Ice Cold by Tess Gerritsen, a Mysterious Review.

Review: When Boston medical examiner Maura Isles goes missing after attending a conference in Wyoming, and is later reported having died in a car accident, her friend and frequent crime solving partner Detective Jane Rizzoli travels to the scene to discover how it all came about, in Ice Cold, the eighth mystery in this series by Tess Gerritsen.

Maura had built into her schedule a couple of extra days at the end of the conference to explore the Jackson Hole area. Not impulsive by nature, she decides on a whim to accompany a physician she meets, who is there with his daughter and his two friends, on an overnight trip to a ski resort. Following directions on the rental SUV's GPS, they find themselves on a seasonal road that becomes increasingly impassable as they continue on towards their destination. Trying to turn around, the SUV becomes trapped in a ditch, stranding the five of them at least 30 miles from the nearest source of help. With no cell phone coverage, but a sign nearby indicating a private road — presumably to someone's house — they take a chance on foot. Several days later when Maura fails to return her rental car and doesn't check in for her flight back to Boston, Jane calls the authorities in Wyoming, only to be told that a burned out SUV was found in a ravine by the side of an icy road, all passengers — including Maura Isles, who was seen on a hotel surveillance video getting into the vehicle — having been killed in the accident.

Not a standard police procedural or whodunit-style thriller that is more typical of the previous books in this series, Ice Cold is nonetheless a superior novel of suspense that fits perfectly into the series, one that once started, will be hard to put down. For much of the first half of the book, it's a story of how Maura and the four people with her try to stay alive under exceptionally adverse conditions. In the second half, when Jane enters the picture, the story becomes a compelling search for the truth: what become of Maura, and why are the local authorities so quick to assume that the victims of the SUV crash include Maura when there is no forensic evidence to prove her presence? The last few chapters offer an incredible — and completely unexpected — explanation as to what really happened to Maura Isles while she was missing.

It should be noted that there is very little in the way of character introduction here; readers new to the series may find themselves at a loss to understand or appreciate the interpersonal dynamics between the recurring characters, and may find that starting with an earlier book before picking up this one will help put everything into perspective.

The Mephisto Club
Ballantine (Hardcover), September 2006
ISBN-13: 9780345476999; ISBN-10: 0345476999

Ice Cold

A Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles Mystery by Tess Gerritsen