Finished Su 8/16/20
This is one of my paperbacks that I bought at the library book fair on Sa 1/11/20.
When I finished the book I was disappointed that it really didn't end. The kidnapped boy, Josh, just 'reappears' and a madman is captured but why and how he did the crime is not resolved. A new novel called, 'GUILTY AS SIN' (2000) must be read to find out the complete details.
Set in Deer Lake, Minnesota, a small town fairly close to Minneapolis. It's winter and the temperatures plunge far below zero.
A LOVE STORY AND A CHILD KIDNAPPING
Agent Megan O'Malley is sent to the town from Minnesota's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to assist in the kidnapping of an eight year old boy, Josh.
Mitch Holt is the local chief of police. He and Megan become lovers. Megan is dead set against any involvement with another cop, but the attraction is far too strong. At first I thought that the 'steamy cop affair' in the middle of a kidnapping seemed a little ham-fisted, but it works in a corny way. Mitch's wife and son are dead. He feels responsible because he allowed his wife and son to shop at a store located in a bad area. Both were gun downed during a robbery. He has an adorable five year old girl, Jessie.
Hannah and Paul are Josh's parents. Hannah is a well-loved local doctor and Paul is a 'wannabe' beloved local businessman. Paul is having an affair with a neighbor, Karen Wright, that is also Hannah's friend. Paul wants to become 'the face of the search' for his son and Hannah is honestly devastated and feels that all of her competency of her medical practice is down the drain.
Karen's husband, Garrett Wright, is the madman who is captured at the end of the novel. But, he couldn't have acted alone. This man was a teacher at the college and was helping in the investigation. At the end you don't even know if Karen was aware of the affair between Paul and Hannah. I even felt that Karen could have been aware of the kidnapping itself.
***A janitor at the local ice rink where Josh was taken is the first suspect. He had a record involving child molestation that he had not divulged to the local police. This man commits suicide by shattering his glass eye and then slitting his wrists.
From the review at Kirkus:
"In Hoag's swell, sexy thriller (after Lucky's Lady, 1992), an eight-year-old boy is kidnapped, and two emotionally battered cops find love. There's a cold snap in Deer Lake, Minn., but it's all hot sparks when Agent Megan O'Malley meets police chief Mitch Holt. She's struggled to become the first female field agent for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension; he has "Harrison Ford's looks and an athlete's body" (sorry, Harrison). On the outside they're two tough cookies who've been scarred by life. But inside, their hearts are as mushy as marshmallows that have burned too long in the fire. When Josh Kirkwood is kidnapped after hockey practice, Megan and Mitch launch a search as the wind chill sends the temperature plummeting to 60 below. The kidnapper, who sends cryptic messages with pieces of Josh's clothing, is an evil maniac who likes to manipulate his victims. Josh's mother, Hannah, suffers most. A doctor who runs a hospital ER and still bakes her own cookies, she blames herself for neglecting Josh; her husband blames her too, even though he was committing adultery with a neighbor when Josh called him for help. Hannah turns to Father Tom, a hip cleric who plays a GameBoy, wears cowboy boots, and feels a little unpriestly about his parishioner. Hoag inserts strong doses of violence (a suspect slits his wrists with pieces of his own glass eye; the villain breaks Megan's hand), skillfully handles a complicated plot, and makes us care about her central characters. The whodunit is compelling, but never more important than the evolution of relationships. Sliding unashamedly from police procedural to purple prose, Hoag savvily steeps her novel in the conventions of steamy romance, where the color of the police chief's "whiskey" eyes are as important as the clues."
I will check Amazon and if 'GUILTY AS SIN' is priced right, I might pick it up.
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