This is the second book in a trilogy. I read this as a stand alone 5 years ago but recently found books 1 and 3 so I'm reading them in order. The first time I raved about this book but reading it as the second in a series I found that much of it was the retelling of past events. It could have been a third of the pages if the refresher part had been more succinct. I still enjoyed it and am now on to the third in the series. ( )

Murder in Black Falls!

My thoughts on the book Cold River by Carla Neggers

Synopsis From The Back Of The Book:

Hannah Shay has finally shown the town of Black Falls what she’s worth. Her Three Sisters Café is a success, and she’s soon to become a prosecutor. When the café becomes an epicenter for investigators trying to pierce a violent crime ring that’s leaving bloody trails on nearby Cameron Mountain, Hannah suspects a man from her past is involved.

Sean Cameron returns to the snowy cold of his Vermont hometown to unmask his father’s killer. Sean has the skills and resources to mount his own search, but he must convince the resistant Hannah to cooperate—because the killer is ready to strike again…and closer than anyone ever imagined.

My Thoughts:

A murder takes place in this small quiet town and sends shock waves through everyone it touches. The murder has been made to look like an accident and by the time the autopsy shows the truth many months have gone by. This passage of time makes it hard to piece together the truth of what really happened to Drew Cameron on the mountain the fateful day he died. Hannah Shay is one of the main characters in Cold River by Carla Neggers, and she plays sleuth by trying to figure out the truth behind Drew’s murder.

Although I enjoyed this book, I did not find it all that suspenseful or thrilling. It turned out to be more of a romantic murder mystery. I do like murder mysteries so I found Cold River to be a good read.

This is the second book in the Black Falls Novel series and perhaps if I had read the first book, Cold Pursuit, I may have had a different opinion of this book. I did enjoy the characters, at least the ones that played the greatest part in Cold River by Carla Neggers.

The greatest lesson in this book is that there are those of us who believe that we are all on our own to deal with the ugly reality of life. That may not always be the case. If we would only just stop for a moment we might realize that there are people who are willing to help us or who have always been there helping in small ways we may not always see.

My Rating:

Because this book was touted as ratcheting up the suspense and tension and I did not find it all that suspenseful or that tense of a read I am going to give this book a rating of three ***, which means that there was some boring parts in the story but enough interesting events to keep my interest so not a bad read all in all. It was a good murder mystery with a bit of romance thrown in to try and sweeten the pot.
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Very disappointed with this book. The plot appears muddled and ill-defined. The characters are very flat. The dialogue rambles and often times seems quite pointless. The action seems to be thrown in just to provide a change of pace from the flat characters and dialogue. So not worth reading IMHO. ( )

I have been a fan of Carla Neggers for a long time, loving her blend of a hint of romance with suspense. I am a fan of her U.S. Marshall and FBI series and some of her standalone novels but I'm not so keen on her new Black Falls series. The series revolves around numerous characters set in Black Falls, Vermont basically involving a handful families, the Camerons and the Harpers. The Cameron siblings recently lost their father Drew Cameron, who was murdered by assassins because he was asking questions about something...but we don't know what that something is. There are many secondary characters which have cameos in each book.

The second book in the series, Cold River, falls short of the mark for me and was not as good as the first book Cold Pursuit, which I rated 3.0. To be honest I'm not even sure what the title of the book represents because I don't think a "Cold River" or similar was ever mentioned...although most of the cast seem to be outside in freezing weather a lot of the time. The book summarized too much the first book in the series and didn't really develop the characters, the plot or the relationships between characters enough. I would recommend skipping this series. On the other hand I liked The Angel, the second book in the FBI series a bit better and would recommend this read for a good suspense story set in Ireland. I'll probably pick up The Mist, the third book in the FBI series to be released March 30, 2010 but I'm afraid for me this is the end of the road for the Black Falls series.

My Rating: 2.5

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Black Falls, Vermont, is still reeling from having contract killers in their midst. Especially since there is at least one loose end, the person who set off a car bomb killing the second killer. Suspicion has fallen on the local bad boy, back in town after a few months in prison, but his childhood friend is determined to defend him.

Another solid entry in Neggers's long-running series of interlocking Secret Service suspense novels. ( )