Cold Edge

Daytona Beach News-Journal

Immensely entertaining.

Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel

Unflinching.

Harriet Klausner

One step beyond the cutting edge.

Publishers Weekly

Overworked police detective Lucas Stonecoat finds himself juggling two gruesome murder investigations, an old flame and a tempting new co-worker in Walker's latest mystery (following Blind Instinct). The Houston police department endures a lot of bad press when two women are found scalped, with their hands chopped off and Native American pictographs carved into their flesh. Lucas's prejudiced superiors, assuming that he is an expert on scalping because of his American Indian heritage, assign him to the case along with forensic psychiatrist Meredyth Sanger. The quarrelsome duo question a pompous and uncooperative psychiatrist who treats recently released felons and team up with two rather stereotypically portrayed detectives from a different precinct. In the midst of the investigation, Lucas is distracted by his grandfather's serious illness, the marital strife of his first love and another case involving a beheading. Walker's stilted dialogue and typecast supporting characters do nothing to enhance the romance brewing between Lucas and Meredyth, but diehard mystery readers who can stomach the meticulously depicted, grisly crime scenes will appreciate the narrative's momentum and procedural details. (Mar.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

From The Critics

Detective Lucas Stonecoat feels caught between two worlds as he wants to honor the traditions of his Native American heritage, but follows the procedures of the Houston police department where he works. He drops everything when his first love Tsalie informs him that his beloved grandfather is dying. He needs to say his good-byes to his revered relative.While Lucas goes on leave, The Scalper, a deadly serial killer, strikes again. Lucas, in charge of the investigation, leaves his grandfather's side to look at the crime scene. At his apartment, Lucas finds police psychiatrist Dr. Meredith Sanger there waiting for him. She knew the victim. Though they share a professional relationship, sexual sparks fly between Meredith and Lucas. Still holding that in abeyance, the two concludes that the last murder is probably not the work of the Scalper, but that of a different sociopath. As the death toll mounts and the city cringes in fear, Lucas and Meredith place themselves at risk in order to stop a deadly perpetrator from killing again.Readers who walk the Cold Edge will feel apprehension and near panic as the story line takes the audience into the warped minds of human monsters and the terrified minds of the victims. The maniacal killers relish murder, torture, and rape while the terrified victims welcome death. The police procedural is exciting because Robert W. Walker keeps the audience (and his cops) on edge as to whether there are one or more killers. Sub-genre fans will want to walk along the edge with Mr. Walker's latest chiller.