Elderly Pennsylvania State lawyer Albert Gordon dies
quietly in his rural home - and is found under a mound of
junk that the compulsive hoarder had collected. The
Hookstown police get involved when the townsfolk narrowly
escape death on cleanup day - a bomb has been planted in
the cellar.
Local police detective Cameron has her hands full already
with the aftermath of the bombing, when the body of a woman
is discovered hidden in a freezer in the cellar. The body
that was discovered used
to be a porn star named Cherry Pickens, whose unsolved
disappearance in the 1980s baffled the FBI. Cameron's
boyfriend is local prosecuting attorney Joshua, widowed
with five children. Between his kids and her large black
and white Maine Coon cat, which draws shrieks of 'Skunk!'
when people notice it, their personal life is crowded.
Joshua is also executor to the Gordon estate so Cameron
feels justified in sharing case information. The dead
woman's fingerprints show that her real name was Cheryl
Smith, a girl who left Hookstown decades ago after she was
implicated in the disappearance of another girl in a bout
of jealousy. Why did she return, and why was her body
hidden for so long?
The early part of DEAD ON ICE feels hard to get into
because there are so many characters. Scenes switch and
townsfolk are introduced in large numbers. Only when
matters settle down to a straight investigation did I
really feel at home in the location. After that the
detective work feels genuine and the cold cases which arise
are linked to the brooding presence of a grudge. "Loyalties
have a way of dissolving over the years," comments an older
detective, and the truth will out. The scenes shift from
a computer shop to a wealthy winery, a small homestead to a
Sunday school class. But more than one grudge is held, and
matters quickly turn bad, with a shooting, arson and
assaults muddying the waters.
DEAD ON ICE is Lauren Carr's sixth mystery and she has
filled it with twists and turns. I did guess the identity
of one killer but not another, and mystery fans will be
kept busy following the clues and unravelled secrets.
Perhaps the most enjoyable character for me is the large
cat, Irving; he livens up many scenes and his meeting with
an actual skunk dismays his owner. Give this story a try
and see if your guess is as good as mine.
Dead on Ice is the first installment of Lauren Carr’s new
series (Lovers in Crime) featuring Hancock County
Prosecuting Attorney Joshua Thornton and Pennsylvania State
Police homicide detective Cameron Gates. Spunky Cameron
Gates is tasked with solving the murder of Cherry Pickens,
a legendary star of pornographic films, whose body turns up
in an abandoned freezer. The case has a personal connection
to her lover, Joshua Thornton, because the freezer was
located in his cousin’s basement. It doesn’t take long for
their investigation to reveal that the risqué star’s roots
were buried in their rural Ohio Valley community, something
that Cherry had kept off her show business bio. She should
have kept her hometown off her road map, too—because when
this starlet came running home from the mob, it proved to
be a fatal homecoming.
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