The Cold Road

by Rick Wilber

Cold . . . cold is all Melissa O'Malley feels, growing up in the frigid expanses of rural Minnesota. The one thing keeping her warm is the obeah talent she has inherited from her island mother, who mysteriously left when Melissa was only five. Bright, beautiful, athletic, and extremely talented, Melissa is raised by her father, Melchior, and discovers her obeah when her father brings home a deer carcass. Upon touching the deer, Melissa, in a moment of electric clarity, experiences the deer's final moments before death.

Melissa's childhood has been happy. She excels in basketball as a teen, earning a chance to play basketball at the University of Minnesota. She also falls in love with Danny Finnegan, son of her dad’s friend, a local police detective. She and Danny dream of life together after she finishes college and he completes a stint in the Navy. Everything seems perfect until the news of Danny's combat death shocks the town. At Danny's funeral a last touch from Melissa shows her and Detective Finnegan Danny’s final moments before his death. With nothing more holding her back, Melissa is drawn to the south, to college in Florida, where she’ll follow her bliss.

Florida is everything Melissa dreams of—a warm, tropical home that slowly thaws the ice around her soul. She continues playing basketball and meets handsome, charming Bo Palmer. After graduation, Melissa becomes PR director of the Palmers’ resort on the beautiful island of Saint Kitts. But local newsman Stanley Edwards tells her of dark secrets that threaten the resort. Stanley’s father disappeared many years ago, and shortly thereafter the Palmers’ resort became a success. Both Stanley and his mother, Miriam, an obeah woman who recognizes Melissa's talent, fear for Melissa even as they think she could help uncover the truth behind their tragedy.

As Melissa settles into her new home, she is drawn back north by her father’s news that someone is brutally killing women and their daughters in Minnesota. Detective Dan Finnegan and her father are stumped, and Dan knows Melissa's talent might unlock the key to the crimes. Torn by conflicting feelings—for Bo, for Stanley, and for her home in Minnesota, Melissa wants to help. But when she learns to trust her own instincts, will she survive her discovery of the horrible truth behind the deaths that shadow the past and threaten her future?

This taut thriller goes to extremes, and its sizzling narrative excitement never lets up.

400 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2003

About the author

Rick Wilber's novel ALIEN DAY (Tor Books 2021) is the sequel to ALIEN MORNING (Tor 2016), which was a finalist for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Novel of the Year. ALIEN DAY offers a wry near-future look at life on Earth and the alien home planet of S'hudon. On Earth, the ambitious TV celebrity and action hero Chloe Cary finds herself involved with Earth's jovial but deadly alien overlord Twoclicks and his son, The Perfection. On S'hudon, Chloe's boyfriend, Peter Holman, tries to rescue his sister Kait from the clutches of Twoclicks' evil brother Whistle; but finds out that it isn't Kait who needs to be rescued. The novel, says best-selling author Julie Czerneda, offers an "original, engaging, wonderfully complex alien world populated by unforgettable characters."

Wilber also recently co-authored (with Alan Smale), the alternate-history collection, THE WANDERING WARRIORS (WordFire Press, 2020). The book features "The Wandering Warriors" novella that first appeared as the cover story in the May/June 2018 edition of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine, and also has two additional stories, one from each author. Both authors have won the Sidewise Award for their alternate-history stories.

Also out in 2020 was the short-story collection, RAMBUNCTIOUS: NINE TALES OF DETERMINATION (Word Fire Press, 2020), which holds nine of Rick's favorite stories from more than fifty published over the past thirty years.

Rick recently edited the ebook anthology, MAKING HISTORY: CLASSIC ALTERNATE HISTORY STORIES (New Word City, 2019). The book reprints classic stories by writers Karen Joy Fowler, Gregory Benford, Kathleen Goonan, Harry Turtledove, Lisa Goldstein, Walter Jon Williams, Maureen McHugh, Nisi Shawl, Michael Bishop, Alan Smale, Rich Larson, Sheila Finch, Ben Loory, Nicholas DiChario, Michael Swanwick and Eileen Gunn, and editor Rick Wilber.

His collection, THE MOE BERG EPISODES (New Word City, 2018) reprints four alternate-history stories that first appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction magazine.

The author of some sixty published short stories, his most recent short fiction includes the novella, "Billie the Kid," forthcoming in Asimov's Science Fiction magazine, "Tin Man," co-authored with Brad Aiken, in the May/June 2021 Asimov's, the novelette "The Hind," co-authored with best-selling author Kevin J. Anderson, in the November/December 2020 issue of Asimov's, the short story, "False Bay," in the forthcoming anthology, MOVIES, MONSTERS & MAYHEM (WordFire Press, 2020), the novelette, "Ithaca," co-authored with Brad Aiken, in the May/June 2020 Asimov's), the story, "Donny Boy," in the Alternate Peace anthology (ZNB, edited by Steven Silver and Joshua Palmatier) and the novella, "The Secret City," in the September/October 2018 Asimov's, among others.

Rick's short story, "Today is Today," from the July 2018 issue of Stonecoast Review, has been reprinted in The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2019 (ed, Rich Horton) and in Lightspeed Magazine. His novella, "The Secret City," was runner-up for the Sidewise Award for Best Alternate History -- Short Form of 2018 and his story, "Something Real," won the Sidewise Award for Best Alternate History--Short Form in 2013.

He is the editor of the baseball fantasy anthology, "Field of Fantasies" from Nightshade/Skyhorse (2014), which reprints about two dozen baseball/fantasy stories by outstanding mainstream and genre writers from Stephen King to Karen Joy Fowler and and many more. He also edited 2011's "Future Media" (Tachyon) 2011, brings together classic works of fiction and non-fiction about the future of the mass media.

Rick's 2009 novel, "Rum Point," is a baseball/murder mystery/thriller from McFarland Books and his 2007 memoir, “My Father’s Game: Life, Death, Baseball” from McFarland Books, was called by best-selling author Peter Straub “a stunning book,” and one that “abounds with faith, heartbreak, love,

Reviews

[Cynthia Nichols · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book fails as a mystery because the solution is obvious right from the beginning, so obvious that I thought maybe it was intended to be so, but I think that's giving it too much credit. The writing is unfocused and clumsy at times. A character first introduced as, (paraphrasing) "a goofy-looking guy, too skinny, with short curly hair and wire-rimmed glasses, must have been the class nerd" when our heroin first meets him, is later referenced as: "She looked at him, at the profile of that handsome face, furrowed now in anger.", once he becomes a possible new romantic focus.
Due to the effective evocation of place in both Minnesota in January and a Caribbean Island in the same month, I was at least interested enough to finish it, but kind of wish I hadn't as there's a horrifically nasty and disturbing aspect to the story that just didn't need to be there. Not recommended.

[Haziq Usman · Rating 5 out of 5]

An extra-ordinary novel............. It was the first one which I read and it inject the clod into my warm....... warm veins