Melanie (MELNELYNN) reviewed on 3/12/2009 + 669 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

When Secret Service agent Jo Harper is caught on tape ripping Charlie Neal, the teenage son of the Vice President of the United States, a new one, her career suddenly takes a nosedive. While the incident with Charlie was a prank gone wrong, it was a humiliation that Jo could have lived without. Now she's been exiled to twiddle her thumbs in the small town of Black Falls, Vermont, where she has recently inherited a piece of land until the public furor dies down.

Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you want to look at it, Jo's first love, military hero and general tough guy Elijah Cameron, is also back in town, and Jo has definitely recaptured his interest. Recently critically wounded in Afghanistan, Elijah has recovered physically, though his heart has never healed from the pain of losing Jo all those years ago. Jo and Elijah were in love as teenagers, but the opposition of their families drove them apart, and they both went their separate ways. Now they are back where it all began, and it's obvious to both of them that their old feelings have never died.

Unfortunately, there are still ghosts between Jo and Elijah keeping them apart. Elijah's dad, Drew, recently perished of hypothermia in a snowstorm on the mountain named for his family, Cameron Mountain. But Elijah is not buying it. Something doesn't sit right with him that the man who knew the mountain better than anyone would die in such a fashion. Drew had visited Jo in Washington, D.C. only a short time before his death but never divulged to her that he was leaving her the land connected to the Cameron property.

As if Jo doesn't have enough to deal with, a prominent ambassador is mowed down in a mysterious hit-and-run accident, and his stepdaughter, Nora Asher, who just happens to be in Black Falls, takes off on a solo sojourn up Cameron Mountain.

A local boy to whom Nora has become close, Devin Shay, follows Nora up the mountain in order to see to her safety. Before long, a serious snowstorm moves into the area and the kids require rescuing from the elements. Devin has already suffered enough trauma since he was the one who discovered the body of Elijah's dad, Drew, a man who had been like a father to him, yet his friendship with and concern for Nora drive him on.

The elements are not the only problem for these two teenagers, however. They have crossed paths with the assassins responsible for more than one death and are now in the crosshairs of killers. Elijah and Jo, aware of the danger the kids are in, set off up the mountain together in order to rescue them from the dual danger they've found themselves in. Will they be in time, or will the kids become just another casualty of those with nefarious intentions?

COLD PURSUIT is the perfect name for this riveting read. Author Carla Neggers's passages are so descriptive that one almost finds one's teeth chattering from fear and anticipation as well as from the cold. While the chemistry between Jo and Elijah was practically hot enough to melt the falling snow, the chill from the emotionless and guiltless killers' icy hearts is enough to cause frostbite to our very souls.

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