Ice Shear

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. (Aug.)