‘Let us not speak of the snow that fell last winter. For a Colt Revolver, hidden in a store room, is waiting to be used.’

The novel was set in Nome and Giron, North America and was set in 1899, 1900 and 1910. It was about a boy named Sigrid, his sister, Anna, his father, Einar and stepmother, Nadya. Their mother died when Sig and Anna were much younger. The father, son daughter and stepmother live in Giron, but the story tells us of their time living in Nome, influencing their life in Giron. The chapters in the book are not in chronological order, but are jumping around on the timeline. This sometimes makes it confusing, but there are dates which you can look backto at the beginning of each chapter. The chapters were quite short; this was to add suspense to the end of the novel and to make the book more readable.

This novel was extremely well written. It was not the most complicated story but you couldn’t guess what was going to happen. The imagination needed to write this book had to be pretty strong, and Sedgwick succeeded on making it an exciting and an imaginative novel. The story starts with a very inviting and catchy line of ‘Even the dead tell stories.’ This immediately got me hooked and interested in the book. The storyline picked up quickly from there, leading the reader through amazing things that this family had been through. One main thing that the story showed was that this family’s life was based on and revolved around the Colt Revolver. But not all the family agreed with the Revolver being a good thing,

‘No! You mustn’t let him touch it! You mustn’t! Guns are evil. Evil, Einar.’

But in the end, the Revolver does save all their lives; but in a clever way. A way that is unknown to the unknowing.

I really enjoyed reading this book and would recommend it to anyone. I give it 9/10.