Charlie and Vic have agreed to meet in the wee hours of Christmas morning to finalize their arrangements and leave town. Charlie, divorced and unattached, visits all of his favorite haunts. None of his stops are very satisfying. At one bar he stumbles into his ex-brother-in-law, Pete, who is very drunk. The bartender convinces Charlie to play the role of designated driver. Delivering Pete home, Charlie encounters his ex-wife, children, and his ex-wife’s new husband. Except for his daughter, no one is happy to see him. It begins to look as if Charlie’s entire evening will be disastrous, including his meeting with Vic, which was supposed to mark the beginning of a more pleasant chapter in Charlie’s life.

The Ice Harvest is an unusual book. The entire story occurs during a twenty-four hour time period. The pace of the first part of the book is painfully slow. The reader follows Charlie in his journey from bar to nightspot to bar only gradually learning about the man, his family, and his friends. The devoted mystery reader will begin to wonder not only what the mystery is, but, if indeed, there is even is a plot beyond the somewhat incoherent drunken musings of Charlie and his drinking companions.

Take heart, dear reader, things become clear in Part Two, and the pace picks up considerably.

Mr. Phillips has written a reasonably entertaining tale with several unexpected plot twists at the conclusion. As a first novel, he seems confident that his readers will stay with him to the end. There is no indication in Part One that anything unusual or even interesting is about to happen, and I’m not sure a reader with a stack of books to read would finish the novel. Hopefully, a few favorable reviews will encourage potential readers to bear with the author. He does provide an unexpected and unique conclusion to his work.

--Andy Plonka