The weather has been hot in Central Pennsylvania. It has been too uncomfortable to do much of anything except read…at least that is my excuse and I am sticking with it. I want authors who can keep me completely engrossed and Kate Wilhelm fits the requirements perfectly.
COLD CASE picks up the characters twenty-two years after the death of a young college girl. Two fellow students had been suspects at the time, but the case had never been solved. Robert is now an ambitious state senator and David, a successful author. The old case becomes news again when the senator is found shoot to death. Once again David is a suspect in a murder case, only this time he is the only one.
After I started COLD CASE I discovered that it is part of a series. My bad. This book is several books into a series featuring attorney Barbara Holloway. It took me several chapters to identify the people who were regulars around her and not connected to the mystery. Once the characters were clear to me, the story moved well.
The other Wilhelm book that I relaxed with was THE PRICE OF SILENCE. Todd Fielding has moved to the small town of Brindle to work for the newspaper. She is getting accustomed to living with the boredom of the rural community when a local girl disappears. Todd is shocked by the complete indifference of the town to the disappearance. Not even the police seem to care; they all assume that the girl has run away.
As Todd looks more closely into the story, she learns that over the past twenty years five girls have “run away”. What she finds is evidence of a series of brutal, cold-blooded murders. In true, good murder mystery style, Todd finds that she may be the next victim.
My first Kate Wilhelm book was When Late the Sweet Birds Sang, an excellent example of how fantastic science fiction novels can be. She seemed to have dropped off my radar and I had not noticed anything by her for years. I am so glad that I have found her again. Her characters are well done and her plots are full of suspense and twists. She is going to be a regular on my reading list.
No comments:
Post a Comment