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Actors are always told not to work with children or animals, so Kit Ehrman's hero Steve Cline faces a double whammy in COLD BURN. But he comes through more or less intact despite a rough ride along the way. The book is the third in the series featuring the 20-something Steve whose dysfunctional family life has sent him into the show barns of Virginia to work with the horses he adores. In COLD BURN Bruce Claremont has disappeared. He'd been working the night shift at Stone Manor breeding farm, but has vanished without trace. His sister Corey, who has a horse at Foxdale Farm where Steve is barn manager, asks him to investigate. So Steve takes over Bruce's apartment and job in a bid to discover what happened. The best reason in the world to read this book is because Ehrman transports you to another world, one which she clearly knows inside out -- a foaling farm in the depths of the winter, staffed by a serious of oddballs and misfits. It's very much an 'us and them' world, with the wealthy owners and clients offset by people earning a pittance and working in lousy conditions. Oh, and there's a cute child warning, so pass rapidly over the sections with owner's daughter Jenny Nash if sprogs in crime fiction make you feel queasy! In many ways COLD BURN is more of the same if you've read Ehrman's previous two books. Steve mooches around a lot trying to get his life in some sort of shape whilst getting involved in something that doesn't really concern him. Oh, and his love life is still trotting rather than galloping -- and yes, there's the obligatory buxom stable girl which means he again spends chunks of the book dribbling unbecomingly. I have to say that this has consistently been the most tiresome part of each of the three books. This aside, COLD BURN is an easy and enjoyable read. It doesn't much advance Steve's character or situation in any significant way, and the revelation made in DEAD MAN'S TOUCH of the identity of his true father is also left on the back burner, leaving me wondering where the series will go next. But Ehrman plots competently, writes fluently and has more than carved her niche in the field of horsey mysteries.
Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, January 2005
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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