Heart of Ice

Book No: 34
Title: Heart of Ice
Author: Gregg Olsen
Genre: Suspense
Completed: 6/2
No. of Pages: 6/28/09
Rating: 4/5*****

I discovered Gregg Olsen last year when I read A Wicked Snow, a very taut and fast paced thriller. At the end of the book was a teaser for his next book. So when I saw Heart of Ice, I picked it up and realized part of the way in that this was actually a different book, a sequel to the book A Cold Dark Place. Normally I would stop reading and get the other book because I hate to read series out of order. I was so caught up in the story already there was no way I was going to stop reading.

Heart of Ice focuses on two separate murder investigations, one involving a missing woman, Mandy Crawford, who Sheriff Emily Kenyon believes has been murdered by her husband, although she only has circumstantial evidence. At the same time a serial killer has been attacking college sorority girls, and soon it becomes clear that Sheriff Kenyon’s daughter Jenna maybe his ultimate target.

Once again this is a suspense book that moves fast and can be very graphic, especially in detailing the brutal childhood of the serial killer. The characters are quite believable although the solution to the serial killer storyline seemed very abrupt, the Mandy mystery had a very believable ending with a good twist.

Two small complaints must be mentioned. One is the idea that this is apparently not the first time that Jenna Kenyon has been the target of a killer, a coincidence that was a little far-fetched. The second is the depiction of the sorority girls, it was very cliché. My daughter is in a sorority that has one of the highest GPA’s in her college and as a whole the Fraternities and Sororities across the country raise millions of dollars for charities every year; so even though this was fiction I wanted to mention that.