Ice

The novel opens on the eve of Christmas in the small town of Wilson Creek in Maine. Gabriel McQueen, a sergeant in the military police, is coming home after two months. He leaves his seven-year-old son Sam with his parents, because Sam's mother Mariane died when the boy was four. Gabriel drives into town unaware of the approaching storm; only when he goes down to the sheriff's basement office does he learn that the forecast has changed: not snow, but an ice storm is coming.

At the sheriff's office three women greet him: Judith, Evelyn and Patsy, the «queen» of reception. Gabriel loves this order of a small town: everyone knows everyone and everyone helps everyone. His father, Sheriff Harlan McQueen, says three of his deputies are stranded after an accident and asks him to go up the mountain to the old Helton house to check on Lolly Helton. There the phone line is dead, there is no television, and the woman may not know about the storm.

Gabriel is uneasy at the name: as a child Lolly Helton was the town's proudest girl, the mayor's daughter, who made friends with no one and called him «a worm». He stops briefly at his mother Valerie's house and hugs Sam. Sam nods gravely: «Be careful.» His mother tells him to bring Lolly not to town but straight to their house. As he climbs the mountain Gabriel thinks he will fight with Lolly again and smiles with a strange anticipation.

In the second chapter the camera moves to two other people. Darwin Girard and Niki Vann sit in an old white Blazer outside the local grocery, high on methamphetamine: they have not slept for days and are jumpy and aggressive. Niki sees a woman drive a black Mercedes into the grocery and thinks she has money in her bag. The woman is Lolly. Lolly, who works for an insurance company and lives in Portland, has come to spend a few days alone before selling her childhood home. The grocery's owner, Mrs. Richard, warns her about the storm and offers her a bed for the night.

Lolly returns to the house to collect her things, and Darwin and Niki follow. They push in with a gun. Lolly tries to run but is thrown to the kitchen floor; Darwin grabs her hair, chokes her and tries to tear off her clothes. Niki stops him by hitting him with the gun. The scene is harsh and detailed; the rape does not happen, but it is the heaviest passage in the book. Niki takes Lolly's driver's licence and wants to have the bank opened in the morning for a robbery. Lolly lies that she knows the bank manager, since she realises the frozen road will trap them here.

In the third chapter Lolly is locked in her room upstairs. Once the shock passes she decides she will not agree to die. She knots sheets and blankets into a rope, pulls on all the clothes she has, and smears Vaseline on her socks so her feet stay dry. The window is stuck and lifts only halfway with difficulty. Just then a man's head appears on the other side of the window. At first she nearly screams in fear, then she recognises him: Gabriel McQueen.

• The physical details of the ice storm (cracking trees, glazed roads, hypothermia) make the danger convincing
• Chapters shift between the viewpoints of Gabriel, Lolly, Darwin and Niki; the villains' inner monologue vividly conveys the drug state
• The nickname «Lollipop» and the childhood teasing are the main material of the romantic play
• Short chapters and a fast flow; the tension of the kitchen and forest scenes keeps rising
• The squeezing of the love line into one night and some conveniently resolved turns (Niki's return) reduce realism