Fiction, Mystery & Crime
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Overview
Female NYPD trainee Julian Palmer has come to a frigid corner of Upstate New York to work alongside legendary police chief Winston "Bear" Edwards-to help solve the brutal murder of a young waitress, and perhaps learn a thing or two along the way.
Julian knows that Edwards, an Old School cop if there ever were one, isn't happy about a female rookie assisting him-or the strange local psychic they've called in to help. Still, she's a bit in awe of the old Bear-he has, after all, solved every murder case he's ever worked on. Except this one.
Now, as Julian and Edwards investigate, they are thrust into a labyrinthine mystery, where endless twists and turns keep the case as compelling as it is elusive. And as the snow continues to fall on rural New York, hiding everything beneath a glistening white blanket, it might also cover up the only thing that will solve this case: The Cold Truth...
Editorials
Boston Globe
A compelling tale.Publishers Weekly -
Winston "Bear" Edwards is a huge man. A sheriff for 30 years in Canaanville, a small town in upper New York State, he has become a police legend with no unsolved murders in his jurisdiction--until the savage stabbing death of a local waitress threatens to mar his record. Enter young, beautiful police academy trainee Julian Palmer, assigned at her own request as an intern to Edwards in an experimental program. From their first remarkable interview, when Edwards erupts in anger when he learns "Julian" is female, not male, the two are locked in a metaphorical embrace that's sometimes like combat, sometimes like a lover's clinch. Edwards is an unconventional police chief and Julian is appalled by some of his methods, yet intrigued by his results. Stone adds to their volatile mix a quirky psychic and Edwards's equally large and angry wife, Estelle; plus wintry blasts of wind and snow. What results is a stunning, risk-taking first novel that mystery fans will celebrate. (July) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.Marilyn Stasio
...[B]one-chilling....Although the sketchy descriptions of the bleak region don't entirely convey its chilly appeal, Stone draws a more detailed map of the interior landscape of Julian's mind.— The New York Times Book Review
Kirkus Reviews
Talk about timing. Julian Palmer, a female recruit sent forth from the New York City Police Academy to serve as the first-ever intern to Winston "Bear" Edwards, retiring police chief of Canaanville, in the upstate Snow Belt, arrives only a month after the chief's very first unsolved homicide. The victim is a 21-year-old waitress named Sarah Langley; the means of death brutal; and the only lead from volunteer psychic Wayne Hill, a sometime mental patient of Dr. Ernest Tibor's who tested zero for psychic ability at Duke University's parapsychology center. After a few days at the local Ramada Inn, Julian succumbs to a pressing invitation from Edwards's wife Estelle to stay in the room over their barn, and from that point on the only other events that occur are her furious tangles with the rest of the tiny cast over whodunit. Hill, Tibor, Edwards, Estelle, and another of Tibor's patients named Eugene Green: those are all the possible suspects, and first-timer Stone makes each come to attention and jump through hoops with a magician's skill and lion tamer's nerve. The final effect suggests Hugh Pentecost's "Challenge to the Reader" cruelly drawn out to novel length; long after you've given up trying to figure out where the next twist is coming from, Stone's just getting warmed up. A chilling little gem with the ferocious logic of a Beethoven quartet. ($50,000 ad/promo)Book Details
Published
April 1, 2010
Publisher
St. Martin's Press
Pages
288
ISBN
9781429981248