Danny Bedford is a man-child, an outcast in the quiet rural town of Wyalusing, Pennsylvania. He is a gentle giant living there with very few friends and no family. While ice skating when he was eight, he fell through the ice and remained under water until rescue reached him over ten minutes later. It caused brain damage. His parents both drowned trying to save him. Danny is slow but kind and sweet. Mindy Knolls, forty, a waitress at the Friedenshutten Restaurant, has always been nice to him since their childhood. She sticks up for Danny when the mean spirited, bully Deputy Mike Sokowski, who she has had an on-again, off- again relationship, ridicules Danny.
Mr. and Mrs. Bedford, Owners of the laundromat let Danny take care of their business in exchange for a small room over the shop and fifty dollars "walking around money". Danny does a good job. He is also very good at wood carving small animals. His detail is perfect. He is finishing a robin he made for Mindy for her birthday. Later that night he heads to her rundown trailer on the outskirts of town to present her with his newspaper wrapped gift. He finds Cindy dead, laying in a pool of blood. At the scene is Deputy Sokowski and his sidekick, Carl. They set up Danny for the horrific murder they committed.
Deputy Mike Sokowski is rotton to the core, a bully, an alcoholic and deals in weed. He has tormented Danny since childhood, with help from his ignorant partner in crime, Carl. He uses Mindy for sex and when she refuses to participate, Sokowski brutually murders her while ordering Carl to hold her down. Sokowski believes the town people will believe him when he tells them that Danny committed the crime.
DEEP WINTER is a fast paced thriller told from multiple points of view. The manhunt to catch Danny through frozen forests, set off more killings. It is a wild chase and very graphic, becoming completely out of control. Lester, the aging sheriff is slow to figure out the real killer , but has his doubts that it is Danny, as well as most of the towns people.
Rooting for Danny, the pages flew bringing a smashing finale to a great and very exciting debut read by Samuel W. Gailey. I eagerly await your next book.
In the small town of Wyalusing in eastern Pennsylvania, a
woman is found brutally murdered one winter night. Next to
the body is Danny Bedford, a misunderstood man who suffered
a tragic brain injury that left him with limited mental
capabilities. Despite his simple life, his intimidating size
has caused his neighbors to ostracize him out of fear of
what he may do. So when the local bully-turned-deputy
discovers Danny with the body, itβs obvious that Dannyβs
physical strength has finally become deadly. But in the
long, freezing night that follows, the murder is only the
first in a series of crimes that viciously upset the town
orderβan unstoppable chain of violence that appears to make
Dannyβs guilt undeniable.
With the threat of an approaching blizzard, the local
sheriff and a state trooper work through the predawn hours
to restore some semblance of order to Wyalusing. As they
investigate one unspeakable incident after another, they
discover an intricate web of lies revealing that not
everything is quite what it seems.
With echoes of Scott Smithβs A Simple Plan and Tana Frenchβs
In the Woods, Samuel W. Gaileyβs Deep Winter is a richly
atmospheric and ingeniously plotted debut, surprising to the
final page. Itβs impossible to escape this bone-chilling
story of deception, where the truth is uncertain and
something sinister lurks just below the surface. . . .
No excerpt available.
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