Gone Cold

Simon Fisk’s tragic back story propels Corleone’s uneven third thriller featuring the Washington, D.C., PI who specializes in cases involving parents who abduct their own children (after 2014’s Payoff). Flashbacks to 12 years earlier detail the events surrounding the kidnapping of Simon’s six-year-old daughter, Hailey, from the backyard of their Georgetown house. After the passage of so much time, Simon is stunned to get word from a friend that a woman wanted for murder in Ireland may be Hailey. Corleone lets the reader know early on that Simon’s wife (and Hailey’s mother), Tasha, killed herself out of guilt after the kidnapping, so that by the time the flashbacks reach her suicide, it comes across as anticlimactic. Just before he flies to Ireland, Simon learns that his estranged sister, Tuesday, who’s the ex-wife of an Interpol agent, is involved in the murder investigation. Such a contrivance does nothing to enhance the emotional impact of the most important case of Simon’s career. Agent: Robin Rue, Writers House. (Aug.)