Season of Ice by Diane Les Becquets.

Genesis’ father is a logger and gets extra work repairing docks on the lake.  But one day he heads out to repair a dock and disappears.  His truck is left on the shore, his boat is found floating in the lake with the life preservers still inside, and all Genesis is left with is questions and no answers.  When the lake freezes over for the winter, the search is called off and answers are very hard to find.  There are rumors that her father faked his death to leave her stepmother behind so Genesis begins the process of tracking down the people in her father’s life from the logging camp.   She will find answers on the way, but what answers will they be?

This gripping book of loss, grief, anger and confusion takes a very strong heroine and turns her world completely inside out.  She finds herself doubting everything her life before her father’s disappearance had been based on.  Everything that she loves, enjoys and plans is now suspect.  There is such tension in this novel, such anguish and loss that is channeled into places beyond grief.

Les Becquets has a way with imagery that captures the setting within it:

My father was sitting on the sofa in front of the pellet stove, his body sunken into the cushions as if he was all banked in for the night.

And in this passage from later in the book, you can see her skill with powerful emotions:

Her hug wasn’t tentative this time.  She grabbed me like she might have five years ago.  Grabbed me and held me to her like I was the best friend she’d always had, and in that embrace, I felt more than just the shoulders and back of my friend.  I felt everything — past, present, future, all bundled up, concentrated into one small space.  I wasn’t just holding on to Annie.  I was holding on to a desire for some sort of promise, for some piece of higher ground in my life, for a place I might imagine.

The lake itself, the cold, the winter, nature all become a large part of the story of the book.  Far beyond being a vivid setting, the Maine lake becomes the answer, the key.  It is a powerful contribution to the story’s tension and depth.

Highly recommended for teen readers, this book will be popular for readers of general fiction as well as mystery readers.