Snowbound

by Bill Pronzini

"Pronzini is a master of suspense." —Los Angeles TimesAnother nightmarish tale from the author of Breakdown. When the blizzard hit and the avalanche that followed cut them off, the 75 hardy residents of a small resort village in the Sierra Nevadas quietly prepared for a Christmas in isolation. But three desperate professional killers were trapped with them... "Pronzini is the master of the shivery, spine-tingling it-could-happen suspense story."—Publishers Weekly"Pronzini is a pro."—The New York Times

Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Fiction, Suspense

255 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Mystery Writers of America Awards "Grand Master" 2008
Shamus Awards Best Novel winner (1999) for Boobytrap
Edgar Awards Best Novel nominee (1998) for A Wasteland of Strangers
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (1997) for Sentinels
Shamus Awards "The Eye" (Lifetime achievment award) 1987
Shamus Awards Best Novel winner (1982) for Hoodwink

Married to author Marcia Muller.

Pseudonyms:
Robert Hart Davis (collaboration with Jeffrey M. Wallmann)
Jack Foxx
William Jeffrey (collaboration with Jeffrey M. Wallmann)
Alex Saxon

Reviews

[Carla Remy · Rating 4 out of 5]

From 1974
A lot of book, long but I only minded sometimes. Great page-turning suspense.

[Joe Nicholl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Snowbound by Bill Pronzini (1974) is a very good crime fiction novel. Three thief's, one a psycho killer, are on the run from a busted heist and end up in a small Sierra Nevada mountain town just before Christmas. An avalanche seals the town off and all goes crazy with the trapped robbers. Well written, the setting & characters are real, the plot-line is tense, taut & suspenseful with lot's of action. The only slight take-away is I thought it was longer than it needed to be; it could have used an edit. Other than that if you like crime-fiction I highly recommend...it's a good one....4 outta 5....

[Michael Brooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a very solid read. The first 100 pages or so felt too long but the rewards of those first pages really shines through at the end. Pronzini does a great job making you care about the characters and knowing them, which took the first 100 pages or so, is part of that. The suspense was pretty well done. It is a great winter read. For a book like this it did a good job of not being too predictable. Enjoyable, and the last 60 pages are full of tension and truly enjoyable. Sometimes there was too much bloated description, and at times moved a little slow, but on the whole very good.

[KayDee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one seriously compelling read. It's got everything: a small town in the Sierra mountains cut off by a monster blizzard and avalanche and townspeople not suspecting that 3 criminals are also trapped with them. It also doesn't help that one of the crooks is mentally unstable with fantasies about killing people! It's a book that starts out with a bang and just keeps going all the way to the end.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

A 1974 standalone thriller from author Bill Pronzini. 1989 Grand Prix de Littérature Policière. This novel is like a locked room mystery, as many mini-dramas play out against the backdrop of 3 robbers coming to a town of 75 inhabitants to hide out and all being trapped together as an avalanche closes the only pass out of the town. I found it reminiscent of a John D. MacDonald thriller bringing a group of disparate people together for a violent climax. Here we see how author Pronzini handles the situation in a satisfying read.

Hidden Valley is a small isolated mountain town where nothing much happens. This is the story of one week, from December 17th to December 23rd when a snow storm cuts them off from the rest of the world, and the town is enveloped in terror.
Zachary Cain, is a newcomer to Hidden Valley. He lives in an A-frame cabin and while friendly enough is something of a mystery. All anyone really knows is he may come from San Francisco and receives a monthly check.
In Sacramento a heist is going down — a big cash-and-carry giant department store is being hit by three men: Brodie, the wheel man, capable and intelligent; Loxner, big and slow witted, not the man they wanted for the job; and, Kubion, the brains, the planner. But the best laid plans as the saying goes … the whole thing goes wrong.
Meanwhile in the valley individuals private lives unknowingly move toward unexpected crisis as their lives are about to spiral out of control.
The crooks reach Hidden Valley and a slide closes the only road out of town. Kubion begins to plot how to get out and to take advantage of the situation by effectively holding up the entire valley, aware that they are sitting ducks when the road opens and the police begin to pour in. Something has to give… And give it does in a sudden display of violence, and as the fear and helplessness of the villagers and the brutality and desperation of the criminals dovetail together it becomes increasingly certain that the outsider Zachary Cain is the only man equipped to restore order with his own brand of chaotic violence and his own need for redemption.
Cain, it turns out has something to prove to himself, something to atone for, and maybe if he can save the people of this small village from these three brutal men he can save his own soul.

[Alton Motobu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Adult pulp fiction. Three inept thieves kill a security guard during a failed robbery in Sacramento then hide out in a secluded village in the high Sierras only to become trapped when a snow storms cuts them off from civilization. Their next idea is to kidnap all of the townspeople and lock them in a church while they burglarize all the homes and businesses in the village to steal money. But two townsmen escape from the church and hunt down the robbers. Climax is a long drawn out gun fight and all the robbers are killed. Story takes place in December with lots of Christmas flavor, but this is not exactly a cozy Christmas mystery. There are lots of adult themes such as adultery, sadism and cold-blooded murder.

[Jim Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

The low rating is because although I liked the story and it's interesting plot line and characters very much it felt like it was too long. It felt padded as if Pronzini was trying to turn what would have been a well paced 200 page novel into a 255 page novel that dragged, especially in the first half. Having a good editor reduce it to 200 pages would have got a 4 or maybe even 5 stars from me. I know there is a tradition among some classic crime fiction writers to give long and vibrant descriptions of the setting the events are taking place. Try comparing the first couple of paragraphs of Hammett's "Red Harvest" or Chandler's "The Little Sister" to see the difference.

[Tyler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Glad I had this around during the blizzard this month. Good little 70's thriller. Feel like parts of 70's crime movies thrown together, especially Scorpio from Dirty Harry. Love settings like this, isolated village. The set-up is way too long, too many characters who don't really matter much. One of the main characters does nothing yet has big arc. The tension in the book is really well done so I was tearing through the second half when it actually gets going.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set just before Christmas in an isolated snowbound resort village in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, this is a literally chilling hostage drama which has three nasty villains who take the entire town hostage before it all proceeds to a convincing resolution as the hostages fight back. A nicely claustrophobic 1974 novel. 3.5 stars.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice crime thriller set in a small town during a Christmas snowstorm. The bad guys are hiding out in town when an avalanche cuts it off from the rest of the world. They decide to rob the whole town before they get dug out.

[Rochelle Woessner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good.

I miss the no name stories I loved every one of them. This was a fun book., but not no name.

[dejah_thoris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading (but not weeding!) from my father's collection because it's so well written. The small town details still resonate and the characterizations are superb.

[Diego Budiño Parreño · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 estrellas, solo porque me gustó el final.
El libro tiene momentos en que "levanta" y otros donde "decae". Se divide en dos partes: durante la primera se presenta el trasfondo de varios personajes del pueblo mientras ocurre el intento de robo por parte de los antagonistas, unos ladrones profesionales. Esta parte mantuvo mi interés, y terminaría en un punto álgido presentando el problema que seguirá durante toda la segunda parte. Lo malo: hay detalles sobre algunos personajes que no entran en la trama, están de sobra, uno espera que el trasfondo de tal personaje tenga algo de relevancia más tarde en la historia, pero este no fue el caso, sobraron algunas páginas de la primera parte.
La segunda parte decae mucho al inicio porque, a mi gusto, no deja nada a la imaginación, se presenta el problema y se sigue con él durante buena parte del libro; sobresalen momentos como cuando se relata la visita de los ladrones a una anciana incapacitada, durante unos momentos se pudo sentir el terror de esta persona, excelente momento, pero muy breve. Luego llegará el momento de que el pueblo tome medidas contra los ladrones, aquí es donde levanta bastante y termina de buena manera.
Los personajes: son un poco cliché, pero hay que entender que este es un libro de hace varios años, y en su época podría haber servido como material para una película (desconozco si la tuvo o no).
Ambientación: poco explotada, se basa más en los personajes y su historia.
En resumen: la pasé bien leyendo este libro, pero siendo uno de la colección "El séptimo círculo" me esperaba más, carece de misterio, tampoco es un policial (lo que menos hay es acción policial), no hay detective ni nada del estilo; me gustó la "crudeza" de algunos personajes, pero otros dieron pena.

[Cat. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun book about nefarious and just unpleasant people. There are only a couple of likeable folks in the story, but it's hard to put the book down.

It all starts with a holdup in a Sacramento bank that goes awry. The thieves have planned for everything, except what actually happens. They get away safely except for a stray bullet one of them takes...and the death of one of the security guards.

Their hideout is a carefully chosen "safe house" in the mountains near a very small town. Within a week of their arrival--posing as businessmen--the valley is snowed in, cut off from the outside world by an avalanche. One of the robbers cooks up a scheme to rob whole valley--he's sure there is a load of cash in the shops--while everyone is still snowed in, and escape on snowmobiles.

Unfortunately, for the other two robbers and the residents of the valley, this guy is not only a careful, thoughtful planner, he is stark raving insane. So they all follow his plan, waiting for him to make a mistake.

Dated, of course, because it's over 30 years old, but a lot of fun to try to see how it's all going to come together only to fall apart.

[Wilma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had forgotten about this author. I read him years ago and his wife Marcia Muller. This book was a quick read but that is because the computer was down yesterday and so I read this book.

Good story, good characters except for the bad guy who spoke in -sentences. But I think that was part of the character that Bill Pronzini wanted to betray.

I'd recomend it as I didn't put it down.

[Catea Ivanov · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read this book as part of my 2015 Reading Challenge. The only reason i chose it was because it fit nicely in the 'Book set during Christmas' category, and with only a hand full of reviews i wasn't expecting much from this book. But in the end it turned out to be a captivating book, about the residents of a small town that face three dangerous gunmen.

If you are looking for a book that goes deeply into the ins and outs of human nature than this is not the book for you, but if you are looking for a fast-paced, crime book, that you can just sit back and enjoy, than this is a good match.

[Michael Tildsley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was just an "okay" effort by Pronzini. I liked the set-up and some of the small town gossipy drama that plays out in the book. In this way, it reminds me of Stephen King's Under the Dome, though it's not done quite as well or to such an effect. There are some slow, sore points that bring this one down. I wish more had been done with a few of the characters. Still, a good story told fairly well.

[James S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good book, undeservedly forgotten. The book is written well; parts of it, especially towards the beginning, might even have come out of some New Yorker-type story. The characters are memorable and lifelike, and the pacing is nicely done - slow enough to make it feel real, and then dreadfully fast towards the end. Most of all, though, the suspense - what suspense! Suspense is what I live for as a reader, and this book has enough for a whole library.

[Cherisse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reminiscent of Dick Francis books with loner hero who perseveres and gets the job done. Unfortunately, none of the characters are very memorable.