Saturday, March 6, 2021

Ice Cold Heart


P. J. Tracy was the pseudonym of the award-winning mother-daughter writing duo P. J. and Traci Lambrecht; P. J. died in 2016 and Traci has continued writing their "Monkeewrench" series, of which this is the 10th installment. The recent hiatus in homicides caused by an abnormally cold January in Minneapolis comes to a horrifying end when detectives Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth are called to the scene of a brutal staged murder. The victim is a married woman, Kelly, but was found in the apartment of her best friend and all the clues suggest she was secretly exploring some extramarital and apparently dangerous sexual liaisons. When the trail of clues leads them to a 2nd murder, this one stages to look like an accident, and then to a murder that occurred several years ago in California with all the same earmarks, they decide to enlist the help of Monkeewrench. This is a group of digital security experts, one of whom is Grace MacBride, Leo's wife. Monkeewrench helps uncover connections to a rising art star whose art mimics--or does it inspire--the ugly murders.

It's not necessary to have read previous books in the series to enjoy this one, although series fans will no doubt have a lot more info about characters' back stories. In this book, Monkeewrench team member Roadrunner gets involved with one of the potential victims and more is learned about his background.  Publishers Weekly praises "This smooth mix of police procedural and techno thriller [that] offers likable characters and a complex, well-crafted plot."

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