Snowbound by Blake Crouch

By Scott Nicholson

Author Blake Crouch headed north for his new novel Snowbound.

For Will Innis and his daughter, Devlin, the loss was catastrophic. Every day for the past five years, they wonder where she is, if she is–Will’s wife, Devlin’s mother–because Rachael Innis vanished one night during an electrical storm on a lonely desert highway, and suspected of her death, Will took his daughter and fled.

Now, Will and Devlin live under different names in another town, having carved out a new life for themselves as they struggle to maintain some semblance of a family.

When one night, a beautiful, hard-edged FBI agent appears on their doorstep, they fear the worst, but she hasn’t come to arrest Will. “I know you’re innocent,” she tells him, “because Rachael wasn’t the first…or the last.”

Crouch said several interests collided in putting the novel together. “I wanted to do something about the growing issue of human trafficking,’ Crouch said. “I was fascinated with ‘Los Zeta,’ the ex-paramilitary Mafia group that is muscle for the Mexican drug cartels, and who many believe are a greater threat to our national security than Al Qaeda, and I wanted to set something in Alaska.”

Booklist, in a starred review, said, “Crouch builds suspense as lines blur between good and bad, and plot twists continue to the last sentence. Absolutely compelling reading, not for the faint of heart.”

Blake attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and graduated in 2000 with degrees in English and Creative Writing. His novels include Desert Places, Locked Doors, and Abandon. Blake lives in southwest Colorado. Visit www.blakecrouch.com for more.