Ice Cold by Tess Gerritsen

I must confess that my personal feelings are chauvinistic when it comes to female authors. Ice Cold seems to break down that barrier. Her stars, Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles, are not only featured here in this novel, but rizzoli & isles can now be seen on TNT. Gerritsen uses her experience as a physician to interact with the plot. I suppose that living in Maine has given her an inside view of the cold.

Dr. Maura Isles is cast as a well balanced savant who likes order and neatness in her life. While at a medical convention, she forsakes those habits and joins a small group of people to go away on the spur of the moment for a ski trip. The main reason is a renewal of a friendship with a college friend, Doug a daredevil type. Accompanying them are his teenage daughter, a food critic and his lady friend. They have a weekend of skiing at a lodge before Maura flies back home to resume her regular life.

Caught in a blinding snowstorm, they take a shortcut that leads them over a little traveled route. Luck would have it, their vehicle gets stuck in a rut and they try to find shelter. A short distance beyond, on foot, they come across twelve abandoned houses. It likens to Goldilocks because some of the houses show signs of immediate evacuation; food left on tables, dishes undone, etc. Unknowingly, they have stumbled on a cult habitat.

The mystery surrounding the abandonment plus the need for medical attention forces them to seek a way out. Dr. Isles attempts to follow Doug’s tracks when he doesn’t return, but is kidnapped by a young lad who brings her to his habitat. A fortunate event because her new found friends are discovered dead by a search party; the village and their vehicle burned. The reasons and her friend’s, Boston Detective Jane Rizzoli, persistence unearth a devilish plot and a killing substance.

Published by Ballantine Books, Ice Cold can be purchased at most book stores.