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COLD HANDS
by John J Niven
William Heinemann, August 2012
272 pages
12.99 GBP
ISBN: 0434019577


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Take a touch of TRAINSPOTTING. Stir in more than a dash of PSYCHO. Set the main action of the story in the wild and beautiful winter of Saskatchewan, western Canada, and there you have the basis of John J Niven's gut-wrenching new offering.

Donnie Miller has it all. He's made a successful new life in Canada. He has a fabulous home, a beautiful and successful wife, a bright and happy young son. He divides his time writing film reviews for the local newspaper edited by his wife and owned by her fabulously rich father, attempting to write his own film script, and acting as househusband. But Donnie is hiding a dark secret from his days as a child of drink-sodden parents in the mean streets of 1980s Glasgow. And as the brutal Canadian winter sets in, strange things start to happen as his past reaches out to claim him and all he holds dear. His wife is brutally killed and he is forced to face up to his own past at the same time as facing a psychotic murderer.

What follows is not for the faint-hearted or those of a nervous disposition. Niven positively wallows in gore. There are eviscerated family pets, graphic descriptions of torture, mass murder and a horrific climax as the murderer attempts to take revenge and Donnie is finally forced to face the truth about himself.

This is certainly not a comfortable book. COLD HANDS is an almost forensic examination of both the human ability to suppress guilt and the driving force behind the obsessive need for revenge that can totally destroy the lives of its victims. The exploration of the darker side of human nature and its sheer intensity make it a hard and sometimes harrowing read, but it is one well worth the effort.

§John Cleal is a former soldier and journalist with an interest in medieval history. He divides his time between France and England.

Reviewed by John Cleal, July 2012

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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