Jennifer McMahon’s sixth novel, the psychological thriller, The Winter People (RH/Doubleday; RH Audio, published today) may be her breakout. It is both a LibraryReads and an IndieNext pick for February. Holds in libraries we checked are currently around 4:1.

Holds are particularly heavy in the Cleveland area, where the  Cleveland Plain Dealer‘s  influential reviewer Laura DeMarco, recommended it in a blog post:

Chilling is just the tip of the iceberg in describing new fantastic suspense-horror novel The Winter People, set in rural Vermont in 1908 and today. When people begin to disappear in small-town West Hall, including their hippie mother, 19-year-old Ruthie and 6-year-old Fawn think a centuries-old journal may hold clues to the disappearances that have plagued the town since Sara Harrison Shea’s beloved daughter Bertie died in 1908. They’re right – and the answer offered in this late-night page-turner is equal parts horrifying and heartbreaking, compelled by the power of a mother’s love.

A full-page ad in the upcoming 2/16 NYT Book Review includes quotes from Lisa Unger and Chris Bohjalian as well as one from an LA. Times review of two of the authors’ earlier books calling her “one of the brightest new stars of literary suspense.” The review is by Sarah Weinman, one of the brightest stars of  mystery reviewing (she published the anthology, Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives: Stories from the Trailblazers of Domestic Suspense, Penguin).

McMahon is already called a “NYT best selling author” because one of her paperback originals appeared for three weeks on the combined print and ebook list. This title looks poised to bring her to a new level.

Thanks to Wendy Bartlett, Cuyahoga Public Library, for the alert.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 11th, 2014 at 8:52 am and is filed under Fiction, Thriller. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.