a review of "Cold Pursuit" [70]

Cold Pursuit by Carla Neggers
(Mira Books, ISBN 978-0-7783-2553-6)

Secret Service agent Jo Harper is back home in the mountains of Black Falls, Vermont on administrative leave after an embarrassing incident involving her protection of the Vice Presidents family. When she finds that she is not the only one who is home recovering, she is not thrilled. Her high school love, Elijah Cameron is back as well, recovering in his case from being critically wounded in Afghanistan. But while they dance around each other, more pressing issues arise that they may need to fight together.

In Washington D.C, a prominent ambassador is killed in what appears at first to be a traffic accident but shortly appears something more sinister. When his daughter, who is staying in Black Falls disappears Jo suspect foul play may be going on, and there is no one more suited to search Cameron Mountain and try to find what has happen to the girl.

“Nobody reads a mystery to get to the middle. They read it to get to the end. If it’s a letdown, they won’t buy anymore. The first page sells that book. The last page sells your next book.”~Mickey Spillane
I recently read this quote at Semicolon's 'Saturday Review of Books' and for me that sums up my final thought on this book. The ending...well, it did more than leave you hanging. That I could forgive, even as a setup for a sequel. As the book progressed, so many things did not seem to make sense, but I had hope that somehow it was all going to be brought together, somehow all my many, many questions would be answered. But this ending just answered nothing. So many things left unexplained, so many loose threads. So dissatisfying...

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My thanks to Mira Press for a copy of this book.

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