The Dead of Winter

by William H. Hallahan

Drie doodgewone hardwerkende mannen veranderen van de ene dag op de andere in keiharde, niets-ontziende machines...

Roger - van beroep vertegenwoordiger, in zijn vrije tijd een jager op groot wild. Hij vroeg zich altijd al af hoe het zou zijn om een mens tot prooi te hebben. Nu heeft hij zijn kans...
Joe - leraar filosofie, zet zijn principes op een rij en ontdekt één simpele waarheid: het is doden of gedood worden...
Dan - marketing deskundige met een uiterst nuchtere kijk op het leven, ondanks het feit dat zijn ouders knettergek zijn. Nuchter, totdat hij de laatste woorden van zijn stervende vriend hoort. Het enige wat nu nog voor hem geldt is wraak, tot iedere prijs...

"Een kille dood" voert de spanning op tot het uiterste en laat de lezer tot de laatste pagina's in het ongewise over hun lot.

Genres: Thriller

223 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

William Henry Hallahan was an American writer, best known for his two occult novels, The Search for Joseph Tully and The Keeper of the Children.

Mr. Hallahan started in the advertising business and stayed in the business for most of his adult life, but in 1971 with the publication of his first novel, The Dead of Winter, he began a second career as a writer. Over the next seventeen years he would write eight novels. In the 1990's he switched from fiction to non-fiction.


Mr. Hallahan served in the United States Navy as a radio operator during World War II He is survived by his daughter and a brother. He passed away at the age of 92.

Reviews

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just don't know where to start with this one. It started out as promising noir. A man is murdered, and his three friends take it upon themselves to find his killer and avenge him. Three average joes. Sounds promising right? Well, it goes bad fast. First off, these three "average joes" turn into cold blooded killers immediately. I mean its like, their friend gets killed, and it seemed like the very next day they hunted the killer down and killed him. Of these three guys, ones a salesman, ones a college instructor and one's a marketing executive. They may as well have turned into 3 James Bond's over night.

Now, I will say this. The book was very well written. If these had been, say, three hitmen, or three SEALS, or even three police officers, it would have made a little more sense. But these average joes are suddenly tracking down clues like Sherlock Holmes and killing people left and right. Another weird thing: one of the guys is a big game hunter on the side, the salesman. So you'd think, we'll there's our shooter! He's gonna snipe the bad guys! Nope. He's not even the one doing the shooting and sniping! It just was too weird.

And then at the end, the friends all end up trying to kill one another over money! What?? These guys that were so close they committed cold blooded murder for each other suddenly don't trust each other? There's a bit of a twist to this, but that was still the idea.

The bad thing is there was a lot that could have been really good about this one. Some good twists, some things that were clever, etc. but so much of it was so far fetched it was too hard to swallow. There was even this weird subplot where this guy kept getting drugged, seemingly at random. Yes, it sounds silly and it was.

Overall if you REALLY like noir and you want to read something that makes you go WTF then this one is for you. Otherwise, you might want to steer clear of this one. Just weird.

[J. P. Wiske · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fast-paced revenge thriller about three friends who may have bitten off more than they can chew,The Dead of Winter is the second novel by Hallahan that I've read after The Search for Joseph Tully. Its peaks and pitfalls are surprisingly similar. Hallahan is masterful at creating rich characters and fascinating conflicts. The way he guides the reader through the various challenges confronting his protagonists is endlessly informative and engaging, making you appreciate the deviousness of the problem and the cleverness of the solution.  Unfortunately Hallahan seems to have a tendency to completely blow it on the last page, writing novels as if they were O. Henry short stories. He is apparently a HUGE fan of the literary equivalent of cutting to black (think: the Sopranos series finale).  Given the meticulous set-up, these aburpt endings that create more questions than they answer can be pretty frustrating. That said, Hallahan's set-ups are SO good, that I can still strongly recommend the two works of his I've read... with the aformentioned caveat.