Ice Shear

In M.P. Cooley's thrilling debut suspense novel, widowed FBI agent June Lyons returns to her hometown in the rust belt of upstate New York to take a job with the local police department; when she discovers a body in the frozen river, the investigation unmasks a sordid maze of politics, drugs, and an outlaw motorcycle gang, and June finds that still waters run deep in this small town. <I>This winter hadn't been kind, and an ice shear formed where the ice from the falls repeatedly ripped open and reforming against the stagnant shelf, creating a line of spikes that rose like dragon's teeth out of the ice covered river. She lay on her back . . . </I> As a police officer in Hopewell Falls, New York, June spends night shifts driving drunks home and picking up donuts, feeling very far from her former career as an FBI agent. When her husband was diagnosed with cancer, she had no choice but to move home with her young daughter to live with her retired father. Manufacturing jobs left Hopewell Falls a long time ago, and the town is down on its luck, but the job as a small-town cop pays the bills and keeps June sane. When June discovers a young woman's body on the frozen Mohawk River-impaled on an ice shear-it soon becomes the biggest case that Hopewell Falls has ever seen: the dead girl is an influential Congresswoman's daughter whose rebellious youth was the subject of much local gossip. All hell breaks loose when FBI shows up, deputizing June to help as a liaison. Unfortunately, the FBI agent assigned to the case turns out to be someone from her past-someone she isn't sure she can trust. As June investigates, an already fraught case turns red-hot with the involvement of a notorious biker gang and a meth lab hidden in plain sight; and the girl's murder won't be the last. Suspenseful from beginning to end, with strong, relatable characters-especially women characters-and a sharply drawn setting, ICE SHEAR is an exciting debut and perfect for fans of upmarket crime fiction.