The Ice Harvest ⭑⭑⭑

Genre: Crime Fiction

US Publication: 2000

Print: 218 pages

Audio: 4 hours 30 minutes

Confetti Rating: 3 stars

REVIEW:

Oh, the trials and tribulations of being a seasonal reader. Each year you have to dig deeper and deeper into Santa’s bag of books to find holiday-themed stories that aren’t cozy mysteries, traditional tales, or Hallmarky rom-coms. It’s from those depths that I pulled Scott Phillips’s 2000 novel, The Ice Harvest. And I’m here to tell you, there’s nothing cozy, traditional, or Hallmarky about it.

Set over the course of one night in Wichita - Christmas Eve, 1979 - The Ice Harvest is a short crime noir book chock-full of things like strip clubs and crime bosses. It’s extremely crass and not very politically correct by 2021 standards. It’s got an atmospheric blizzard and some colorful characters whose shenanigans are mildly interesting. There’s also got a 2005 movie adaptation starring John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton that was directed by Harold Ramis, so it’s got that going for it.

The overall novel was a take-it-or-leave-it affair for me, and despite its brevity I did find my mind wandering a bit. That said, I listened to the audiobook that features the vocal stylings of the inimitable narrator Grover Gardner, and that tipped the scales from naughty to nice territory.

If you’re the type of person that thinks of three sex workers anytime you hear “ho ho ho,” then The Ice Harvest just might be the right seasonal read for you.

PUBLISHER SYNOPSIS:

It's Christmas Eve, 1979, in Wichita, and Charlie Arglist, a crooked lawyer and strip-club owner, is drunkenly making the rounds before he blows town for good. Getting progressively drunker and deeper in trouble, Charlie needs to drop off a photograph of a local official in a compromising position and steal some drug money. Before it's all over, a lot of people are going to wind up dead.