A Cold Dark Place by Toni Anderson

This is from one of my favorite Indie authors in romantic suspense. If you like that genre, you will LOVE this series! Trust me.

I love it when the action in a suspense novel starts on the first page. This book begins that way and never seems to let up!

Quick summary
FBI Special Agent Mallory Rooney joined the bureau because she ultimately wanted to find out what happened to her twin sister who was abducted 18 years ago. While tracking a serial killer she stumbles upon information suggesting that a vigilante is operating outside of law enforcement. Former CIA operative Alex Parker is now working for a covert organization whose mission is to take down the most vile criminals before they enter the justice system. As Mallory starts to get closer to discovery, Alex is assigned to “watch” her and ends up getting closer than he’d planned.

The suspense
Women are being abducted and their bodies later discovered, often with significant time spans between the time they went missing and when they were murdered. What makes this even more spine tingling is sometimes we get the points of view from the victims and the killer. Anderson doesn’t give you a clue as to who’s going to make it, which keeps the tension level awfully high. When the killer begins focusing on Mallory, things get even more dicey.

The romance
Alex and Mallory have great chemistry but always in the background is his duplicity. She doesn’t know about his history and he has so many secrets it takes most of the book to uncover them. Alex’s blurred lines makes him more interesting and even he gets conflicted as his relationship with Mallory deepens. It’s a tricky romance that keeps you wondering how all of this will (or can) be resolved.

The bottom line
The balance is tipped more towards suspense in this story but believe me, the romance doesn’t suffer and isn’t forsaken. Alex is a compelling “gray” hero, straddling those ethical lines. I couldn’t find a good stopping point so I gave up trying to sleep and got up in the middle of the night and finished the book. I also couldn’t definitively nail down the identity of the killer until close to the book reveal. That doesn’t happen to me very often and the clues were there. Loved this book and I’ve already bought the next book.

Book Info

• Release Date: August 29, 2014
• Series: Cold Justice #1
• Page Numbers: 370

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