Nathan Doyle is a journalist just returned from the war. In his job as a reporter he begins covering a murder story that hits a little too close to home. Nathan is the last man to have seen the victim alive and now he has to prove his innocence. If only the man in charge of the police investigation didn’t make it hard for Nathan to think.

Lt. Matthew Spain is a member of the LAPD homicide department and is in charge of the investigation into the murder of a high profile victim. When Matt meets reporter Nathan Doyle he gets a gut feeling about the man. Unfortunately the feelings aren’t the ones that Matt needs to solve the case.

Wow! That one word really sums it up for this fantastic story from Josh Lanyon. Taking place in the 1940’s in the middle of WWII Josh Lanyon has captured the feel of that era. The desperation and fear, the hardscrabble life of rationing and prejudice toward those that are different, all are seamlessly written into a story of loss, loneliness, and hopefully, love. Nathan and Matthew are two men that have returned from the war changed. Nathan is hanging on by a thread; his life is one of scrambling in the dark for an illicit touch just to have that momentary feeling of being loved. Matthew is a complex man who has buried himself in his work to cope with the loss of his wife. Very quick paced with a plot revolving around a murder mystery that is intriguing and not easily solved by the reader. Snowball in Hell is not your typical romance or even your typical mystery with a little romantic subplot throw in, the few sensual scenes do nothing to detract from the plot, in fact they add to it. They serve to convey Nathan’s desperation for a human touch and later the growing intensity of the bond between the two men. The stark backdrop of a war torn city, the gritty noir writing style, and the emotionally and physically injured men all combine to make this a story that I happily recommend.

Reviewed by: Hayley