Violent Crimes Detective Jessica Niemi has her hands full. The high-profile disappearances of celebrity social media influencers Lisa Yamamoto and Jason Nervander, along with a new and less than supportive superintendent, Helena “Hellu” Lappi, have her questioning everything around her. A dead body dressed in manga style washes ashore and appears tied to the disappearances, only deepening the mystery. Meanwhile, Jessica’s own mental health issues have resurfaced as she’s envisioning her dead mother with increasing frequency. Can Jessica and her team uncover what has happened to Jason, Lisa, and the dead woman? Or is Jessica’s career about to come to a screeching halt?
THE ICE COVEN is the second book in the Jessica Niemi series and takes place approximately 6 months after the conclusion of THE WITCH HUNTER. The story itself is a standalone, although the various relationships and Jessica’s own secrets will probably be best appreciated if one has read the first book. Max Seeck does provide a lot of background information for new readers although I suspect they’ll find themselves hungering for more of this hauntingly good series!
Jessica continues to fascinate me as a main character. Her mental health issues, coupled with her drive to solve cases at any cost, make her an intriguing albeit somewhat unstable character. Not all of her choices are good ones, but her heart is generally in the right place. I am enjoying watching her character grow over the series, even as she remains a deeply flawed but caring investigator.
Max Seeck takes readers into a dark, hidden world that I didn’t even know existed. THE ICE COVEN isn’t for the faint of heart, more so for what is implied rather than unnecessary explicit details. Max Seeck drops clues along the way, and yet the conclusion still shocked me- something that doesn’t happen often and I applaud Max Seeck for crafting one heck of a thriller!
THE ICE COVEN is a chilling thriller full of twists and turns as Jessica and her team seeks answers. THE ICE COVEN is a police procedural unlike any others I’ve read, highlighted by the dark thread underlining the story and the cold and wintry setting. Readers who enjoy a suspenseful and eerie tale will relish Max Seeck’s latest installment in the Jessica Niemi series.
Investigator Jessica Niemi is in a race against time to find the link between a body with strange markings that has washed up on a frigid shore in Finland and two baffling disappearances in this terrifying new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Witch Hunter. Six months have passed since Jessica’s encounter with the mysterious serial-killing coven of witches and the death of her mentor. Her nightmares about her mother and the witchcraft that undid her have only gotten worse, but she’s doing what she can to stay focused. Her homicide squad, now under new leadership, has been given a murder case and a new series of disappearances to investigate. A young woman’s corpse has washed up on an icy beach, and two famous Instagram influencers have gone missing at the same time.The missing influencers and the murdered woman all have ties to a sinister cult. Jessica finds an eerie painting - of a lighthouse on a remote island - as she investigates, and under the picture is a gruesome poem detailing a murder. The nightmares about her mother suddenly seem all too real, making Jessica wonder if the dead woman might be trying to tell her something about the killings. And as Jessica works frantically to solve her latest case, her horrific past comes roaring back and threatens to destroy her.
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