Ice Shear

Starred review from June 23, 2014
June Lyons, the narrator of Cooley’s excellent debut, left a once-promising career with the FBI to return to economically depressed Hopewell Falls, N.Y., to care for her dying husband, Kevin. She and her six-year-old daughter, Lucy, now live with June’s father, Gordon, the town’s retired police chief. June, who works the night shift as a member of the Hopewell Falls PD, decides to end her routine of driving home drunk after she finds the body of Danielle Brouillette impaled on a spike of ice in the frozen Mohawk River. The troubled daughter of a powerful congresswoman, Danielle had recently married Marty Jelickson, whose father is head enforcer of the Abominations motorcycle gang. June has few allies on the police force, which complicates the investigation, and matters aren’t made any easier when a former friend, FBI agent Hale Bascom, redeputizes her. A strong, fast-paced narrative and an intriguing heroine propel the believable twists in a plot involving politics, a burgeoning meth industry, and biker gangs. Agent: Lisa Gallagher, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates.

May 15, 2014

It's very, very cold in Hopewell Falls, NY, and when FBI agent-turned-cop Juniper (June) Lyons finds the body of a young woman, the daughter of a prominent vice-presidential hopeful, impaled on an ice shear, her days of routine and doughnut runs come to an abrupt halt. June had returned home to Hope Falls to care for her husband, Kevin, until his death from cancer, and in the almost three years since has found comfort in her young daughter, Lucy, and the day-to-day details of small-town police work. She hasn't lost her investigative touch, either, but when the FBI steps in, with an agent with whom she shares an uncomfortable past, she begins to suspect that the dead girl has more than casual ties with the meth trade and a notorious biker gang. It's an explosive situation, to say the least, but June is more than up to the challenge. VERDICT This is a solid, even surprising, debut that interweaves small-town secrets with big-time crime with only a few hitches. June Lyons has just enough grit and verve to roughen her vulnerable edges, keep her fellow cops on their toes, and please fans of suspense with strong, perceptive female leads. [Previewed in Kristi Chadwick's Mystery Spotlight feature, "Pushing Boundaries," LJ 4/15/14.--Ed.]--Kristin Centorcelli, Denton, TX

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