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After Edna Buchanan's strong performance in You Only Die Twice, she continues her winning streak with her latest novel, The Ice Maiden. Miami Sun reporter Britt Montero returns to write a story on the local police's Cold Case Squad. Once the truth is revealed in a previous unsolved case, it will leave chills on the reader's spine by showing us the darkest evil in the human spirit. At the start of the novel, Britt is reporting a freak death of a burglar inside a jewelry store. The dead man had some unusual physical characteristics that sparked a forgotten memory in one of the police officers. When the investigation is done it is revealed that the deceased was a man named Andre Coney and he was wanted in connection to the brutal rape and attempted murder of Sunny Hartley over ten years ago. The case was never solved and there were several people involved in the attack. The case was never solved. Britt wants to write a feature story on the Cold Case Squad using this crime as it focus. She hopes that it might give the Hartleys some sense of closure. Boy, was she wrong. Ever since the attack, Sunny has been living the life of a recluse. The attack left her deaf in one ear and partial amnesia. She is now living as an artist making her living building ice sculptures. She is as cold as her medium and has no interest in reliving the case. She is estranged from her family and knows that her first love was killed in the attack. Britt tries to get into her good graces but it will take a lot of work to get Sunny to thaw out. There is also a stalker who wants to story to remain buried. That person knows what really happened to Sunny that day and will do whatever it takes to protect the secret. If Britt decides to get close, she might just have to be dealt with. In the latest entry of the Britt Montero series, a decade-old conspiracy is threatening to be revealed and the participants do not want that to happen. The author supplies the reader with several red herrings that in the end provide further insight to the events of several years ago. There is one innocuous scene that in the beginning it might not mean anything, but in the end it will bring the ultimate shock. It is one of the best plot twists in recent years that will leave readers stupefied. The main weakness the story has is its length. It is a relatively short novel and it has an ending that seems almost like an afterthought. Nevertheless, it is one of the most powerful novels in the series and it should not be missed.
Reviewed by Angel L. Soto, December 2002
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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