Cold Snap

Bestseller Cameron’s exciting fourth novel featuring quick-thinking Deputy U.S. Marshal Arliss Cutter (after 2021’s Bone Rattle) takes Cutter once again from his home state of Florida to Alaska, where he and his colleague on the Alaska Fugitive Task Force, unflappable Deputy Lola Teariki, board a Russian freighter suspected of smuggling. The unusual cargo they uncover comes as a big surprise. In an overlapping case, the duo is informed that a woman’s foot has washed up on the shore, the apparent fifth victim of the Bootleggers Cove serial killer. Meanwhile, Cutter begins to question whether his older brother Ethan’s death two years earlier had been a murder and not, as had been presumed, an accident. Cameron piles on the complications in the thrilling finale, played out in a remote wilderness setting, with an icy storm on the horizon and a hungry 800-pound grizzly looking for his next meal. Well-developed characters complement the nonstop action. Cameron viscerally conveys Alaska’s austere beauty as well as its unexpected dangers. Agent: Robin Rue, Writers House. (Apr.)