What do You think about Cold Fear (2012)?
This was an interesting read for me because of how it was written. Usually, things happen and the reader is kept in the dark, wondering along with law enforcement officials what really happened. However, in this book, the reader gets to know right from the start what really happened—that the parents are telling the truth. Consequently, the reader is sympathetic towards the parents and the FBI agents look like bad guys harassing them during their crisis. The author switched from the search and rescue, the FBI investigation, the reporters trying to get the story, the convict scheduled to be executed for murder of a little girl in the same park 22 years ago, and Paige’s frightening time in the woods. I enjoyed reading this book but didn’t think it was very believable. The author certainly gives a comprehensive picture of the news event of the lost girl, but by including so many people, it was difficult at times to keep track of everyone. (Karen's review, 4 stars)
—Karen
Took me longer than normal to finish but I just could never get properly into this book,it didn't grip or excite me,not being able to put it down. 10 yr old Paige goes missing in the mountains and her parents Doug and Emily are basically suspects or so think the FBI and then interspersed with this is a convicted child killer on death row who has a history with Emily and the result is a good enough plot spoiled by too many things happening at the one time.Every chapter started with the introduction of a new person to the team,be it police,FBI,Mounties,media etc,it got so confusing trying to remember who everyone was and thinking had I already 'been introduced' to them!A lot of characters though most of them were inconsequential and had nothing to do with anything other than trying to make the plot seem more interesting and failing miserably.I like FBI agents Frank Zander and Tracey Bowman,they make a good team.Really don't know who I was meant to have sympathy for,the parents or Isaihi Hood who could be wrongly executed tho very quickly I had no sympathy for Hood as he's sick and twisted in the head and the parents are just too boring to warrant any feelings for.The most exciting parts of this book were Paige's encounters with the great big grizzly mountain bear.In the end nothing was shocking,no twists or turns or anything unexpected,it was just a very bland read whilst I find myself asking what the point of it all was after all that!
—Steph Dinning
3.5 StarsI need to start this review talking about how much better of a book it would have been had there been some PROOFREADING. Any obvious typos or missed punctuation irritate me and really interrupt any flow that an author had going. I'll be reading along, enjoying the story, when a sentence ends without punctuation, or a quote is missing so I'm not sure when a person stopped talking and narration began. I read the other reviews and even found a sentence that another reviewer mentioned, which seemed to have been corrected. The beginning of the book had much fewer errors, so I figured they reviewed an early copy. As the book went on, the errors occurred in higher frequency. Irritating.Anyway, after I got over that disappointment, I must say I really loved the writing. Everything was fast paced and had an urgency that was evident. I realized as I was reading this book that I kept questioning if the author had told me the truth in the beginning, or if it was going to come out as a lie later on. I was in the middle of the book, questioning who really was the bad guy. It takes some good writing and good storytelling to create such a misdirection. I wasn't expecting the story to be what I found in these pages; I figured it would be a story of survival and the parents desperately searching for their daughter. What I got was very few chapters from Paige's perspective, hardly any really detailing the search, and much more on the authorities investigation of Doug and Emily. It was a little disheartening to see the reality that law enforcement has to deal with; when a child goes missing, a good amount of energy will be spent determining if the parents are to blame. I wonder if children could be found faster if there wasn't such a big need to contain and investigate the parents.My only complaint about the story would be that (view spoiler)[ Hood just happens to know exactly where Paige is even when he's completely out of the loop. He might know the area well, but so do the entire team of SAR personnel. He's been in a cell for 22 years, give me a break. (hide spoiler)]
—Cole
