Synopsis:
Alice Wynter left her familial home in Redding, Maine many years ago and never looked back. She married Gerald Dunn, a successful Wall Street lawyer, created an equally successful career of her own in advertising, and settled into life in Chatham, New Jersey. She thought that by physically distancing herself from the painful memories of her childhood, she could forget the emotional turmoil she suffered, as well.
But a telephone call in the dead of night awakens her and instantly pulls her back to her past. Her mother, Jackie Ruth, begs her to come home because her father, Edward “Papa” Wynter, has died, and her twin brother, Chris, is missing. Alice cannot deny her mother’s request, no matter how much she’d like to. But her emotionally absent husband, Gerald, declines to accompany her, so Alice sets off for Maine — and her troubled family history — on her own.
When Alice arrives in Redding, she is soon drawn back into her memories of the events she survived so many years ago. She recalls her father’s drinking, her brother’s troubled youth and inability to ever grow into manhood and free himself from their father’s domineering influence, and her mother’s quiet tolerance of it all. Worse, on two occasions, she sees a man who bears an eerie resemblance to her cousin, Ray, long presumed dead.
Could it be that Ray is still, after all these years, alive and has returned to Redding? Who hated Papa enough to kill him? Where is Chris — is he dead or alive? Could he possibly have murdered his own father? And just how much does Jackie Ruth know, but is refusing to disclose?
Review:
Before long, Ray commits an act so heinous and unthinkable that Chris is wracked with revulsion and guilt. But his desire to confess is outweighed by his fear of Ray, who becomes terrifyingly emboldened and confident as a result of his own conduct. To make his point, Ray not only threatens and, eventually, physically attacks Chris, but also harms Alice in order to extract Chris’s silence.
Seidel skillfully explores the way that a single act by one individual can impact an entire town, with the fall-out and repercussions reverberating decades later. Back in 1984, Ray’s singular impulse to act out violently and Chris’s ill-fated decision to participate in that act set into motion a chain of events and related events — actions and reactions — that have culminated more than twenty-five years later in the murder of one man, Papa Wynter, and the disappearance of his son. And brought Alice back to confront how her early life experiences have informed and influenced her marriage and the choices she has made through the years.
Dead of Wynter is not about Maine. It’s about characters who happen to live in Maine because the author of their story loves Maine, spring, summer, fall, and yes, even winter. . . . I have an unusual affinity for Maine that I can’t quite explain. Of all the places I’ve lived in or visited, none but Maine seemed quite right for Dead of Wynter. Rural Maine seemed perfect somehow.~ Author Spencer Seidel
Through Alice, Seidel also explores the theme of acknowledgment of and reconciliation with one’s past. For Alice, the trip home dredges up memories of events and persons that she has spent years actively trying to forget. Rather than confront what happened to her in Redding, Alice secured college scholarships and escaped to the comfort of a new life in a new town making new friends as a college student. It was in college that she met and fell in love with Gerald. After they married and established their careers, she focused upon her life with him, returning to Redding only a couple of times since leaving. On one occasion, she traveled home to support Chris’s stint in a rehabilitation facility, but it became obvious that he had no intention of working to maintain his sobriety. Nor did her parents ever change. Her mother enabled her father’s alcoholism and dominance over Chris, the two of them hanging out in the local tavern each night. Indeed, it was in that tavern that the nightmare to which Alice has returned kicked into high gear.
Seidel demonstrates that you can run from your past, but you cannot hide from it indefinitely. Eventually, Alice is forced to deal with all the issues she has evaded for so many years, including the reasons why she has been as emotionally and physically unavailable to Gerald as he has been to her. Alice is forced to acknowledge that the love she and Gerald once shared has most assuredly waned because of her behavior as much as Gerald’s. And despite a tantalizing dalliance with an old flame in Redding, who represents comfort and security at at time when she really needs both, she must decide whether she wants to return to Chatham and attempt to repair her marital relationship. In the aftermath of the events that take place in Redding, Alice must also find a way to achieve peace concerning her relationship with her mother, a woman she readily admits to simultaneously loving and hating.
Fast-paced and engrossing, Dead of Wynter offers surprising plot twists and seemingly endless complications before Seidel manages to wring the last drop of intrigue from his characters. Unveiling the mysteries through a narrative set in two different time periods was a highly effective story-telling technique. Just when the reader learns about an event in 1984 that seems relevant to the current action, something occurs in the present that causes the reader to question the conclusions already drawn. Yet the parallel stories unravel in perfectly timed synchronicity so that all of the pieces of the puzzle fall neatly into place at just the right time.
In this story, the emphasis is clearly on what happened, rather than why Ray, Chris, and Vic were motivated to act out in such a destructive manner. Perhaps Seidel’s point is that no one can ever know for sure why another human being behaves in a particular manner, but must still deal with the aftermath. However, because she has been forced by her circumstances to engage in introspection, by the end of the tale, Alice finds she has a “new self, the smashed together Alice Wynter and Alice Dunn.” Having made peace with her past, she looks to the future through new eyes, able to see possibilities in a way she previously could not. It is a satisfying conclusion to a highly entertaining story that will make readers glad they went along with Alice on her journey back to Redding, Maine.
Enter to Win a Copy of Dead of Wynter
One lucky reader, selected at random, will receive a copy of Dead of Wynter, graciously provided by the author.
Mandatory Entry:
Post a comment, being sure to include your email address (for notification and delivery purposes), telling me what intrigues you most about the plot of Dead of Wynter.
Bonus Entry:
Read and post a comment on Spence Seidel’s guest post, Writing Music.
The comment posted by Tiffany D. was selected at random and a copy of Dead of Wynter was sent to Tiffany!
28 Comments
I’ve been wanting to read this book so would love to win!
I like the complexity of the story. It sounds like there are going to be alot of things happening in the story. Her memories of childhood, her brother’s issues, if her cousin is alive (and why she does not like him). It sounds like it would be a great mystery book.
manning_j2004 at yahoo dot com
Read and posted a comment on the guest post, Writing Music.
What interests me most about this book is what crime could be so bad as to leave such an impact on everyone this badly? I am curious to know the answer to this question.
I like the mystery, and the returning to the small town part of the plot.
meredithfl at gmail dot com
Looking for some summer reads. Thanks for the wonderful giveaway
I like the family drama aspect. The title also sets the mood.
Read and posted comment on Seidel’s guest post.
I would like to see what happens, in the past, and how it affects the future of the people.
twoofakind12@yahoo.com
Now I have to see what Ray needs to confess! edysicecreamlover18@gmail.com
I have to admit that when I was reading the storyline and review I actually got shivers! I love a suspenseful mystery and this will certainly have to go on the wishlist. Thanks for the opportunity to win the giveaway. Heading over the guest post to read more!
dz59001[at]gmail[dot]com
Thanks for the giveaway!
thegirlonfire27 at gmail dot com
Family mysteries intrigue me
Thanks for the giveaway! My favorite mysteries are those involving “childhood memories” and adult familial relationships! Count me in!
BornajhawkATaolDOTcom
Posted a comment on the author’s guest post.
BornajhawkATaolDOTcom
I also love the East and the setting of this story in Maine.
The fact that Alice is taken back home where she thought she
had escaped from! The twists and turns that take place also
picque my interest in this book.
Many thanks, Cindi
I found Spencer’s guest post about writing music very
interesting! I left a comment for him…
Merci bien, Cindi
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I’d like to see how the author weaves the events of the past and the present together. Thanks for the giveaway.
Read and posted on Seidl’s post.
I am intrigued about what crime the three were involved with that was so bad!
kerrie@mayansfamily.com
I love a good twisty mystery.
I love mysteries, but I love family dramas even more. This has both. I love a book that can make me feel like maybe my life growing up wasn’t so bad after all, that it could have been worse.
jaidahsmommy(at)comcast(dot)net
Interesting book. Family problems can be so heartbreaking. Thank you.
makeupgirl21@comcast.net
Loved the review and this one is on my wish list. It sounds like it has a very intricate plot.
I would love to be entered for this – I like stories that show you have to go through things (like events in your past) rather than around them.
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