Silent Snow by Steve Thayer

Silent Snow by Steve Thayer

My review

Rating: 4 of 5 stars
The kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby in 1932 forms the backdrop for this very well written thriller/mystery. In Minnesota in 1999, Rick Beanblossom's baby boy is kidnapped from his nursery crib just as the Lindbergh baby was kidnapped 67 years previously. Beanblossom's wife, Andrea Labore is a television media star, while Rick is a well-known print media reporter. They both are celebrities, and they both, by virtue of what they do for a living, have numerous contacts thanks to work associations both currently and from previous jobs. However, when their son is kidnapped they are just as much at the mercy of those who took their son as anyone else in their position might be.

By shifting the action back and forth between 1932 and the present, we follow the parallels between the two different kidnappings. There are many similarities between the two cases. In 1932 the Lindbergh case was closed when Bruno Hauptmann was found guilty and executed for the crime. However, because of the uniformity of the current crime to the former one, serious doubt is placed upon the assumption that Bruno Hauptmann committed the kidnapping of Baby Lindbergh alone. Beanblossom begins to suspect Hauptmann had an accomplice and that this accomplice is now working out of Minnesota on a similar plan to extort money from wealthy parents.

Once I began reading Silent Snow, I found it difficult to put the book down. Steve Thayer maintained a level of tension throughout the book that kept me turning the pages as fast as I could read them. Apparently Thayer had one book before this one, The Weatherman, in which the characters who appear in Silent Snow make their debut. Based upon this book, I'd be willing to read anything more Thayer has written. He's created some interesting characters, and it would be interesting to see where he takes them from here.


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