Cold as Hell
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Reviewer: Sophia Rose
Rating: A+
What I’m Talking About:
The Great White North isn’t as safe as the small group living in the off-grid Yukon town hoped for including an attacker in the dark. Kelley Armstrong’s chilling thrillers give a rugged gritty feel with setting and plot circumstances, but add a compelling piece with the complex character and relationship development that goes on along with it.
Cold as Hell is the third of the Haven’s Rock books that follow up the close of the Rockton series. For newcomers, I recommend starting way back at the beginning with the first of the Rockton series because the books and series are all carefully connected.
In this latest, things have had advanced several month from the end of the last book so that Casey is nearly ready to have her baby and things are settling after those previous events. But, peace is not to continue when one of the residents is date-rape drugged and nearly dragged off into the cold, dark, and wintery woods.
Casey and Eric must figure out who’s behind the crime even while the clock is ticking on the time they must withdraw for the birth of their baby after some bumps in Casey’s pregnancy.
Cold As Hell was stark and had dark tones from the beginning because of the nature of the threat that is coming from within. The pacing was steady with a growing ominous feeling as more issues and dangers come up. There wasn’t lag or let up in the suspense right to the heart-pounding climax.
This read so swiftly because I was riveted from cover to cover. I was very taken about the especial emotional punch with Casey and Eric working out becoming new parents and how that dynamic will affect their detecting relationship, too. I can’t wait for more from this strong, amazing series.
My Rating: A+ Personal Favorite
Sophia Rose
About the Book:
New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong returns to Haven’s Rock in Cold as Hell as Casey Butler hunts down a dangerous killer during a deadly blizzard.
Haven’s Rock is a sanctuary town hidden deep in the Yukon for those who need to disappear from the regular world. Detective Casey Duncan and her husband, Sheriff Eric Dalton, are starting a family now that they’ve settled into their life here. As Casey nears the end of her pregnancy, she lets nothing, including her worried husband, stop her from investigating what happens in the forbidden forest outside the town of Haven’s Rock.
When one of the town’s residents is drugged and wanders too close to the edge of town, she’s dragged into the woods kicking and screaming. She’s saved in the nick of time, but the women of the town are alarmed. Casey and Eric investigate the assault just as a snowstorm hits Haven’s Rock, covering the forest. It’s there they find a frozen body, naked in the snow. With mixed accounts of the woman’s last movements, the two begin to question who they can trust—and who they can’t—in their seemingly safe haven.
Release Date: February 18, 2025
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Series: Haven’s Rock #3
Genre: Thriller
Format(s): hardcover (352 pages), e-book, audiobook
Book Source: NetGalley
Purchase Info:
Amazon (affiliate link)