Book Review: Cold Blood

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Cold Blood     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon UK PB Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Theresa Monsour
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Police Procedural
Series: Paris Murphy # 2
Putnam, May 2004, $24.95, 326 pp.

He was the one everyone picked on in school. He had no friends everyone in school picked on him. He had the nerve to ask one of the popular girls to a school dance. Her boyfriend and three of his jock pals beat him to a bloody pulp. He swore he would get even one day.

Paris Murphy, the girl he asked out, is now a St. Paul Homicide detective. She sees Justice Trip on television searching for a woman who has gone missing after walking out of a wedding reception. Justice is the one who found the missing woman’s pinkie as he joins in the search party but something about his demeanor doesn’t set right with Paris. He plays the hero giving out false information to a reporter making her wonder if he had anything to do with the killing. When the body is found in a park, Justice is also there. As Paris researches the crime, she comes upon some interesting facts that make her think that Justice is a serial killer. Now all she has to do is find some evidence to back up her supposition.

Told from the point of view of the heroine and the antagonist reader knows at all times what is going on in their heads and can predict what their next move will be. This is only Theresa Monsour’s second book but with her complex characterizations and tight and complex storylines, it is easy to see that she is going to be one of the new stars in the crime thriller galaxy. COLD BLOOD is a powerful tour-de force, a police procedural that takes the reader into the investigation from start to finish.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner