an emily stone thriller Archives - fundinmentalfundinmental

We’re really excited to be part of Jennifer Chase’s DEAD COLD Blog Tour!

Fabulous cover for a fabulous story!

Title: DEAD COLD
Author: Jennifer Chase
Publisher: JEC Press
Pages: 326
Genre: Crime Thriller

MY REVIEW

WHOA. Why haven’t I read any Jennifer Chase and Emily Stone? I cannot say how excited I am now remedying that! Intense from the very beginning. The writing went where I wasn’t expecting and I love it. I can hardly wait to see what other surprises await me.

I took a break from murderous mayhem and serial killers, for a short while. All the books started to run together, but I felt right at home when I began reading Dead Cold by Jennifer Chase. Made me wonder why I ever took a break.

Emily and her partner, Rick Lopez, work outside the law, but they use all the skills they had learned in their time with the federal government to pursue criminals. Rick loved Emily and hunting the bad guys with her. They are so much more than partners. They are friends and lovers too.

Emily is like a female Sherlock Holmes. She is patient, meticulous, methodical, a natural when it comes to profiling. But she does have a bit of a problem with surveillance. She wants to go right for the take down. There is absolutely nothing Emily wouldn’t do to accomplish her goal, to save a life, to rescue a friend. Instincts, intuition, deductive reasoning, step by step, piece by piece, she weaves together the facts and data. Each piece of evidence is a part of the puzzle. Then…

She looks death in the eye and spits at it.

They are covert, letting the cops take the credit while vanishing into thin air when they arrive.

Now her sights are set on a serial killer she dubbed the Ice Puzzler.

Jordan is her go to guy for information they can’t get on the own. He’s smart, playful, fun and annoying. I smiled at his antics. When he meets Gunner, he insists he is not a dog guy, but Gunner adopts him. Rick is antagonistic to Jordan. Do they need to put ‘it’ on the table and measure? Is he jealous, threatened? Does Rick have a reason to be concerned about Jordan’s feeling for Emily?

Oh man. A shift of perspective. Right at a crucial moment. One minute I was with Emily and Rick, and Emily is in deep danger, then I was pulled away to be with Detective Daniel Starr. Now I have to wait…to see what comes next. A great way to build suspense and anticipation and I love it.

Uh oh. Kayla cannot let sleeping dogs lie and is persistent in her pursuit of Emily. I can understand it, but I think nothing good can come of it. You’ll need to read the book to find out who Kayla is and what becomes of her.

Enter HER. Who is SHE? What does SHE have to do with anything? Other than being a sad and damaged woman with some very serious issues?

I feel empathy for the villain. I sometimes find myself rooting as much for the villain as the hero. I just can’t seem to help myself. It takes some fantastic writing to make that happen.

Told from multiple perspectives, there’s an underlying mystery running. I’m deciphering the implications and coming up with my own conclusion. Let’s see if I’m right.

As the pieces come together Jennifer Chase delivers a surprise or two or three. She created a wonderful feeling of suspense, and anticipation. My eagerness to find out kept me reading at a rapid pace, but I told myself to slow down…I wanted to savor each delicious morsel of Dead Cold. Danger oozes off the pages. Action and intrigue overwhelm me. Love everything about it. Can’t get enough of it. I need more!

For more fun, be sure and check out her bio.

I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Dead Cold by Jennifer Chase.

5 Stars

What happens when one California community has a disturbing spike in homicides? It catapults cops into a deadly game of murder. Frozen human body parts hideously displayed at the crime scenes offers a horrifying interpretation that only a sadistic serial killer could design—and execute.

On the hunt for a complex serial killer, vigilante detective Emily Stone must face her most daring case yet. Stone’s proven top-notch profiling skills and forensic expertise may not be enough this time.

Young and ambitious, Detective Danny Starr, catches the homicide cases and discovers that it will test everything he knows about police work and the criminal mind. Can he handle these escalating cases or will the police department have to call in reinforcements—the FBI.

Emily Stone’s covert team pushes with extreme urgency to unravel the grisly clues, while keeping their identities hidden from the police. With one last-ditch effort, Stone dangles someone she loves as bait to draw out the killer. She then forces the killer out of their comfort zone with her partner Rick Lopez, and with help from a longtime friend Jordan Smith. A revelation of the serial killer’s identity leaves the team with volatile emotions that could
destroy them.

The killer continues to taunt and expertly manipulate the police, as well as Stone’s team, and as they run out of time—they leave behind everyone and everything—in Dead Cold.

ORDER YOUR COPY:

Amazon

ESCAPE WAS IMPOSSIBLE. TEARS STREAMED down her face as she sat in the darkness and waited for the man to return. There was no other choice—but to wait.

She hadn’t eaten anything in three days and had only a limited amount of water—her strength continued to fade with every hour. With her wrists and ankles secured with duct tape, her skin stung with pain every time she struggled to move. At least the man had peeled the tape from her eyes and mouth so that she could see something besides pitch-blackness.

Even if she could escape, the only way to safety was jumping into the frigid water, but she could not swim and would drown before ever reaching the shore.

The only thing thirteen-year-old Kayla Swanson thought about was home. Fond memories flashed through her mind of her parents, her little brother, and her dog Charlie. She was never going to see them again. Their smiling faces were forever etched in Kayla’s mind, and she constantly held them close to her heart.

The boat rocked, and seemed to sway more violently as the tide flooded in and out of the harbor. Kayla could hear a consistent clanking noise above her as the boat rolled back and forth. The sound had a hypnotic quality, and kept her mind on something else besides when the man would return and what he would do next.

Her lips were dry and cracked as she bordered on dehydration.

Even her tears dried on her cheeks, leaving her skin stiff and drawn. Her body began to shake, not only from fear, but also because of the extreme exhaustion and the constant dampness all around her.

The boat rocked more, but this time it shifted from the opposite sides. Kayla heard soft footsteps above, which she knew wasn’t her captor’s heavy walk. She strained her eyes in the darkness and thought she saw a thin shadow stealthily move along the upper deck.

Was it a ghost?

Kayla remembered a television series where a team of people hunted ghosts and they had said that ghosts could occupy any type of space, house, property, and even a boat.

She blinked her eyes several times and hoped that she could catch a glimpse of the ghost again. With every ounce of declining strength, Kayla scooted her body closer to the narrow stairs leading to the upper deck.

Painfully craning her neck, she strained to see something up in the darkness.

The dark shadowed areas played tricks on her eyes—it was there, then it wasn’t.

She waited for several minutes.

Nothing appeared.

The only sounds she heard were the usual boat noises she had grown accustomed to hearing. Whatever she thought she heard was gone now. It was most likely her imagination trying to give her some hope and a few moments break from her dire circumstances.

As she relaxed her shoulders and leaned back against the wall, the reality of her world pressing down hard. Tears streamed down her face. She tasted the saltiness that settled around her mouth. Her last moments were approaching, and there was nothing she could do.

Jennifer Chase is a multi award-winning crime fiction author and consulting criminologist. Jennifer holds a bachelor degree in police forensics and a master’s degree in criminology & criminal justice. These academic pursuits developed out of her curiosity about the criminal mind as well as from her own experience with a violent sociopath, providing Jennifer with deep personal investment in every story she tells. In addition, she holds certifications in serial crime and criminal profiling. She is an affiliate member of the International Association of Forensic Criminologists.

Her latest book is the crime thriller, Dead Cold.