A Cold Day in Hell
A Cold Case Investigation
by Lissa Marie Redmond
Lauren's job as a cold case homicide detective is her life. And life just got complicated.
Lauren Riley is an accomplished detective who has always been on the opposite side of the courtroom from slick defense attorney Frank Violanti. But now he's begging to hire her as a private investigator to help clear his client of murder. At first Lauren refuses, wanting nothing to do with the media circus surrounding the case—until she meets the eighteen-year-old suspect.
To keep an innocent teen from life in prison, Lauren must unravel the conflicting evidence and changing stories to get at the buried facts. But the more she digs, the more she discovers that nothing is what it first appears to be. As Lauren puts her career and life in danger, doubt lurks on every corner . . . and so does her stalker.
A Cold Day in Hell releases on February 8th and is available for pre-order.
Redmond does weave an interesting tale, and there is some suspense, but the story is more procedural and courtroom drama than anything else. I do have to say that the writing style and flow kept the courtroom scenes engaging and dramatic. Our main character, Lauren Riley, has quite the reputation as a detective, but she certainly is not without flaws, particularly in her personal life. In many cases, that can make for the most intriguing characters, and I have to say that it does work for this one. Some scene descriptions get a bit tedious, but there is some great dialogue. I especially enjoyed the banter between Lauren and Frank, who are so used to being on opposite sides of a case that they can't let it go. While the primary focus of the story is the murder trial, there is a bit of side story by way of a 28 year old murder case. All in all, the story did hold my interest, but it felt like the cold case was solved a little too quickly, and the suspense aspect surrounding the murder trial was cut short by a "mystery" that was just too easy to figure out. The story does get chilling at the very end and even hints at a promising thriller, so I'll be interested to see if there's a next book addressing that part of the tale.
**ARC provided by NetGalley and Midnight Ink
Momma😘
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