The Chill of Night (Det. Michael McCabe Mysteries) [Hardcover]

James Hayman (Author)

Book Description

Release date: June 22, 2010 | Series: Det. Michael McCabe Mysteries (Book 2)

Fresh off the success of The Cutting, James Hayman brings Detective Michael McCabe back in an even more powerful tale of duplicity, murder, and revenge

 

Glamorous young Portland attorney Lainie Goff thought she had it all—brains, beauty, and a fast-track to a partnership in a top-ranked firm that was going to make her rich. But then one cold winter night she pushed things too far, and her naked frozen body is found in the sub-zero temperatures at the end of the Portland Fish Pier.

The only witness to the crime: a mentally disturbed young woman named Abby Quinn who mysteriously disappears the very same night.

With the discovery of Lainie Goff ’s body and the disappearance of Abby Quinn, Portland homicide detective Michael McCabe finds himself on the trail of a relentless and clever killer. A killer he must find before another life is lost.

With The Chill of Night James Hayman returns to tell a gripping tale of evil and deceit and creates characters so real and so human, we want to meet them again and again.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Portland, Maine, Det. Sgt. Michael McCabe, introduced in The Cutting, has to deal with a frozen corpse, a missing witness, and a sadistic killer in Hayman's satisfying second novel of suspense. One winter day, a cop finds the naked body of Lainie Goff, a beautiful and ambitious young lawyer in Portland's largest law firm, stuffed into the trunk of her BMW convertible at the end of a fishing pier. Lainie's past, present, and what might have been her future all hold possible clues: she was an abused child; she worked with abused teen girls at Sanctuary House; and she had plans for making partner at Palmer Milliken. A possible witness is Abby Quinn, a schizophrenic teen who hears voices and has disappeared. The police need to find Abby before the cold weather or the killer gets her. McCabe, with an eidetic memory and a passion for avenging victims, is a formidable detective tested to the limit in Hayman's atmospheric puzzler.
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From Booklist

Finding the frozen, nude body of lawyer Lainie Goff in the trunk of her new Mercedes is a particular shock for Detective Sergeant Mike McCabe, because the corpse is a dead ringer for his remarried ex-wife, Sandy, with whom he still has a love-hate (mostly hate) relationship. So he has personal issues to deal with while he and partner Maggie Savage probe into the victim's past and search for the only witness to the crime, schizophrenic Abby Quinn. The bitter cold of a Portland, Maine, winter complicates the case, both in delaying forensic work on the body and in endangering some of the principals, especially Quinn, who's on the run. McCabe is a stickler for getting after the truth, whether examining his own emotions or closing cases. His second outing (after The Cutting, 2009) features a strong sense of place (the action seesaws between the mainland and nearby Harts Island), well-rounded characters, and a twisting, action-filled plot. This one puts Portland, Maine, firmly on the crime-fiction map. --Michele Leber

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; First Edition edition (June 22, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312532717
• ISBN-13: 978-0312532710
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,147,739 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

James Hayman - About the Author


Me and Mike McCabe: A Short Bio of the author and his hero.

Like McCabe, I'm a native New Yorker. He was born in the Bronx. I was born in Brooklyn. We both grew up in the city. He dropped out of NYU Film School and joined the NYPD, rising through the ranks to become the top homicide cop at the Midtown North Precinct. I graduated from Brown and joined a major New York ad agency, rising through the ranks to become creative director on accounts like the US Army, Procter & Gamble, and Lincoln/Mercury.

We both married beautiful brunettes. McCabe's wife, Sandy dumped him to marry a rich investment banker who had "no interest in raising other people's children." My wife, Jeanne, though often given good reason to leave me in the lurch, has stuck it out through thick and thin and is still my wife. She is also my best friend, my most attentive reader and a perceptive critic.

Both McCabe and I eventually left New York for Portland, Maine. I arrived in August 2001, shortly before the 9/11 attacks, in search of the right place to begin a new career as a fiction writer. He came to town a year later, to escape a dark secret in his past and to find a safe place to raise his teenage daughter, Casey.

There are other similarities between us. We both love good Scotch whiskey, old movie trivia and the New York Giants. And we both live with and love women who are talented artists.

There are also quite a few differences. McCabe's a lot braver than me. He's a better shot. He likes boxing. He doesn't throw up at autopsies. And he's far more likely to take risks. McCabe's favorite Portland bar, Tallulah's, is, sadly, a figment of my imagination. My favorite Portland bars are all very real.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars entertaining wintry Maine police procedural June 26, 2010

By Harriet Klausner #1 HALL OF FAME

Format:Hardcover

In Maine at the Portland Fish Exchange, an abandoned car contains a naked corpse. Portland PD Detectives Michael McCabe and Maggie Savage lead the investigation into the homicide of young attorney Lanie Goff. A piece of paper stating: "Amos. 9:10" is left with the frozen body; Michael knows that means sinners must be punished.

On nearby Harts Island paranoid schizophrenic Abby Quinn hears voices in her head; her psychiatrist prescribes medicine to help her. She works at the Legion bar, which she closed early. That is how she saw the naked man use a blade to puncture a nude woman's neck. Stunned she runs to the local Portland PD station where she wakes up Bowman the cop on duty. He assumes she was having one of her hallucinations so he offers to take her to the hospital instead. Now four days later, McCabe heads to Harts Island to interview a witness that the local cop did not believe so a jury would be even less likely to do so. McCabe knows that if he fails to find the culprit Death will occur again as the killer believes the Lord has sanctioned his or her quest.

This is an entertaining wintry Maine police procedural with a strong likable lead cop whose personal issues somewhat intrude on his investigation as little things he cannot help doing like comparing the victim to his ex-wife. That family intrusion and his "probable cause" to open the car trunk enhance the inquiry with realism. McCabe (see The Cutting) and the unique refreshing witness Abby make for a fine whodunit in a frozen locale only detracted by an avenging serial killer who is stereotypical of the subgenre.

Harriet Klausner

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars (3.5) "The cop and the corpse. A strangely intimate relationship." June 22, 2010

By Luan Gaines HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

On concluding this thriller, I am left with mixed feelings, the story defined ultimately by the investigation rather than the characters. The murder of a young woman, an attorney in a prestigious New England law firm, stuns the city of Portland, Maine, when he body is found frozen in the trunk of her car. Lainie Goff is a woman of secrets, pursuing a clandestine affair to boost her career, volunteering her time to aid troubled teenagers at Sanctuary House. Most disturbing for Detective Michael McCabe is Lainie's resemblance to McCabe's beautiful and unfaithful ex-wife, Sandy. Working with Maggie Savage, from Portland's Crimes Against People Unit, the detectives hone in on the most suspicious characters in Lainie's life, but when an eye witness appears at the police station on Hart's Island, McCabe's hopes for a speedy resolution are shattered: Abby Quinn is a diagnosed schizophrenic. Although the Hart's Island police dismiss Abby's claims, McCabe and Savage worry for the young woman's safety.

Hayman depends on the rhythms of a thorough police investigation to propel the story, moving between Portland and the island, the final confrontation with the killer on a cliff high over the crashing waves below. This is an inside view of police work, from the discovery of the first heinous crime to those that follow, a cat-and-mouse game of misdirection and conflicting evidence, the killer hiding in plain sight. The dialog carries the story line. To that end, the characters we know best are McCabe, Maggie and their coworkers, suspects grilled in interrogation rooms, forensics teams pouring over crime scenes. Because of this attention to detail, the story loses some of its human appeal, with a "Law and Order" feel rather than an exploration of characters and motives. Still, the author keeps a relentless pace, even though the reader may suspect the bad guy prematurely. Luan Gaines/2010.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars James Hayman is the real deal July 15, 2010

By Elizabeth A. White

Format:Hardcover

Called to the Portland Fish Pier late one night to investigate a report of a body Detective Sergeant Michael McCabe is confronted with a dead woman in the trunk of an abandoned car, frozen solid by the bitter Maine cold. The body is quickly identified as local attorney Lainie Goff, a woman with a past as mysterious as her future was ambitious.

Prior to her murder Goff had been on the fast track to becoming the youngest associate to make partner at the prestigious law firm where she worked, though her chances at making the grade relied as much on her secret affair with her married boss as her skill as a litigator. Yet, she also quietly worked pro bono for Sanctuary House, a local non-profit organization dedicated to helping troubled teens.

Did someone in her cutthroat legal world have it in for her, or is there something sinister in her past that both led to her work with Sanctuary House and her death? Initially leads in the investigation seem as cold as the corpse. Then McCabe and his partner Maggie Savage get word that a young woman on Hart's Island, just across from the pier, claims to have witnessed a murder.

Unfortunately the young woman, Abby Quinn, is a known schizophrenic with a history of reporting her outlandish hallucinations to the police. In fact, Abby's claim of having witnessed a murder is initially ignored by the Hart's Island police until news of the discovery of the body on the pier reaches them. Unfortunately, by that time four days have passed and Abby has disappeared. Now in order to solve the murder McCabe must first find the missing witness... before the killer does.

The Chill of Night strikes a great balance between the development of characters and the unfolding of the investigation. Hayman brings an attention to detail to the investigation that is often overlooked - or flat out gotten wrong - in crime fiction. For example, early on there is some question as to the legality of the search of the car trunk where the body was found. Knowing that could jeopardize any subsequent prosecution, McCabe makes sure to point out to the initial responding officer that during the more detailed search a small package of suspicious powder was found under the front seat and suggests that, perhaps, that's what made the officer investigate the trunk. Feelings about the morality of the officer having a revisionist memory of events aside, it's a nice attention to detail that adds a layer of believability to the procedural aspect of the story.

Likewise, Hayman's character development is so understated you don't initially realize just how well you are getting to know the players. He makes them so real there is no leap of faith or suspension of belief required to picture them as people you could actually interact with in your own life. Abby in particular is exquisitely presented. Far from being a caricature, Abby's thoughts and internal struggles with her illness are presented with a frankness that is a refreshing treatment of a mentally ill character in a crime novel. In the book's acknowledgments Hayman indicates that he did significant research on schizophrenia in his preparation for writing The Chill of Night and it shows. Abby, from whose point of view a portion of the story is told, is heartbreakingly real.

The Chill of Night is the second book in the Michael McCabe series, following The Cutting. You don't have to have read The Cutting in order to enjoy The Chill of Night, but I can guarantee you'll want to go back and pick it up if you haven't. James Hayman is the real deal, and the Michael McCabe series is one to put on your "buy on release day" list.