The Winter Girl by Matt Marinovich

Published by Doubleday on January 19, 2016

The Winter Girl tells a creative suspense story that builds on family secrets. Scott is a laid-off photographer of Asian newlyweds, staying in the home of his hospitalized father-in-law, who calls Scott multiple times a day to berate him via answering machine messages. The father eventually comes home to live his last days with Scott and Elise, while doing his best to burden their lives. Elise’s brother is serving a sentence, adding to the family’s dysfunctionality.

Intrigued by lights that turn on an off at the same time every night in a neighboring house, Scott succumbs to an impulse of trespass. Finding an unlocked door, he explores the house while his wife is visiting her father. Later he persuades Elise to experience the pleasure of sex in a stranger’s home. It all seems like harmless fun -- the last gasp of a desperately unhappy marriage -- until they find the blood. That’s when the story really begins.

The neighbor’s house contains secrets. The reader learns something about them halfway into the novel. Eventually more secrets are revealed that have a profound impact on Scott and Elise, who have secrets of their own. Without divulging the nature of those secrets, I can say that they are all presented in a way that makes them believable.

The plot is far from predictable. It builds and sustains suspense due, in part, to the fact that it is so difficult to anticipate what might happen next. Some violent moments qualify as gruesome, so sensitive readers might want to give the novel a pass. And since these are some of the most messed up characters you’ll ever meet, readers who do not like fiction unless they like the main characters should probably stay away from The Winter Girl. Scott is the most “normal” of the bunch, but he is a passive observer with little moral strength. He’s hardly anyone’s idea of virtuous.

The ending is disappointing, if only because it’s a surprise ending that has been done before and therefore doesn’t have the power the author intends. Still, Matt Marinovich won me over by wielding strong prose, crafting realistic (albeit miserable) characters, and maintaining an atmosphere of suspense. Despite feeling a bit cheated at the end, I enjoyed the novel as a whole.

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