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DEEP WINTER
A Novel
Samuel W. Gailey
In this spellbindingly compelling rural noir, a
devastating murder in an isolated small town sets off an
unstoppable chain of events made more complicated—
and more dangerous—by the town’s dark secrets.
Danny, a simpleminded gentle giant, doesn’t know what to make of the body he
discovers one cold winter evening. It’s Mindy, his only friend in the small town of
Wyalusing, Pennsylvania, where most people avoid Danny, even though a childhood
tragedy left him parentless and with limited mental capabilities. Wary of the damage
he could cause with his unchecked strength, the town has labeled him as dangerous,
whether he intends to be or not. So when the local bully-turned-deputy finds Danny
with Mindy’s body, it seems obvious to everyone that the normally kindhearted man
has finally hurt someone. But Mindy’s gruesome murder and Danny’s arrest gravely
upset the delicate balance of the town order, and the violence threatens to spin out of
control as the deputy, the sheriff, and a state trooper investigate. Richly atmospheric
and ingeniously plotted, Samuel W. Gailey’s debut novel chillingly depicts a small
town where not everything is as it seems, and something sinister lurks just below the
surface.
✦ A trained screenwriter, Gailey has written an atmospheric and cinematic pageturner
that will appeal to readers of suspense and literary fiction. Its sinister and
riveting style echoes Scott Smith’s A Simple Plan, Tana French’s In the Woods, and
Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl.
✦ Gailey was raised in Wyalusing, Pennsylvania, where the book is set, and he
expertly renders a captivating portrait of a mentally limited but amiable man and
the deeply flawed but complex and endearing characters that surround him.
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