The Barn

Book cover of The Barn

Book description

A barn with a wooden cow’s head peeking out of the loft…
Two girls bicycling on a September day in 1990…
The friend they find dead in the barn…

For the next thirty years, the case of Joseph Wheeler’s murder lies as cold as a New Hampshire winter. Deborah Strong…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Barn as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Leslie Wheeler

Author

I love how Dean takes a creepy cow head on a barn, and builds a compelling mystery around it. The cow head permeates the book, watching, judging, accusing, and shedding tears in the aftermath of a storm—seemingly more alive than wooden. Next to the cow head, snow is the dominant image. It’s a place for fun, as the main character and her close friend create snow angels, but it also carries a warning in the form of a message written in white, and as a blizzard, it knocks out the power in town, making getting around dangerous. Set in New…

From Leslie's list on where the sense of place becomes a character.