Customer Reviews

Chill Factor

5 star:		(54)
4 star:		(34)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Ms. Brown's latest effort "Chill Factor" will thrill readers with it layered storylines and characters. As a result the reader will truly be left guessing until the end of the story as to who "Blue" is and why he is doing what he does.

A bad winter storm has moved into the mountains of North Carolina and with it an end to all that has been going on for the past two years. Ben Tierney is caught on a mountainside when an ice and sleet storm hits. His car is not working and he must get off the mountain if he's going to survive. He runs into the chief of police's ex-wife Lilly. Together they find themselves trapped on the mountain with little to no chance of making it back to town alive. Knowing that time is of the essence they head back to Lilly's old cabin to wait out the storm. They have no idea that what started between them the summer before is going to finally be resolved for good or ill. But, when Lilly starts putting things together she fears that she might just be attracted to the serial killer "Blue." Will she live to see justice served?

Ben has a lot to answer for and his secretive nature doesn't help things. The local's have him pegged as a serial killer and he knows things that he probably shouldn't. On top of that there is the burning attraction that he can no longer ignore when it comes to Lilly. Will he be able to keep his secret and help Lilly live to see another day.

Dutch Burton, chief of Police of Cleary and he can't get over the fact that his wife Lilly is gone, and wants nothing to do with him any longer. His stubborn nature combined with the fact that his best friend Wes won't let things settle down only add to the burning in his gut. He will do whatever he must to get Lilly off the mountain and away from Tierney. He can't think beyond his jealousy and this will be a catalyst for events he can not even imagine.

Again, this is a very good story with a so many layers that it would take too long to list them all here. Suffice to say the varied characters, issues, and their outcomes all play a large part in bringing down "Blue." Ms. Brown is one of the few authors published today that can actually introduce more than one storyline and not allow it to drop by the wayside. As a result the story is totally engrossing and entertaining. This is one read and author that I highly recommend.

Official Reviewer for Romance Designs.

Brown delivers an eerie tale of a serial killer in this, her latest suspense thriller. The setting is the wintry mountains of North Carolina, near the small town of Cleary, where five women have disappeared without a trace over the past two years. With her divorce from local police chief Dutch Burton, Lilly Martin is cleaning out their mountain cabin retreat before she travels back to her Atlanta home. But her car careens off the road on her way down the mountain, and she hits Ben Tierney, a travel writer whom she met the previous summer. The two are stranded in Lilly's cabin, as Tierney recovers from his injuries, and romantic tension heats up between them.

As police and the FBI continue to search for the abductor, nicknamed Blue for the blue ribbons he leaves when he takes his victims, the storm rages on. Certain clues leave Lily wondering if the man she is sharing her cabin with might be her greatest fear. Could Tierney be Blue?

Brown's small town cast of characters comes alive in quiet Cleary, North Carolina. From the local high school football coach to the mild mannered pharmacist, it is clear that many of Cleary's residents have dark secrets, and one of them just might be the notorious Blue. The mystery is expertly crafted; leading readers on a white knuckled ride complete with plenty of red herrings. The conclusion is tumultuous and explosive, the perfect finale to this bone chilling thriller.

This is the best Sandra Brown book I have ever read, and I've read most of them.

Ben Tierney and Lilly Martin were outstanding and all the other characters were terrific!

Suspense, tension, 'did he or didnt he', passion were all involved. The setting was a whiteout snowstorm and it was portrayed chillingly! Even in Florida, (am a former New Englander), I could feel the cold, experience all the emotions of the characters; and even tho you will probably guess who the bad guy is, you do not want to do it willingly!!!

This is a gut wrenching story, vividly done. I read this book in one day - just could not put it down until I reached the end.

Each chapter ends hanging out there, and you rush thru the next to seek the answer! (boy, was I easy or what?) :D

Did not enjoy some of the last Sandra Brown books but this one has restored my faith. Well done!

"The grave was substandard." If that opening line won't capture your attention, nothing will. I'm not terribly fond of romance fiction, but the suspense and action in this one held me captive. I could hardly wait to finish it, and when I closed the cover, I said, "wow." The only reason I gave it only four stars is because I could have done without the steamy sex scenes. But that's Ms. Brown's genre, and she's very good at it.

This book was absolutely wonderful. It keep me rivited to my cassett player the entire time. Excellent characters and reader. I did not want the story to end. There was never a dull moment. This was well worth the money and is highly recommended for anyone liking romance and mystery. Loved it, Loved it, Loved it!

When I read a Sandra Brown novel, this is exactly what I'm looking for. Intense suspense, plot twists, steamy love scenes. I read a wide variety of genres in literature and Sandra Brown is one of my favorite for the murder mystery steamy sex genre. Also check out Nora Roberts.

Heard and liked Sandra Brown's latest thriller, CHILL FACTOR . . . but
that's no real surprise since that has been the case with just about
everything else written by this talented author.

What sets her apart from so many other writers is that her stories
are almost always different . . . and the characters seem fresh; i.e.,
not like you've met them before.

CHILL FACTOR is about a woman stuck in a blizzard with
a man who may or may not have been the abductor of several other
women in the past two years . . . there are numerous plot twists
that had me guessing, and there's also a good amount of romance
that added spice to the tale.

Stephen Lang narrated . . . I've admired his work in the past and while
he did a fine job with the male voices, he wasn't nearly as effective with
his reading of the female passages.

I confess that I'm a multi-genre reader, and when I have enough free time to indulge in a mystery, I want plenty of unexpected twists. Sandra Brown's novel turns many unexpected corners. The flow of the story is fast paced, like shooting river rapids in a kayak. I'm dodging obstacles she's strategically placed to make sure the reader is fooled right up to the end.
I love the setting of the story, North Carolina. Brown sets the tension quickly between the characters in the small town of Cleary. The suspicion continues to mount as the less-than-perfect locals start to question the actions of one another. The characters we least expect turn out to have secrets. But is the killer a long-time citizen of Cleary...or an outsider?
Chrissy K. McVay
author of - 'Souls of the North Wind'

It seems almost futile to review a book by a popular and best-selling author like Sandra Brown. This book has all the thrills and excitement one comes to expect from her. The story is well paced and keeps the reader guessing till the end whether Ben Tierney really is Blue although halfway through the book, his behaviour should make one draw a conclusion one way or the other. She also throws in juicy scandals and some suspicious behaviour from other characters that thicken the plot.
Yet (ok, there is a yet) this is not one of her better works. The story does drag on a bit, and seems a little forced, with details about the murders thrown out at regular intervals like a paint-by-numbers plot. Ben seems to also have superhuman strength to last as long as he did. And his relationship with Lilly lacks chemistry. They meet while Lilly is still married, so there's lots of wistful yearning which is fulfilled when they get trapped in the cabin. That also seems rather forced.
And the conclusion was a bit puzzling and disappointing. That said, Sandra Brown is still one of my favourite authors and I'm still looking forward to her other books.

Is it me or has Sandra Brown's writing gone south (no pun intended)? Reading The Crush was like wading through wet cement and Chill Factor was only marginally better. To begin with, the killer's identity was obvious from the moment of introduction, as was Marilee's lover. And then there's Lilly Martin. A more useless heroine I've yet to see Brown create. Any woman too weak to carry a log or two or too medically endangered from asthma (as a fellow sufferer, I can relate) has no business spending an hour alone anywhere, much less in a remote mountain cabin in North Carolina with a storm coming. And then, while truly helpless, she blurts out a question that tips off a killer? We're supposed to believe this woman is a high powered, well paid editor of a magazine? Honestly, I was so tired of her midway through the book, I didn't care if she did freeze to death. Her stamina also suffers ridiculously in comparison with our hero, who stuggles up and down a mountain, not once, but three times, while concussed, crippled, shot, and near death. We couldn't have asked more from Superman himself. I also didn't believe for a moment in the half-baked relationship between the two of them, nor did I ever care about it. I did care about the bittersweet relationship between the secondary characters, which Brown, because of the way she set it up, had to leave hanging.

Sandra Brown is, or has been, capable of writing pretty good romantic thrillers, with plots and characters the reader cares about (she does better with male heroes, in my opinion). Unfortunately, Chill Factor is not one of them.