Two friends go to Montana on a hunting trip.They come across a plane crash and find some bags of cocaine. The book is told from different viewpoints and different locations. I did not like the two main characters but the book is fast paced with plenty action. I struggled to finish the book and was disappointed at the ending. Thanks to Net Galley for my copy. I reviewed on Goodreads, Amazon and Facebook.

Mike Bond is one of my "go to" authors if I want a good enjoyable read. His books offer up strong plots, interesting characters and sufficent pace to keep me interested from start to finish. You will also get a perspective of the authors views and ideas about the world in which we live that are probably based on his owm life experiences. In Snow, we are invited into the world of Zack and Steve who are facing financial challenges and stumble on an easy way out. Of course, that is just the start of the journey and throughout the rest of the book Mike Bond adds his own ingredients to keep the reader involved in the action to the very last pages of the book where we are left with the author's final message. I'm looking forward to his next book already.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

An incredible book about choices that leaves the reader beset with the idea of options.

Zack and Steve are old friends and have hunted with their guide, Curt, for many years in the Montana wilderness. While up in the snowy mountains on this particular hunting trip, an aeroplane crashes not far from their campsite. When the three discover the plane is carrying a huge load of cocaine, choices are made by one of them that leads to a fast-paced, tense and apprehensive read.

Friendships and allegiances are tested throughout the events that lead to two of them on the run from the drug cartel, whose cocaine was lost, as well as the DEA, police from a few states, the Montana sheriff and other killers.

It’s about money, how much is lost and how much is owed. Choices can be skewed when there is fear of loss of reputation, money and then, finally, honesty and integrity.

I enjoyed the fast pace from the mountains of Montana to Vegas. The book is a portrayal of modern times where choices are often based on the amount of money to be made over that of honesty and integrity. Sad.

A brilliant read that makes you wonder.

BonnieK

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

I found the premise of this one to be intriguing. I love the setup - how desperate people can do desperate things. Unfortunately, that's where the good ends. I struggled through 38% of this book before I finally gave up the ghost. I never cared for the characters, each one seemed exactly like the next one. Very one dimensional. Bond also never captured the psychology of the moment and failed to build any real tension surrounding the find. I'd refer him to A Simple Plan by Scott Smith to see how this type of story should be written.

Good fast paced book. Had read several books by this author and have enjoyed them all.

Let me tell you at first this book was slow and I kept thinking get on with it but it sure took awhile before it got interesting. I loved the snow and ice landscape, especially with the horse and hunting, then begins the suspense when it brings in the crashed plane and drugs. I have to quit telling you everything and let you read it. Worth the price but you might have to skip ahead in some ways. Enjoy!

This is a typical story of seemily good people that make bad decisons. CAn The hunters that find a crashed plane filled with cocaine get away with taking it and selling as their own. We quickly find that the guide they hired, the cartel, DEA various police and Las Vegas killers are after them. Will they live to enjoy their bounty or will they regret it for the rest of their lives. Will they be happy or misrable or somewhere in between. and thinking they can get a way with it

Having read a previous Mike Bond offering, KILLING MAINE, I was more than up for another excursion into Bond territory. There are no superfluous scenarios in Mike Bond’s latest offering SNOW. Every scene, every action in this thriller has a reason for being included in this tale of three friends who are confronted with unforeseen temptation when, while on a hunting trip to Montana, they come upon the wreckage of a crashed plane filled with cocaine.

The three men, Zack, Steve and Curt their Cheyenne guide all have unique and personal reasons for needing the cash the sale of the drugs can provide. (Some reasons are understandable and honorable….some not so much). Betrayal and greed are the order of the day as each sees the drugs as the way out of their individual financial problems. While Zack and Steve wind up digging themselves deeper and deeper into a hole that’s impossible to escape, Curt attempts to save them from themselves.

While the plot of this novel is not unfamiliar Bond is skillful at drawing the reader into the story of desperate men and the deadly consequences of their criminal actions.

The atmospheric conditions and the elements are not the only things waging war against the trio. Pursued by everyone from a DEA agent and a sheriff with pit bull tendencies to the female drug cartel boss and her enforcer who are fixated on retrieving their “product” it appears to be a lose – lose situation.

Bond has given readers a cast of engaging characters and a presentation of straightforward events as he explores the question of what seemingly good men will do when push comes to shove and an “easy solution” presents itself.

This just was not my cup of tea, although I thought it might be. I did not like the characters or the writing. There was lots of action but I did not find it thrilling. It was really hard to finish it.

It was an interesting story and a good read. There were areas that were a bit far fetched and only a few characters had you rooting for them.

Great characters, realistic situation, interesting plot twists and storyline make this a very compelling read. Highly recommended

This is a gripping book. Strong characters and an intense story. I strongly recommend this book!

I did not like the read. I was not engaged and did not get the sense of a drawn in feeling. I like mysteries that bring you right into the story and you absolutely cannot put the book down.

received a free copy of this for review from NetGalley.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Some seemingly law-abiding citizens stumble across something valuable and decide to keep it even though they know it will be dangerous to do so. Oh, you have heard it? Yeah, it’s been around a while.

Zach is a former NFL player turned television announcer, and Steve is his old friend and investment manager. They take an annual hunting trip to Montana every year where their buddy Curt acts as their guide while they camp in the woods. The guys are having trouble enjoying their vacation since Zach has run up huge gambling debts in Vegas and needs cash quickly while Wall Street shenanigans have wiped out the savings Steve was managing for him. This has also put Steve into a very deep hole that might ruin his family.

Zach comes across the crash of a small plane with hundreds of kilos of cocaine in it, and Steve immediately seizes on the idea of taking drugs and selling them to as a way of getting out of their mutual financial crisis. Because there’s no chance that an organization capable of filling a plane with millions of dollars of drugs will ever come looking for it, right?

Despite Zach’s reservations they haphazardly start a scheme that involves keeping the secret from Curt. Things escalate quickly. Mistake piles upon mistake. And just like that Zach and Steve are in deep trouble and soon realize that they can’t even trust each other anymore.

The trope of an ordinary person finding a bag of money or drugs which takes them straight down the path to hell is one I generally appreciate. However, this one seemed pretty clichéd. It starts out with a very similar set-up to Scott Smith’s A Simple Plan and then quickly morphs into an attempt at doing something like Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men. (And those are two way better books I’d recommend if you’re in the mood for this kind of thing.) From there we cycle through all the checkpoints you’d expect to cross. You’ve got your ruthless enforcer from the drug cartel, a dedicated cop, some innocent people getting screwed over, etc. etc.

There’s also the odd way that it veers into social commentary and existential angst. Many a good crime novel includes these elements, but the writing here just seems to swing wildly from following the plot to going off on tangents about the environment, the perils of capitalism, and the way everyday life can chip at the soul. Those are all subjects that can easily and naturally pop up in a book like this, but the way they’re presented here often seems clumsy and ill-timed.

The most original aspect are the characters of Zach and Steve. The set-up leans in the direction of treating the football hero Zach as the good guy led astray by the fast talking Steve, but we get a more interesting perspective as we learn more about them. Zach is actually more of a hypocrite and selfish guy then he first appears while Steve isn’t quite the Wall Street d-bag you’d assume from the beginning. The way they almost accidently create an escalating mess is a great depiction of how quickly things can fall apart for someone once they decide to cross the line.

Despite its shortcomings I’m still a sucker for these kind of crime stories, and there was some very good character work done as well as some nicely atmospheric stuff that takes us from the snowy woods to the streets of Las Vegas. It’s not bad, but I can think of several better ones.

‘Snow’ by Mike Bond, was a thriller, non-stop action and cause and effect. Every character was in an extremely different reality than me, but I could relate well to the emotions and feelings of almost all of them. The writing about the environment was so convincing that every time I got into the story I had to get more covers and warm garments. A very exciting book, like an action movie.

Copy received from NetGalley for honest review. --- From the burb I thought this book would be better than it turned out to be. Two friends and business associates are on their routine hunting trek where they stumble upon a downed plane filled with cocaine in two coffins. With their decision to take the 'snow' and sell it for profit begins their treacherous journey to sell their loot. What ensues is a big comedy of error leading to ultimate tragedy.

I received this book from NetGalley for my honest review. This book did not draw me in, I did not like or enjoy any of the characters and I did not finish it because I could not "get into it".

Steve and Zack are on a hunting trip in the wilds of Montana with their guide, Curt, when Zack discovers a crashed plane with cocaine in it. Steve persuades him not to tell anyone and that they can sell the cocaine themselves to make a profit. They both need the money. Steve’s investment firm is going down the pan and ex-footballer Zack has gambling debts. So when Curt goes into town to report the plane crash they stay behind and begin to execute their plan.

One of the things I liked was that Steve and Zack were pretty inept in their dealings – they were about as good at being cocaine traffickers as I would be. This felt real and plausible but it left me wondering why it took the police struggled as they did to get to them. (There is a sort-of justification – the police want to catch the big-scale traffickers who chartered the plane – but that would be a major federal operation, not one police officer and a mobile phone.)

The quality of the characterisation varies throughout the book. It starts well – on the one hand you have Zack, who generally has good intentions but is weak and self-pitying. On the other you have Steve, who is manipulative and whose privileged upbringing leads him to overestimate his own abilities. Later on though, their voices seem to merge so at times it’s hard to tell which is which.

It would have been better if the author had made more of the shifting dynamics of the Steve/Zack friendship – what brings them together and what forces them apart, but this got lost in a lot of repetition of their backstories, driving around to no clear purpose and mutual recrimination.

The implicit theme of the story could be said to show that even if you’re in a position of relative privilege, like an investment manager or NFL player or gangster, you are still a cog in an unjust system. If it had stayed implicit it might have been effective. However, all the characters articulate an eerily similar critique of predatory capitalism and the war on drugs. Clearly, these are the views of the author rather than the characters and in hitting the reader over the head with them he tends to irritate rather than inspire.

I liked the premise of this novel. There is some lovely writing in here, particularly the opening chapters in the Montana wilderness, and, by contrast, the author’s jaundiced perspective on the Vegas casinos. I just wish he’d given the characters room to think for themselves.

Thinking back on this book definitely brings a smile to my face. This was definitely a drama, however, the characters sometimes seemed like they came right out of a Keystone Cops silent movie. I seriously had to shake my head at times for their stupidity and greediness. They could be so dumb.

However, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. There were a few spots when I think there was a little filler inserted, but overall, a good read for me.

Lots of action & many twists, I sped right through this one.

Thanks to Mandevilla Press and Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

Snow is a page turner ! It is a desperate story that has you "rooting" for the underdog to have a change of heart. A story of greed. It is a pessimistic story line but it will keep you reading...