castle when workers halt, staring at each other. Seeing what they see, a body i ...more

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Nov 17, 2012 Chaitra rated it really liked it

Shelves: mystery, suspense, part-of-a-series, netgalley, arc-reviews

The name caught me when I saw this for review on NetGalley. That and the cover. I'm all for desolate wintry landscapes, and this mystery is set midwinter in the really cold Saranac Lake in Upstate New York. It doesn't disappoint on either the desolation or the cold, it describes both so well that I'm glad I'm sitting in a toasty room under my blanket. And as for the novel, it exceeds my expectations.

Troy Chance is a freelance journalist, based in Saranac Lake. She mostly covers little things her The name caught me when I saw this for review on NetGalley. That and the cover. I'm all for desolate wintry landscapes, and this mystery is set midwinter in the really cold Saranac Lake in Upstate New York. It doesn't disappoint on either the desolation or the cold, it describes both so well that I'm glad I'm sitting in a toasty room under my blanket. And as for the novel, it exceeds my expectations.

Troy Chance is a freelance journalist, based in Saranac Lake. She mostly covers little things here and there for the local newspaper, like the winter palace they build every year in the middle of the frozen lake. Except this time around, they find a body frozen in the ice, and it's of someone Troy knew. Troy decides to write about Tobin, his life and his death, and becomes entangled in the events that led him from his high society life and Princeton education to a middle-of-nowhere cabin in Saranac Lake eventually to his death.

This is a slow book, and I don't mean that it is boring. It's remarkably well paced and I thought the book flowed beautifully. There were no dangling threads, there were no events that felt out of place, no characters that felt superfluous. Henry takes her time to flesh out each pertinent character, so many are given backstories so we care about them. The connections they form during the book are also very well done - it's easy to believe that this set of people would become friends and that all the unfolding events would affect them as much as it does. But, as for why this book worked for me as much as it did, it has to be the main character, Troy. This is truly make or break for me - I cannot stand books that have a too-stupid-to-live-in-real life-but-thriving-in-book-world characters. Troy is not one of those. She's sensible, makes rational decisions and shows a lot of empathy towards the people she's writing about.

I did not read the first book featuring Troy, Learning to Swim. The events from that book are referenced in this novel, but I did not feel like I missed anything important. But, I may have been spoiled Swim - I think I can piece together what happened there. Why I have a 4 star rating (which is more a 4.5) and not 5, is because of a couple of annoying and repetitive references to Swim, which I think were distracting. But it's a minor quibble really in an otherwise excellent mystery (I will not call this a thriller). I will be looking out for more from this author and from Troy.

I received this book for review via NetGalley.
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