ICE SHEAR by M.P. COOLEY

Publisher:  William Morrow

Published:   July 22, 2014
ISBN:  978-0062300706
Genre:   Thriller

Format:  Ebook
Obtained via:  Publisher – Edelweiss – Above the Treeline

Reviewed by name and email address:  Gina Gina@loveromancesandmorereviews.com

Three Hearts

June Lyons left the high powered, high pressured world of the FBI to become a small town cop for a number of reasons—her daughter Lucy, her father, a simpler life in her home town. She works nights and the most excitement she finds, which is fine with her, is keeping the town drunk from getting in his car and driving home…or trying to.  And then one night that bucolic small town explodes with not just a murder, but a very high profile murder when the daughter of a well-known politician’s daughter is found at the nearby lake.  From that moment her world is turned upside down as one murder leads to another.  Between an outlaw motorcycle gang, political intrigue and the discovery of a meth lab in a most unlikely place, June finds herself at a decision point.  But that decision is taken away from her when a former FBI partner deputizes her, arguing it is necessary because she knows both sides of the coin.

But then June becomes the target.  Can she find the killer before the killer finds her?

M.P. Cooley’s ICE SHEAR caught my attention the moment I read the back cover blurb. The idea of a mystery, a thriller in a small upstate New York town in the cold of winter just intrigued me because growing up I spent a number of winter weekends in similar locales.  There were any number of times I found myself smiling as I read Cooley’s descriptions of the town and the people living there. 

The physical descriptions aside, I had a hard time getting into the story during the first two-thirds of it. For a debut novel it’s not a bad read but it does slip into that droning voice you find in many first person books.  A story can quickly deteriorate into a lot of telling but no emotion being shown in the characters.  I didn’t relate to any of them.  They didn’t seem to have any depth or anything to connect to as a reader. 

The last third though the story really took off.  When the secrets started coming out and the twists that got the characters to the point where killing seems the only way out, Cooley had my attention and I couldn’t put the book down.  F

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.