A Cold Day in Hell

January 1, 2018
Buffalo, N.Y., cold case detective Lauren Riley, the heroine of Redmond’s promising first novel and series launch, is also a licensed PI. It’s in that latter capacity that lawyer Frank Violanti, with whom Lauren has tangled in court, hires her. His 18-year-old godson, David Spencer, has been charged with the second-degree murder of Katherine Vine, a customer at the store where he worked. He claims she lured him into her car one night and was still alive when he left her after an hour of wild sex. Lauren is dismayed to learn that the lead detective in the case is her ex-fiancé, the abusive Joe Wheeler, who, after discovering she’s working for Frank, punches her in the face. In contrast, Lauren’s married ex-husband, Mark Hathaway, with whom she’s having an affair, is glad to provide information about the victim and her husband, whom he knows socially. Redmond, a recently retired Buffalo PD homicide detective, keeps everything moving nicely in this well-constructed crime novel, marred only by the cartoonish Joe.