The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James
Genre: Thriller with a paranormal thriller sub genre
Rating: 5 Stars
This book is everything I could ask for in a book: suspense, mystery, page turning thrill, unrequited love that broke my heart, and a sprinkle of slow burn romance that had me gasping out loud at the height of the burn.
The Book of Cold Cases is told through two narrators. The main narrator and the protagonist (look at me putting my English Lit minor to good use) of the book is Shea Collins. Shea has a complicated past that has her living a sheltered life. She can’t ride in a car, so she takes public transit everywhere. She goes to work and is home before dark, but given her careful way of life it’s interesting that she chooses to spend every night working away on her crime site The Book of Cold Cases. While she’s at work one day, she has a run in with the most infamous person of her small town Claire Lake, Beth Greer.
Beth Greer is a cold and calculated woman. Her family was considered the most wealthy families before tragedy struck. Her father Julian is killed in a freak home invasion when she’s 17 years old and two years later her mother dies in a car accident, leaving her all by herself in their weird family mansion. She’s also considered the lady killer who murdered two men in cold blood back in the 70s and despite being charged was acquitted of all charges at trial. The only evidence that they had was an eye witness who claimed to have seen Beth running from the scene of the second murder and the gun used matched that of the home invasion that killed her father.
For years Beth has refused to talk to anyone about the murders, but after a curious conversation with Shea, it seems that she’s ready to talk. It’s the interview of a lifetime for aspiring crime blogger Shea, who has no idea the ride she’s about to go on that might lead to solving the oldest crime in her small town.
Wow that was hard to write without spoiling anything. But let’s get onto my thoughts on the book shall we?
Shea was the best main character in this story. Her complicated past led to the best character growth from beginning to end was everything. I loved how we didn’t really know just how she got to where she was until the very end when she felt comfortable enough with Michael to tell him. It felt like she finally trusted the audience as well to know. I was pulling for Shea from page one, which is rare in a novel but I’m so happy that she only got better.
Now Beth, oh Beth. I have complicated feelings about Beth as a character. One on the hand, I felt so bad for her. She had been carrying around the truth about what happened with not only the Lady Killer murders but the home invasion and just her life in general that I wanted her to finally speak. But then on the other hand, she’s so cold and calculated that even her telling the “truth” felt like a game where I didn’t believe her. Even at the very end I still had doubts that she had really given Shea the true story. But ultimately Beth’s story ended the very way that she wanted it to which was frustrating beyond belief.
This book had so many twists and turns that had me turning the pages to see what would Beth put us through next. I have pages of actual notes of my theories of where it was going because just when I thought I had it figured out some other nugget of information would come out that would blow my theory out of the water. Simone St. James did a great job building the suspense until the final act.
If you happen to pick this book up and give it a go, let me know what you think in the comments below!
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