Ice Cold by Tess Gerritsen

Ice Cold is the eighth installment of the Rizzoli and Isles series by Tess Gerritsen. I had to wrap up in a blanket to read this novel!

It begins with Boston medical examiner Maura Isles taking a trip to Wyoming for a medical conference.  With her current love life in turmoil, she decides to join a colleague, his young teenage daughter, and another couple for a quick ski trip before catching her flight home.  When heavy snow fall threatens the safety of their uphill mountain drive, an attempt to turn the SUV around finds them sliding into a deep ditch instead, leaving them stranded with no help in sight.

Taking only what they can carry, they discover the tiny remote village of Kingdom Come tucked into the valley below the buried vehicle.  Arriving in the village they find twelve identical houses seemingly abandoned.  As night falls, they pick one in which to take refuge and immediately realize that something terrible has happened in this little community.  The homes are all dark, the windows open, dinners sit untouched on tables, and cars are still parked in the garages.  Though the residents seem to have vanished into thin air, footprints in the snow reveal that someone is out there, carefully, steadily watching them.

Soon, Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli learns that Maura is missing and travels to Montana with her husband Gabriel and Daniel Brophy, a Catholic priest with ties to Maura.  Once there, they find they are not exactly welcome within the ranks of state law enforcement but Jane continues to push for answers about her missing friend.  When the grim news comes that Maura’s charred body has been found in a mountain ravine, Jane is determined to learn the truth behind what has happened.

The investigation plunges Jane and Gabriel into the twisted history of Kingdom Come, where a gruesome discovery lies buried beneath the snow. As horrifying revelations come to light, Jane closes in on an enemy both powerful and merciless—and the chilling truth about Maura’s fate.

I was not joking when I said I huddled beneath a blanket while reading this book.  It takes place in Montana during a blizzard and all that reading about the snow gave me a chill - or perhaps it was the story itself that gave me the chills.  Tess Gerritsen can weave a tale, taking us deep into the mountains and into the dangerous arms of evil.  This was yet another thrilling novel giving us more insight into the Rizzoli and Isles characters.  There are only two novels left in this series and I can't wait to dive into them both.