The remote town of Oriska, New York, hasn't been home for Sydney Lucerno for thirteen years. She's escaped the creeping addictions and long-simmering anger that are as much a part of the landscape as the bitter cold. But when she gets the call that her mother is dying, every secret and fear she left behind is waiting to welcome her back.

Two days later, her mother's lover is dead too. And Sydney's sworn to protect a half-sister she never knew she had, a prickly teenager named Maude, with an opiate habit and a bad-news family. But more lies and feuds are poised to spring from every once-familiar corner. The predators Sydney thought she'd escaped are threatening both her and Maude. To get free, Sydney will have to discover the truth about what happened when she left—and decide what should stay buried, deep in the unforgiving snow . . .

Susan Alice Bickford