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The cast of characters in this thriller is played with gusto by Joe Barrett. A playground fight between two 8-year-olds mushrooms into a grudge match by the kids' parents and extended families. In one corner is an ex-cop and his army wife, who have come to north Minnesota so the wife can recover from depression. In the other is a family of no-good drug dealers, who will stop at nothing to get revenge. Barrett is at the top of his game as he shifts from ex-con to 8-year-old in a flash. He also seems to know when to lay back and let a character develop just as Logan intends. A.L.H. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

June 6, 2005
U.S. Army Maj. Nina Pryce and ex-undercover detective Phil Broker return from Logan's After the Rain
in this follow-up thriller. After Pryce endures a debilitating psychological and physical breakdown from a nasty tangle with a psychopath, the estranged spouses reunite. Eager for a fresh start, Broker, Pryce and plucky young daughter Karson ("Kit") move from St. Paul to bucolic, frosty Glacier Falls, Minn., home to howling wolves and an elementary school mixed in with "all the special-ed students in the county." When Kit gives playground bully Teddy—scion of the town's notoriously disruptive, methamphetamine-cooking Klumpe family—a black eye, a blood feud is ignited that accelerates with increasing menace. A slashed tire, a stolen cat and a housebreak all lead up to Broker being outed as a former cop—the very same cop who was involved in the death of Jojo, the son of Danny Turrie, Klumpe compadre and imprisoned murderer. Revenge plots boil as Turrie looks for a way to get at Broker—and his family. Logan is terrific on the particular ex-army, ex-cop tension between Pryce and Broker, and gives his bleak rural setting real menace. With a special low "summer price," Logan's latest should easily cool numerous beachgoers with icy thrills. 8-city author tour
.