Narrated by Eric G. Dove
Toni Anderson is one of my favourite romantic suspense authors, and I’ve been looking forward to listening to Cold Snap, the third book in her Cold Justice: Most Wanted series. It’s a complex and twisty story that sees a member of the elite HRT (Hostage Rescue Team) returns to his small home-town on the trail of one of the Bureau’s most wanted fugitives.
Special Agent Grady Steel has worked hard to leave behind the Bad Boy moniker he earned when he was a rebellious teen in his home town of Deception Cove, Maine. Brought up by his grandmother after his arsehole of a father went to prison, Grady rarely returns home; in fact, he hasn’t been back since his grandmother’s funeral eight years earlier, and has no desire to return. But the bureau has received intel – in the form of a fingerprint lifted after a robbery at the town bank – that one of their Most Wanted might be hiding out there, and wants Grady to go undercover – as himself – to gather information which might help them apprehend Eli Kane, a former FBI agent wanted for the murders of his wife and children. The cover story to explain Grady’s sudden reappearance – he’s temporarily suspended over an accusation that he committed a hit and run – is one that many of the townsfolk who remember him as a teenaged tearaway are likely to believe and will hopefully blind Kane to Grady’s true purpose.
Brynn Webster runs a successful graphic design business in Boston, but has returned home to Deception Cove to help her parents run their popular sea-front café as her mother battles cancer. Being back home brings mixed feelings; she loves the town, but the town busybodies? Not so much. Even though the divorce she sought after her husband abandoned her for another woman was two years ago, the whispers and gossip continue to dog her. After a long day at the café, she’s on her way back to her rented basement apartment when she sees something breaking the surface of the water of the nearby river – then realises it’s not a something, it’s a someone. Stripping off quickly, she dives into the icy water and calls for help as she hauls the body back to shore; then there’s a man at her side, helping her to get it out of the water. The stranger looks vaguely familiar, but before she can ponder on that more, she realises that the man in the water is – or was – the manager of the local bank, the same bank which had been robbed weeks earlier.
After this rather unfortunate – and chilly – meet-cute, Grady decides that perhaps getting to know Brynn could prove useful. The pull of attraction Grady feels towards her is inconvenient, but he’s not in the market for a relationship – or even a hook-up; he’s there to do a job and is determined to stay focused.
Brynn’s confidence and ability to trust took a real hit when her husband dumped her, and she hasn’t experienced the faintest spark of attraction towards anyone in years… but there’s something about Grady Steel that awakens her libido and starts her thinking that maybe a few bouts of wild, monkey sex with a hot guy who isn’t staying around might be just the thing she needs.
The author does a good job here of depicting the almost claustrophobic atmosphere of a small town where everyone knows your name and your business. There are those who are all too ready to believe the worst of Grady – including his former buddy – now Sheriff – Darrell York, who is clearly jealous of Grady’s success, is only to pleased to learn of his ‘suspension’ and is quick to suspect him of murder. The story moves fairly slowly in the first half, and I have to be honest and say I found it too slow until after the halfway point. I appreciated the time given to developing the relationship between Grady and Brynn – which begins as a friendship that simmers with an undercurrent of mutual attraction – and to developing the characters and dynamics, but the mystery/suspense plot doesn’t really kick into gear until well into the second half of the book, and the first half drags in places.
I liked the two leads. You can really feel Grady’s apprehension at being back in a place that is unlikely to welcome him, and how hard it is for him to have to play a role that isn’t who he is any more. Brynn is dealing with a lot as well; not only is her mother terminally ill, Brynn is still smarting from her husband’s sudden abandonment and even though she’s attracted to Grady, getting involved with someone who might not be on the up-and-up isn’t the best idea. As they become closer, the harder it becomes for Grady to lie to Brynn – but he’s starting to build a picture of just who and where Kane might be, and can’t afford for Brynn to get caught up in the crossfire.
One thing that really impressed me is the way the author presents Eli Kane. His crime was heinous, and I won’t give anything away here (we do get a few chapters from his PoV here and there, which explain more of the backstory) but Ms. Anderson makes him into a complex character rather than a cartoon villain, explaining his – incredibly flawed – motives and making him… not exactly sympathetic, but understandable. The reveal, when it comes, is a shocker (although I had my suspicions beforehand), and the finale is real edge-of-the-seat stuff.
I’ve listened to Eric G. Dove in a number of Toni Anderson’s books, so I went into Cold Snap knowing I’d be listening to another entertaining and accomplished performance. The narration is well-paced and clearly differentiated; Mr. Dove uses a variety of pitch and accent to voice a fairly large cast, and there’s no confusion as to who is speaking during multi-character interactions. The bit of gravel in his voice works well for portraying badass heroes, and I liked the slight drawl he gives to Ryan/Cowboy (who I imagine will be one of the leads in the next book), and his female voices are good, too, appropriately feminine but not falsetto or pitched too high. Mr. Dove does a great job with the emotional content of the story, too, and is really good at ratcheting up the tension, whether it’s in action scenes or romantic ones.
Toni Anderson writes clever, intricately-plotted stories; her heroes are alphas without being alphaholes and her heroines are plucky and resourceful, the villains are easy to want to see the back of, and she creates a great sense of camaraderie between the various members of the HRT. But somehow – and looking at the ratings on Amazon and Goodreads, I can see I’m in a minority – Cold Snap didn’t work as well for me as I’d hoped, principally because I really struggled with the slow pacing in the first half of the book. But I freely admit that this is probably a ‘me’ thing and not a ‘book’ thing, so don’t let that put you off giving this one a try!
Caz
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