Winter Flower by Charles Sheehan-Miles
May. 26th, 2019 10:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chris_gerribCharles Sheehan-Miles, America's most criminally-underappreciated writer, gave me an advanced reader's copy of his new novel Winter Flower. I've just finished it and am starting my PR blitz on it.
The novel is the story of the Roberts family. When the book opens, we see Cole Roberts working his butt off managing a Waffle House in rural Alabama. It's a huge comedown from his six-figure job in IT. This is something the author has had some personal experience. We learn quickly that Cole's daughter Brenna disappeared two years ago on the night of her 16th birthday. This triggered a series of events that put Cole on probation and broke and sees his wife drinking wine out of a bottle and their younger son Sam a picked-upon recluse. Then things get worse.
What Charles is very good at is taking ordinary people and throwing them into extraordinary circumstances. That's exactly what he does in Winter Flower. All of his characters are at one point or another in life-threatening situations. They have to deal with them without superpowers or Navy SEAL training. They also have very real and very human frailties and faults which sometimes cause them to make bad decisions. In fact, all four of the Roberts family has made at least one bad decision in the book. But they continue on and try to do the best that they can.
I found the ending of this book surprising and unexpected but very believable. This is also a book with two endings - there's the end of the life-threatening stuff and then a realistic ending dealing with the aftermath. This book is just really damn good!
The novel is the story of the Roberts family. When the book opens, we see Cole Roberts working his butt off managing a Waffle House in rural Alabama. It's a huge comedown from his six-figure job in IT. This is something the author has had some personal experience. We learn quickly that Cole's daughter Brenna disappeared two years ago on the night of her 16th birthday. This triggered a series of events that put Cole on probation and broke and sees his wife drinking wine out of a bottle and their younger son Sam a picked-upon recluse. Then things get worse.
What Charles is very good at is taking ordinary people and throwing them into extraordinary circumstances. That's exactly what he does in Winter Flower. All of his characters are at one point or another in life-threatening situations. They have to deal with them without superpowers or Navy SEAL training. They also have very real and very human frailties and faults which sometimes cause them to make bad decisions. In fact, all four of the Roberts family has made at least one bad decision in the book. But they continue on and try to do the best that they can.
I found the ending of this book surprising and unexpected but very believable. This is also a book with two endings - there's the end of the life-threatening stuff and then a realistic ending dealing with the aftermath. This book is just really damn good!
