John Smolens

I found Cold by John Smolens simply passable as a crime thriller. The author excelled at describing the harsh winter conditions in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula but the story felt dragged out and the characters didn’t feel authentic.

During a blizzard, Norman Haas walks away from his prison work detail completely undetected. He is on a mission to travel back home and back to the past in order to right some wrongs. He encounters a woman who tries to help him but he ends up leaving her alone in the snow, he reunites with his old girlfriend and her daughter and they travel even further north to her father’s wilderness lodge where secrets are buried and confrontations await. Tracking Norman, Constable Del Makki realizes that there is more going on here than simply a walkaway prisoner seeking freedom but by the time he puts all the pieces together, it’s too late to prevent tragedy.

Unfortunately I found Cold overly melodramatic. The narrative was uneven in style, irregular in quality and the ending was entirely too predictable. On the bright side, I did enjoy the snow clad setting.… (mehr)

John Smolens' novel, DAY OF DAYS, is a fictionalized account of the 1927 bombing of the consolidated school in the small farming community of Bath, Michigan. It is told mostly by Bea Turcott, looking back at that day as an old woman, and remembering her life on that fateful day. At fourteen, she was one of the survivors of the bombing, carefully planned and carried out by a disturbed and disgruntled neighbor. Smolens skillfully portrays the lives of the townspeople, and particularly the Turcotts and the Brownes, two families whose lives impinged closely on that of the bomber, Andrew Kehoe, and his invalid wife. Although the novel starts slowly, the prose that sets the stage for the heinous act is beautiful enough to keep you engaged, and then the narrative really gets rolling and catches you up in the action of the bombing itself and the events that followed.

Smolens is no newcomer to historical fiction. Two of his best are THE ANARCHIST and WOLF'S MOUTH. Now you can add this one to the list. Very highly recommended.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER… (mehr)

The Day of Days was March 18, 1927. The place was the small farm town of Bath, Michigan.

Andrew Kehoe blew up the Bath Consolidated School, killing 44 people, including 38 schoolchildren--one of the worst terrorist acts in American history. He murdered his wife and horses and blew his farm and himself up while he was at it.

John Smolens has wrapped this horrific event in a novel of great beauty and wisdom through the experience of surviving school children.

After WWI the chemical companies were left with stockpiles of explosives which they sold to farmers to help them clear fields.

Andrew Kehoe was smart and inventive. He studied electrical engineering. After an accident left him in a coma his personality changed. His wife inherited a Bath farm but Kehoe found himself in financial straits. He blamed the tax burden for the new school.

In Smolens' novel, Kehoe hires the boy Jed. He takes Jed with him as he removes tree stump with explosives. Jed was impressed by this farmer who wore a suit.

Bea, the narrator of the novel, works for Mrs. Kehoe. She tells her story from her death bed, of life before the incident, the horror of that day, and the broken lives it left behind. There is survivor's guilt, broken people carrying on, and eventual healing.

I first heard of the Bath school bombing when living in Lansing. Smolens fills the novel with Michigan places and references. Kehoe travels to Lansing and eat at Emil's Italian restaurant, a place we knew well. The children are given Vernors ginger ale. The historical setting is given, the innovative changes happening in science. Electricity. Biplanes. Lindbergh's famous Atlantic crossing concluded while citizens were frantically looking for survivors.

I loved Smolens writing and how he handled this story. Accurate in historical details, Smolens demonstrates the benefit of fiction's ability to delve into the depth of human experience to bring the past to life.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.… (mehr)

It's been 18 years since John Smolens gave us COLD, and introduced us to Del Maki, the dogged and resourceful sheriff of a small township near Marquette in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. In COLD, Smolens' third book, Maki was just one of a fascinating cast of characters, but he was the unifying element of the chilling suspense novel that left many of his readers, I am sure, wishing for more of Maki's story. Well now, in OUT, Smolens' eleventh book, look out, old Maki's back. And Smolens once again sets his story deep in a dangerous and obliterating blizzard of a UP winter, making the weather almost an additional character, much like the river was in James Dickey's DELIVERANCE so many years ago.

This latest offering finds a 70-ish Maki, retired, widowed, and recovering from a second hip replacement. He lives alone, deep in the woods, or "out," as Yoopers call living off the grid, or nearly so, as Maki does. Still grieving the loss of his wife, Del has been gloomily contemplating his future, "waiting" for something, perhaps "impossible to determine." This quiet existence is unexpectedly shattered when his young, very pregnant, visiting physical therapist is stranded by the storm at his place. They are soon joined by her two boyfriends, Connor and Barr. This love triangle had already been upended by a savage beating Connor had given Barr, leaving him for dead in the snow of the approaching storm. Now all three are uneasily reunited at Del's place, with a pistol-packing Barr holding the other two hostage, and Del is forced to act as an intermediary, trying to protect the pregnant girl. Another character, known only as Essi, a kind of aging woods spirit, is also part of the cast. Her past remains mysterious and shrouded, and I wondered if her character had something to do with the concept of reincarnation, mentioned earlier in the story.

There is violence, there is blood. The storm itself joins the cast when a giant tree crashes through the roof, letting in wind and cold, and pinning people down, necessitating axes, saws and ingenuity. Maki's role here, because of his age and infirmity, brought to mind the protagonist of Hitchcock's "Rear Window," confined to a wheelchair. And indeed, Del spends most of his time sitting on a couch or stool, or hobbling precariously about with a cane. So. A hero? Damn straight, a hero, albeit an unlikely one.

But you'll get no spoilers from me. OUT is pure vintage Smolens, who knows how to create suspense and build to a chilling climax. And the characters. All of them (except perhaps the mysterious and elusive 'Esssi') are fleshed out, given backstories, motives, brought to life. Even the villain, Barr. But especially Del Maki, that hero from COLD. Now we know, as Paul Harvey used to say, "the rest of the story." Thanks, John. To all of Smolens' many fans, especially those who've wondered for years what happened next with Del Maki, I say, READ THIS BOOK. I will recommend it highly.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER… (mehr)