Ruin Falls by Jenny Milchman

 Published: April 22nd 2014 by Ballantine Books

In a suspenseful follow-up to her critically acclaimed Cover of Snow, Jenny Milchman ratchets up the tension with this edge-of-your-seat story of a mother determined to find her missing children.

Liz Daniels has every reason to be happy about setting off on a rare family vacation, leaving behind her remote home in the Adirondack Mountains for a while. Instead, she feels uneasy. Her children, eight-year-old Reid and six-year-old Ally, have met their paternal grandparents only a handful of times. But Liz’s husband, Paul, has decided that, despite a strained relationship with his mother and father, they should visit the farm in western New York where he spent his childhood.

On their way to the farm, the family stops at a hotel for the night. In the morning, when Liz goes to check on her sleeping children, all her anxiety comes roaring back: Ally and Reed are nowhere to be found. Blind panic slides into ice-cold terror as the hours tick by without anyone finding a trace of the kids. Soon, Paul and Liz are being interviewed by police, an Amber Alert is issued, and detectives are called in.

Frantic worry and helplessness threaten to overtake Liz’s mind—but in a sudden, gut-wrenching instant she realizes that it was no stranger who slipped into the hotel room that night. Someone she trusted completely has betrayed her. Though she knows that Ally and Reid are safe, Liz will stop at nothing to find them and get them back. From her guarded in-laws’ unwelcoming farmhouse to the deep woods of her own hometown, Liz follows the threads of a terrible secret to uncover a hidden world created from dreams and haunted by nightmares.

Jenny Milchman is a literary perfectionist. She crafts a perfect story, from start to finish. Her first novel, Cover of Snow captured the deceptive nature of males, while Ruin Falls twisted the perception of females. The synopsis for this seemed too good to be true, but it delivered. Ruin Falls was equally as riveting as Cover of Snow (something I never thought to be possible.) For those that haven’t read Cover of Snow, I insist you read it right MEOW!

Liz is a tricky protagonist. Is she actually a protagonist? Is she the good guy? Is she the villain? I loved the mystery.

At times you love her, at times you want to throw the book at the wall because you loathe her so much. That’s what I love so much about Milchman’s writing, it stirs catharsis with the reader; what more can you want from a story?

At times Milchman’s writing was reminiscent of the great Jeffrey Deaver. The perfect noir, atmospheric, moody, thrilling, and shocking—every component that makes a book fabulous rolled into one.

One of the best reads of the summer.

Connect with Jenny: http://www.jennymilchman.com

http://www.jennymilchman.com/ruin-falls/

  Jenny Milchman is a suspense writer from the Hudson River Valley of New York State. Her debut novel, COVER OF SNOW, was published by Ballantine/Random House in January 2013 and her follow up novel, RUIN FALLS, will be published in April 2014.

Her short story ‘The Closet’ was published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine in 2012, and another short story, ‘The Very Old Man’, will be published in EQMM this year. The short work ‘Black Sun on Tupper Lake’ appears in the anthology ADIRONDACK MYSTERIES II.

Jenny is the Chair of International Thriller Writers’ Debut Authors Program. She is also the founder of Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day, which was celebrated in all 50 states and four foreign countries by over 700 bookstores in 2013. Jenny hosts the Made It Moments forum on her blog, which has featured more than 250 international bestsellers, Edgar winners, and independent authors. Jenny co-hosts the literary series Writing Matters, which attracts guests coast-to-coast and has received national media attention. She also teaches writing and publishing for New York Writers Workshop and Arts By The People.