Reviews

The Snowstorm by Triona Walsh

herthrillingreads's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

A snowstorm cuts off a remote Irish island as 6 friends gather together to remember a friend who died 10 years ago. What can go wrong?! I love locked door murder mysteries in remote islands and this one did not disappoint! Add in that one of the 6 friends is a strong policewoman and I was hooked. The audiobook was well narrated and I stayed up past my bedtime listening to this one! I highly recommended checking this one out!

Thank you @bookouture and @netgalley for allowing me to listen to this audiobook ahead of publication in exchange for my honest review.

bnroop's review

tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

One one hand, I found this to be entertaining - the snowstorm, seclusion, literally an entire island of suspects. There were a few moments where my heart was thumping (I was reading alone, at night, near an open window- iykyk!). 

On the other hand, it was meh. The thrills and twists would have packed more punch if I had felt more connected to the characters. I did want to punch Ferdia 99.999999% of the time, but the others were as bland as a boiled chicken.

anneessdee's review against another edition

dark emotional tense

• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

kba76's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I was able to read and review this thanks to NetGalley.
A remote Aran island. A storm cutting the island off from the outside world. Six friends gather to mark the anniversary of a terrible tragedy that changed them all, and one of them is found dead. The killer was someone on the island, so it’s up to Garda Cara to try to work out what happened.
I like a locked-room story as much as anyone. Unfortunately, our locked room was an island so the tension was somewhat dissipated by the comings and goings, and endless scenes involving a search of yet another potential site of interest.
The group of friends consists of Cara, the outsider whose position is reinforced by her job, and her childhood friends. Each of them has their history and this is exploited as Cara tries to work out who killed her best friend, Maura.
While the story sounded tense, the pacing of the story was not quite what I thought. Events took a while to unfold, the additional characters muddied the water and delayed the truth being discovered, and the resolution felt like something that would have been known on some level a lot earlier. I found the characterisation of all but Cara quite superficial, and I always felt as if something was being held back. 
There were some evocative descriptions of the storm, and I found the creation of the environment in which the story took place quite intriguing. The inclusion of two languages is integral to the book, though this in itself started to feel like another detail included simply to serve a point later on.

nisforneville's review

mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I got to read this book for free through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

This book starts out with a gathering of old friends meeting up for the first time in years. There’s a big snow storm approaching when Cara drives to her old friend’s house. She is a police sergeant, and soon, she has a murder to investigate, with the snow blocking anyone from coming to or leaving from the island off the coast of Ireland where Cara lives.

I liked Cara as a main character. I thought the author did a good job of describing the setting. There is some Irish slang that I’m not familiar with as an American, so that did take away from the story a bit. The plot held my attention. The twist wasn’t expected. Overall a great read!

annettenis's review

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

jmeslener's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

mishkaroni's review

challenging dark sad medium-paced

3.5

So this one was a bit difficult for me to get through. The Irish names and talk was rough for me. I actually had to go look at pronunciations quite a bit because I wanted to get it right in my head as I was reading which kind of took me away from the story. But that's on me. 

Now as for the story itself, it's good. It had a small cast of characters with their own personalities so it was easy for me to differentiate each character and follow along. I had my suspicions right off the bat and they were proved accurate by the end. Only once did I start to question based off a direction the author took.

There were some twists to the story and the trail of clues left by the victim were an interesting facet to the storyline. 

My only qualm with it is how Cara worked some of it out. We were kept in the loop most the time until it came time to her figuring who did what with who or to who. Otherwise this was a solid read for me.

alireads's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

sabireads84's review

2.5

Thank you NetGalley, Bookouture and Triona Walsh for letting me read “The Snowstorm” in exchange for an honest review! All opinions are my own. 

The Aran Islands on the west coast of Ireland, the Atlantic Ocean. A tragedy happened ten years ago. It tore apart a group of friends. Ten years, on New Year’s Eve, later the six of them are united again. They gather together, one of them missing. Later, there is a body found. Snow starts to fall, a storm set in. There is no way out. Nowhere to hide, no one to call. 

• Who of the friends is dead?
• Who is the culprit ? 
• What’s the tragedy and how is it connected to the childhood friends? 
• (And how on earth do you pronounce their names?!) 

Novels set in Ireland always have a certain charm and atmosphere. As well as Irish name. They look so beautiful on paper and sound totally different in my head. 

Sorcha -> Sör-ha

Daithí -> Do-hi

I wanted to like this one so much. The atmosphere and set up were perfect for it. Now, I don’t know what went astray. I expected more of a closed cottage kind of thing and not everyone investigating over the whole islands. 

I could not really get into it. I didn’t really get to care for the characters.  The story was dragging too much for me. Pretty predictable. I mean all stories are reused in a way, but I felt like this was something I’ve read recently. The culprit was made pretty obvious right from the start. It was not bad, it was not great. It was somewhere ein the nowhere Land in between.