3.75 * The suspense elements were very good but I did struggle with the main character having no common sense at the beginning and marrying a man she knew nothing of after three dates. I would read more by Phyllis Whitney ( )

I haven't read The Winter People in a long time, perhaps 20 or more years, but I remembered that alabaster head that plays such an important role in this book. It's the head that Glen Chandler sculpts of his wife, Bernadina, known as 'Dina'. I've been reading the books Ms. Whitney wrote after I stopped reading romantic suspense. Now I'm getting back to the books I have only in fragile old paperbacks, so I'm checking out library copies.

The Winter People is from 1969. The Stone Bull is from 1977. There are plot elements in common: a wilderness area that the husband wants to preserve. A hotel -- although not owned by the hero's family this time. Both novels have a scupltor, although Magnus is nothing like Glen. Both husbands have an aunt Naomi. Both marriages were after a whirlwind courtship. In both a sister is a problem. That one is set in New York, this one is set in neighboring New Jersey. Still, knowing whodunnit in one of these books is no help whatsoever in figuring out whodunnit in the other.

It's interesting to see the differences between the two books. Dina was an only child who never lived her life in the shadow of a more glamorous older sister. It's Glen who has been living in the shadow of his more successful twin sister, Glynnis. Glynnis paints, as does their famous father, Coulton. There's something evil in everything that Glynnis paints. Glen claims it's therapy -- that she works out her bad feelings in her art. Dina isn't so sure. She really hates the influence Glynnis has on her teenage son, Keith, just as she's disturbed by the feelings Glynnis' ex-husband, Trent McIntyre, rouses in her.

The twins' mother was Aunt Naomi's sister, and she has always held it against Glynnis that her niece's desire to skate in her favorite place led to her mother's death. Dina is outraged because Glynnis was only five years old at the time. Still, her new sister-in-law is hard to like. Glynnis is determined to destroy Glen's marriage. Will she go so far as murder to get her twin all to herself again?

The Winter People was never one of my favorite Whitneys when I was young, but it was good to read it again. ( )