Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group

ISBN: 9780440000211

A true crime blogger battles her own traumatic past as she gets the chance to interview a mysterious heiress accused of murder. As the blogger spends time with the possible suspect, she pieces together a case that has stumped police for 40 years. Author Simone St. James excels in this quiet thriller that balances a character’s personal crisis with her professional goals in The Book of Cold Cases.

In Claire Lake, Oregon, Shea Collins works as a receptionist at a doctor’s office in her idyllic hometown. Idyllic for the tourists, that is. Shea knows firsthand that her town is capable of horrors beyond belief; she lived through one herself when, at the age of 9, a man tried to abduct and molest her. Shea managed to get away before he hurt her, but she’s dealt with the post-traumatic stress of that incident ever since.

She doesn’t drive at all, and she doesn’t leave her condo except for work and necessities. In a weird sort of way, though, her personal connection to a terrible crime has fueled her long-standing interest in true-crime stories. Shea runs a website called The Book of Cold Cases where she examines famous unsolved murders and offers her own analysis on them.

One of the cases that has taken up a fair amount of space on the blog is the case of the Lady Killer, and Shea doesn’t have to go very far to get the basics on it. Local wealthy resident Beth Greer was arrested for the murder of two men in the 1970s. Although a jury acquitted her of both, Beth has spent the 40 years since living by herself in the ugly mansion on one side of town. She has no friends and no family. For all anyone could know, Beth is a ghost.

The day Beth walks into the office where Shea works, though, changes everything. Shea manages to work up the courage to ask Beth if she could interview her for the blog. To her immense surprise, Beth says yes. Before she knows it, Shea begins to get insider information to the case of the Lady Killer.

Beth is well aware of what people think of her and say about her, even all these years later, and she just doesn’t care. People will do and say whatever they want; she learned that a long time ago when, as an only child, she had to deal with two parents who barely registered that she lived in the same home as them. After her father’s murder and her mother’s death in a car accident not long after, Beth is left alone. In all honesty, she almost prefers it that way.

As Shea gets to know Beth, she figures out fast enough that Beth isn’t telling her the whole story. Is Beth the Lady Killer of Claire Lake? Shea doesn’t know, but she does know that weird things happen at the Greer mansion. If she doesn’t get to the bottom of it all, it’s possible no one ever will.

Author Simone St. James builds her story one quiet chapter at a time. She alternates every chapter or two between Shea in the present day and Beth in the past. Readers get to unpeel the case with Shea in real time, a satisfying experience that is true to the genre.

Despite the compelling mystery of the Lady Killer, however, and spending time with Beth as a POV character, readers may feel like St. James is keeping them at arm’s length from Beth. It’s as if Beth’s life full of trauma and abuse is so difficult that giving Shea limited access to it is as much as Beth can bear. The device works for a while, but later in the book readers may find themselves wishing they could get emotionally closer to Beth.

The book stands out in that once the big plot twist occurs, St. James doesn’t wrap everything up right away. The novel continues to mine the twist for how it relates back to Beth, Shea, and Claire Lake as a whole. The Oregon coastal town also stands out as its own character, setting the mood for a dark, damp location for the murders.

Those looking for a quiet mystery that builds bit by bit will enjoy this one. I recommend readers Bookmark The Book of Cold Cases.