REVIEW: COLD AS ICE, BY JULIE MULHERN

 

Ellison Russell’s life resembles a rollercoaster ride. And rollercoasters make her ill. Her daughter Grace has a crush on a boy Ellison doesn’t trust and she’s taken to hosting wild parties when Ellison goes out for the evening. Worse, the bank which represents Grace’s inheritance from her father may be in trouble.

When a meeting with the chef at the country club leads to the discovery of a body, Ellison can’t afford cold feet. She must save the bank, find the killer, and convince Grace (and herself) that powerful women don’t need men to rescue them.

My Thoughts: The pages turn rapidly in Cold as Ice, and, as always, I am swept up into Ellison’s world of 1974 Kansas City, Missouri. The Country Club set figures into this new mystery, just as the ones before, and we meet some characters who might not have been in previous books, but they are all connected somehow to Ellison and to her mother Frances Walford.

Ellison and her mother have their issues, but in the end, they have each other’s back…but sometimes glare at each other and make choices that conflict.

Grace, Ellison’s teen, is as snippy and eye-rolling as ever, but she does surprise occasionally by stepping in and helping out.

Anarchy Jones, the detective who always seems to appear at the right time, is even more drawn to Ellison in this outing…but as the pages turn, he is more and more frustrated with her inability to stay out of his latest investigation. She is determined to save the day herself and not depend on a man, and he is determined to be the one to solve the case and her problems.

What will happen when their goals clash? Will they go their separate ways? Will there be anything for the two of them afterwards?

I loved this book…and enjoyed Ellison’s quirks: chatting with her Mr. Coffee; mixing it up with all the suspects in the case; and taking risks that could change everything in her life. Definitely 5 stars for me.

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