Always readable—sometimes compulsively so—Shreve's novels are typically emotionally resonant, nicely paced and populated by memorable characters. They're also beginning to feel slightly stale: All too often, her plots are built on mysteries surrounding murky parentage or shifting identity that could have been snatched straight from a cable-TV drama. The Husband Who's Not What He Seems? The Pilot's Wife. The Woman Who Secretly Gave Birth at 16? Fortune's Rocks. Now, with Light on Snow, Shreve's story turns on a father and daughter discovering a newborn abandoned and left to die in the snowy woods in New England. Who is the infant? And who could have committed such an act? Shreve tells the tale in a way that makes one long for neater plot twists, for a denouement that's less predictable. Slighter than her previous novels, Light on Snow feels more like airport reading than her earlier, lusher tales. But while Shreve addicts may feel a bit cheated, readers partial to the Lifetime channel will welcome this fast-paced—and ultimately entertaining—story.
NONFICTION
