The Snow Garden

Written by Christopher Rice

Narrated by James Daniels

A shocking death exposes dangerous forces of seduction, obsession, and vengeance lurking beneath the idyllic surface of a prestigious New England university.

It is more than just the late November weather that has cast a chill over the campus of Atherton University. When the wife of respected professor Eric Eberman is killed in a tragic accident, his secret student lover, Randall Stone, fears the professor tried to avert career suicide by committing homicide. Or do the dead woman’s haunting last words point to an even more damning crime?

Fearing the truth, Randall digs into his lover’s hidden history. But what he finds draws him and everyone he cares for into a dark dance of sexual manipulation, twisted retribution, and murderous rage where nothing is as it seems. And no one will escape from it unscathed…if they escape at all.

In this emotionally gripping tale from New York Times bestselling author Christopher Rice, the past may seem buried, but it can come back with a deadly vengeance.

Revised edition: This edition of The Snow Garden includes editorial revisions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: May 16, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543613414

Christopher Rice

New York Times bestselling author Christopher Rice is the son of author Anne Rice and the late poet Stan Rice. He lives in Los Angeles.

Reviews for The Snow Garden

[joeltallman · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Not another academic gay-themed mystery-thriller that bounces back and forth in time! Why, yes, it is. It's creepy and well-done, too.

[waianuhea · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

He's a good writer as far as light fiction goes. I like that there's always a gay character(s) in his books (okay, the 2 I've read) and that's not overplayed. Like it's *gasp* normal? Yes, it is!

[babydraco · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I first reviewed this for my college newspaper on the National Day of Silence a couple of years ago. It has some of the same flaws his other two books do, but I think these are just issues that will resolve themselves in the future. I really do like that Rice is not afraid to satorize contemporary, young gay culture. There's a particularly amusing description of a teenage party that was so spot on. He also describes college life well. So well in fact that for awhile, I sworn the fictional campus in the novel was one that's near me in real life (okay, this is also partly because the RL college is famous for looking just like something out of a book or movie). Older authors often slip up when talking about contemporary colleges or high schools. I'm not really sure what purpose the on campus cult had, but maybe I need to read it again. I know he doesn't take the same view of the Cathars that I do, and that is a bit...eh. One of my favorite things about Christopher Rice is that he can write women *really* well. There was a moment in "A Density of Souls" that had me going "only someone who's been a teenage girl could know how that feels". His main protagonist is an extremely unreliable narrator, it turns out. I won't spoil it for you, but it's fascinating how he makes that work.

[darla_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I have no idea why I had this. It was new and in trade paperback, & I'd never heard of the author before. Somebody must have recommended it--I'd think it was one of those free books you used to get from 1Bookstreet.com (buy $20 worth of books & you get a free book from a list of about 20 you'd never heard of before & that they obviously weren't able to sell otherwise), but they stopped doing that several years ago, & I don't think I've had this that long. But anyway, thanks whoever recommended this. Really gothic tone, a creepy murder mystery/best friend/secrets. Just sucked me right in.

[nazgullie · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

There was one part to this story that was truly horrifying. It's the only part of the story that I can't seem to forget. Unfortunately, I don't remember the plot or the real point of the story.

[melancholycat · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book was definitely a page-turner, completely hooked throughout. I did find it a bit confusing in parts since Rice through in so many twists. The ending was both unexpected and a little rushed in my opinion. Honestly the best way to describe the last hundred pages or so would be as a roller coaster - a lot happens really quickly and then it's over and you're left shaking your head wishing that there had been just a little more; such as, what happened to Mitchell, Dr. Eberman, and the undercover detective? Overall a good book, though.

[daddyofattyo · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Not a bad story written badly. It felt like a story was written and then gone over and spruced up with flourishes of language or description here and there that just seemed out of place. I was much more pleased with A Density of Souls. I might still reserve judgement on Christiopher Rice until I read his third book.

[bookmarque · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The events that take place in this are beyond belief. For a book that isn’t supposed to be outlandish or supernatural, it sure takes us awfully close so that it blows the overall believability of the story. Putting his victims in wax for god’s sake??? Wasn’t that in an old Vincent Price movie? And a gas explosion in a house? Wasn’t that on Matlock once? And the constant homosexuality – I mean it’s beyond trendy now, give me a break. The writing was decent, but the sensitivity was gone. In the first book, I felt like he cared about his characters but in this one, I felt that he didn’t and treated them with contempt. The Bosch thing I thought was interesting – the weird cult.