Customer Reviews

A Chill Rain in January

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All is not sunny on the Sunshine Coast of Canada. Something's missing in the intense gaze of the most beautiful woman police chief Karl Alberg has ever seen. He's disturbingly attracted to Zoe Strachan, as he looks around her house inspecting the scene of the accidental death of her brother.

According to Zoe, Benjamin Strachan had too much to drink and fell down the stairs in search of more booze, unluckily breaking his neck. Alberg can't help noticing Zoe's silky stockings as he questions her.

The next time he visits he finds a nine-year-old boy in the house. Zoe thought Benjamin had no family, but in fact he had adopted Kenny. The boy seems oddly terrified of Aunt Zoe. Alberg starts wondering about certain ambiguous findings in the post mortem following Benjamin Strachan's death.

Zoe Strachan's house feels strangely like a fortress, and nobody in Sechen knows anything about her. It's Alberg's job to unveil the mystery of this wildly seductive, visibly cold woman. Little Kenny is destined to help him - as well as an old lady with Alzheimer's, a runaway from the hospital.

I find Alberg's scenes with his divorced family a bit saccharine, and overall Alberg seems less interesting in this book than in The Suspect, first book in the series. But the book is well plotted, and the portrayal of an unstable amoral mind quite gripping.

Since you know who committed the murder and why (as described in the editorial review and very early in the book) there is neither a mystery or very little suspense here. But like her other books in the series, Wright focuses more on character study and the relationships among those affected by the murder rather than lay out a typical who-dunit.

I frankly found the main character, Zoe Strachan, to be the most fascinating feature of the book because her gross inner imperfections contrasted sharply with her outward stunning beauty. The one fault I find with this book, however, is that Zoe is perceived by others and perhaps Wright herself as evil, when in fact many of her actions are driven by acute mental illness. The former has you rooting for the character's demise; the latter has you hoping she gets treatment.

All-in-all, a very good read.

I enjoyed this book, though I thought a few aspects of the main crime were too clumsy. I never felt like she'd "get away with it" and that detracted from the suspense. But the character of Zoe was worth it, fascinating--very cold and literal. Good read.

This is my first taste of Edgar Award winner Ms. Wright's fiction and, if this book is any indication of her talent, then I am certainly going to seek out her other novels. Her spare yet descriptive prose perfectly evokes the gothic tone of the deeds that connect the various characters. The surprises come not in the plot but in the motives and backgrounds of the characters. If there is any criticism, it is that she holds back too much, so that some scenes don't have quite the impact that they should, but this is a minor peeve. I read this right after reading McGrath's SPIDER, and the two novels share a vague similarity in tone and subject matter. Worth checking out.

this was an excellent book. i enjoyed reading this book so much. it was supsense full if you like mystery books you'll enjoy reading this.