Dread of Winter

Sydney Lucerno, the heroine of this gritty chiller from Bickford (A Short Time to Die), leaves her hard-won new life in Silicon Valley for Oriska, N.Y., and the toxic environment she barely escaped 13 years ago, because her opioid-addicted mother, Leslie Graham, is dying. Nothing has changed for the better in Oriska, a rural wasteland whose only growth industry seems to be drug dealing (the family business of Leslie’s long-term love, Randy Jaquith), and Sydney’s return plunges her into a perfect storm of old enemies and fresh danger. Though every instinct urges Sydney to bolt, especially after a shootout in which Randy is killed, she can’t—because of the promise she made to him to take care of the half-sister she didn’t know she had, 18-year-old junkie Maude, who has been raised as Randy’s sister by his mother. Though the plot packs plenty of twists, the novel’s power comes from this pair of feisty, equally headstrong sibs, trying to figure out their relationship as they fight to survive. Bickford is a writer to watch. [em]Agent: Anne Hawkins, John Hawkins & Assoc. (Nov.) [/em]