Cold: A Novel (Fiction) by John Smolens

by John Smolens

John Smolens's matter-of-fact narrative style pairs ideally with this gritty yarn about a convict who, after fleeing a work detail in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, sets off through a snowstorm to reclaim the life he'd enjoyed before his duplicitous family sent him to prison. Here's an example of Smolens's style from early on in Cold, when escapee Norman Haas is involved in a trucking accident. Rather than save the trapped driver from his rig's explosion, Norman steals a van from a stranger who has stopped to help them both. "As he pushed in the clutch and shifted into first gear," Smolens writes,

he realized there was a familiar smell in the warm van. The ashtray was full of rolls of Certs; he picked up one and began peeling back the paper. In the rearview mirror he could see the burning truck. The flames now rose high above the cab, and thick black smoke blew into the trees alongside the road. Norman put a Certs in his mouth. The taste reminded him of inside, where he'd sucked on Certs all day long. Wintergreen.

Norman never achieves much more dimension than that. He exists primarily as a catalyst, forcing this book's other more intricately drawn characters to reveal their own pain, mendacity, or longing. These include characters like his ex- fiancée, Noel, who saw Norman's incarceration as just revenge for his abuse; she went on to marry his malingering brother, but now intends to run away with Norman to Canada. Or like Del Maki, the small-town sheriff whose dogged pursuit of the escapee is entwined with his growing appreciation for a widowed sculptor who'd tried to convince Norman to turn himself in. As these players, along with Noel's hunter father and his mysterious Asian business partner, converge at a remote cabin, they incite a desperate, violent clash that exposes both the deception at the root of Norman's conviction and an ugly conspiracy to profit from wildlife destruction. Cold is fiction to chill the soul--too revealing of human selfishness to be easily read, too well-written to be easily put down. --J. Kingston Pierce

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Book Club, Contemporary, Suspense, Drama

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

According to Northern Michigan University's website, John Smolens "...has published five novels Cold, The Invisible World, Fire Point, Angel’s Head, and Winter by Degrees, and one collection of short stories (My One and Only Bomb Shelter.) Cold was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, and the Detroit Free Press selected Fire Point as the best book by a Michigan author in 2004... His short stories and essays have appeared in various magazines and newspapers, including: the Virginia Quarterly, the William and Mary Review, the Massachusetts Review, Yankee, Redbook, the Los Angeles Times, and the Boston Globe. His work has been translated into Dutch, Greek, Italian, and Turkish, and has been published the United Kingdom by Hodder & Stoughton, London."

His most recent publication is The Anarchist and has been well received.

Reviews

[Frank · Rating 4 out of 5]

COLD is very aptly titled. It takes place in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan during a winter blizzard where after it cleared, the temperature dropped to minus 50 degrees. Norman Haas was serving time in prison and during this blizzard, he simply walked away from his work detail without being detected. After walking through the snow and cold, barely surviving, he arrives at a farmhouse of a lonely woman named Liesl, who gives him temporary shelter but then walks him through the snow using snow shoes to turn him back in. Along the way, Norman escapes again when Liesl is injured and is able to make it to his home in North Eicher where he confronts Noel, the woman who first wronged him. She had married Norman's detestable brother and given birth to a baby while Norman was in prison. Despite this, Norman was still in love with her. On Norman's trail is Sheriff Maki, a dedicated lawman who tracks him doggedly. But there are other things going on in North Eicher that contributed to Norman's prison sentence. These involve Norman's worthless brother and Noel's heartless father and a scheme related to the abundance of bears in the locale.

A few years ago, I read and enjoyed Smolens' novel THE ANARCHIST about the assassination of President McKinley. Based on that, I decided to find another book by the same author and have had COLD on my shelves for awhile. Finally got around to reading it and found it to be a very compelling and engaging thriller. It was very unlike THE ANARCHIST which was an historical novel but very satisfying nonetheless. The characters were well-developed and the story kept me turning the pages. Overall good recommendation for this one.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was hesitant to read this book after seeing some of the posts here and am so glad that I ignored them and went ahead with it. I really enjoyed it and found it hard to put down.

If you are looking for a simple love story - look elsewhere. This is a suspense novel and it's characters are as complex and fascinating, though not always likable, as the remote area in which they live. Smolens surprised me right up until the end with unpredictable story lines and he certainly knows how to capture desolation with his often brittle, icy prose. This is the first thing I've read of his and I will be looking for more.

[jimtown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Smolen's knows our U.P., and its characters not only inside out, they get under your skin and make you itch to know more. Without wasted explanation, he tells an unexpected tale, but one that you know could happen here. There's no need for any extra drama in the U.P. and Smolen's lays each scene before us with plenty of vivid realism and details, but no added drama or frills. Kind of like the U.P. itself.

A young man walks away from the prison in the middle of whiteout conditions. He walks for what seems like 50 miles. He smells smoke and follows it to find a farmhouse. He's standing in the snow at the edge of the woods, shivering, looking at the house. A big blonde Norwegian woman comes out toting her late husband's shotgun. They size each other up, neither talking or moving and finally she allows him to come in out of the cold. She tells him that the prison is only 12 miles away. He still thinks he must have walked fifty miles in the snow to get there, and he probably did. She feeds him, allows him to rest and warm up, but she's not planning to keep him and before night falls, they set off in snowshoes toward town in the blizzard. When Leisl, the woman falls, he attempts to carry her but when it proves too much, he leaves her behind in the snow.

This story and the walkaway move forward in an unexpected direction from there. The characters, writing style and ease with conversation get five stars here. The storyline takes one away, but all in all a true blue Yooper classic here.

I want to know these people....maybe I do.

Just as an added note, the only character, a minor one, that wasn't fully realized to me was the very sleepy, complacent three year old, Lorraine. Three year olds can be sweet, cute and cheery but they are also full of questions and notoriously whiney but I've never known a three year old to sleep as much as Lorraine did. I could visualize her physically but kept thinking she must be hungry or thirsty by now!

[Dara S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very strange book. Most of the characters were not very likeable. A lot violence that I felt was not necessary.

[Lynne Fort · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid novel held up primarily by the wonderfully written characters. Also, nice to read something set in the Midwest (I don't live in the U.P. but I do live in Wisconsin, so close enough.)

[Kristen Freiburger · Rating 1 out of 5]

And taking top spot for my worst read of 2024…Cold. Animal abuse, got that. Physical abuse, yeppers. Cringy sexual descriptions in really deep details, man it wouldn’t have been complete without it. But the best part, when you don’t know how to clean up the mess you’ve made of a book, I know, just kill everyone off. No need to have an arc, just kill ‘em all. And just for funsies the author ends the book with another prison run away, effectively starting the entire train wreck all over again.

[Donna Oster · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting mystery set in the Michigan UP wilderness, written by a Michigan author.

[Maggard · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this solely because another author (Pete Dexter) strongly recommended it in an interview. And it's a great setup, but it suddenly turns from wow-I've-got-such-a-soft-spot-for-neo-noir-and-this-is-good-times to oh-I-guess-we're-creating-unbelievable-Archetypes-who-act-completely-inconsistently to, finally, really?-that-was-what-was-going-on-in-the-woods?-really? Can I have those two hours back?

Which is to say, stick to writing books, Pete, and not recommending them.

[Dianne · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first part grabs your attention and you think, "Wow, this is going to be a great book to snuggle up with!" But then you hit the second part. And it bogs down. Completely.

And P.S. to the author...hang around children before writing about them anymore. Your "3 yr old" vascillated between being an infant and a kindergartener, the way you wrote about her. And really? You could come up with "the child" (over and over again) when referring to her? That got tedious.

[Diane · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book got my attention because it's set in the U.P. of Michigan. The first third was pretty okay and then it just got stupid. There's way too much violence and some animal cruelty that made me ill. In the last portion of the book the characters did so many things that made no sense. Even the 3 year old child seemed to be treated more like an infant by the author. The ending? Also non-sensical. I can't recommend this one.

[Tami · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first half of the book was quite good then the last half of the book was strange and unbelieveable...all this fuss over the killing of bears in the U.P.?

[Brett · Rating 3 out of 5]

A crime novel set in the U.P. in winter. I didn't care much for the characters, even the good ones, but the descriptions of cold and snow rang true.

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good enough book. Mostly interesting to me because it's set in the Upper Peninsula.

[Doug Gordon · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I was halfway through this book, I was thinking of rating it 4 or 5 stars, but at about the 2/3 point it starting getting more and more far fetched to the point where it became absurd by the end, and I almost didn't finish it. It was disappointing since the character development and prose style had been very captivating up to that point.

I do rate it highly for its generally realistic portrayal of the environment and culture of the U.P., but having just returned from a trip in the Marquette area I can guarantee that you don't have to get very far out of town -- let alone up in the wilderness areas -- to lose all hope of a cell phone signal! But I'll grant the author some poetic license on the small stuff...

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good winter read. I was interested in it because I love the UP (although I’ve never been there in winter lol). It was fun being able to relate to and actually picture some of the areas described. The author did a good job of developing the characters even though many of them were marginal and not very likeable. Even though the book was written over 20 yrs ago- it seems like things are the same or worse regarding rural (and suburban) area drug culture, resulting hopeless, sordid cycle,crime and sequelae from drug use in the US. It went a little slowly at times but it was still an enjoyable story if you have a little suspension of disbelief. I could have done without so many sex scenes, but that’s just me. All in all I liked the book.

[Meredith Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this book was OK. It was a lot of dialogue, had a lot of sexually charged parts… which is good if you like that, I suppose. A lot of unnecessary violence, too. And I could tell it was written by a man, based on the women characters. I did like Del and Leisl’s relationship though. I think he could have focused more on that than the other unremarkable characters. It reminded me a bit of those subpar horror movies where so many of the characters just end up getting killed off or dying to the point where when another one dies, it’s not even surprising, just predictable. I appreciate books where I have more of an emotional attachment to the characters and their development to where I’m at least a little disappointed for the right reasons when one dies. Three stars because I still read it and it wasn’t poorly written or anything. Just meh.

[Amy Bearinger · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.75 stars.

I found this book in a little free library by my home. I picked it up and knew that the genre fit what I typically read, and loved the Michigan connection.

The writing was good, and the story had a lot of promise. For some reason I just never really felt all that satisfied as everything progressed.

The first chapter was so engaging— but it just never really felt like it did much. Which is odd because when I was describing the book to somebody else it seemed like it would.

Just one of those things I guess.

[Peg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good writer but...it took so long to get through the story with only a little over 300 pages. With so many characters and a blizzard, it should have gone more quickly. I liked his character development and scenery but a bit of suspension of belief. While the whole UP is shut down with a massive blizzard and no emergency personnel able to get out, the regular folk could drive and get away and go on with their lives. Really? I will try some of his other books though.

[K · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not like this mystery, at first. Ended well enough. My first impression was that it was a so so popcorn mystery. Grew on me, I guess. Or maybe I just hate to give totally up! Liked Del, leisl, Norman well enough. Didn’t understand Noel, disliked her father and warren. So mix of likes and dislikes evened it out for me. Life in UP MI was interesting. Special breed, as I would imagine.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Glad I put this down after the first third, based on the reviews here. Unnecessarily crude and violent. I love stories of harsh UP winters and prefer complicated characters, but these characters were unlikeable. I didn’t see the point of going on, so I didn’t. I will say that the book had a lot of potential and I liked the setting.

[Les · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actual Rating: 3.5/5

My Original Thoughts (2001):

Captured my interest from the first page. Part mystery/thriller, part contemporary fiction. Reminiscent of House of Sand and Fog (Andre Dubus III). Quick, enjoyable read.

My Current Thoughts:

I have no memory of this book, and I wonder what prompted me to pick it up. I haven't read anything else by Smolens.

[Donald Claxton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy reading anything about the UP and the heaven that it is on Earth. Several years of my childhood were spent roaming in the woods up there and so reading a book like Cold is like going home again. Possibly the closet thing I know to having one.....

[Barbara]

I rarely abandon a book, but after five chapters I am quitting this one. The language is extremely bad, and some descriptions were pretty graphic. I would like to know what happened, but it wasn’t enjoyable to read,

[Molly · Rating 1 out of 5]

Man I wanted to like this book since I like this author, but ughhhh so slow. Everyone except the "main" character is terrible and the "main" character is soooo boring. I enjoyed reminiscing about the UP at least. Skimmed the last 100pgs cause I just wanted it to be over.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

2nd book I read by John Smolens. I enjoy the Michigan connection.

[Kapembwa Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its very interesting story and adventure about loyalty, lust, envy, friendship, betrayal and family. A good read.

[Fran Darling · Rating 4 out of 5]

Upclose view of UP in it's hardship and dedication

[Jennefer Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very captivating. But very rough around the edges kind of book.

[Amy Webster-Bo · Rating 5 out of 5]

awesome book, loved the story, the characters, but did not like the ending

[David Blake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Snappy dialogue...terrific writing!