COLD CASE

Author: Kate Wilhelm ISBN: 0778325288 8/2008 SUSPENSE Publisher: MIRA

With no strong evidence, attorney Barbara Holloway's legal instincts are all she has. If they can't lead her to the truth, her client will die. But if she succeeds, her own life will be on the line. Controversial author and scholar David Etheridge is not the kind of company an aspiring politician wants to keep. But ambitious state senator Robert McCrutchen has a history with Etheridge—a history he's desperately trying to keep under wraps. Twenty-two years ago, while attending the University of Oregon, both men were investigated in the death of a young coed, but the case was never solved. A circle of secrecy guaranteed it. But the old stories resurface when Etheridge returns to Eugene, Oregon. Tied to their past, McCutchen is his grudging host—until the senator is found shot dead. Now Etheridge is back where he was more than two decades ago—suspected of murder. Only this time, with the cold case reopened, he's facing a double charge. And Etheridge might not be so lucky again. Barbara must battle the prosecution and the court of public opinion, which has already tried and convicted Etheridge for both murders. As the pressure mounts, Barbara ties the past and present together, risking her own life to protect a client and preserve justice.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

COLD CASE by Kate Wilhelm is one of those brilliantly crafted suspense novels that keeps the reader guessing right up until the very end. Solving the mystery becomes a game of wits, not just between the characters in the story, but with the reader as well. I have to admit that I didn't solve this one. At the end it all made sense, but as far as figuring it out? Nope, I couldn't do it. Kate Wilhelm outfoxed me—and I loved it!

The characters are introduced, just ever-so-slightly, at a party given years before the events in the main part of this story take place. There is a party where two young girls overhear what turns out to be vital information in not only one, but a number, of crimes. There are hard feelings, allegations and the rest of the spectacle that surrounds a murder, but in the end, both male suspects are released and a pretty college student's death is unsolved. Many years later, with all the participants grown and caught up in their lives, they come together again. And there's another murder. Only this time, it's not a young woman who's dead but one of the remaining sides of this dubious love triangle. Will the man who got away decades earlier be convicted of this new murder? If he is, he'll lose his own life. Only attorney Barbara Holloway, whose involvement in the case puts her own safety in jeopardy, can unravel what has become an incredibly tangled web.

I loved this story because, as I said, it was complicated enough that it wasn't easy to figure out. The kind of plot weaving skill it takes to create a mystery as layered and intricate as this one is, is to be commended. And since I didn't know which of these characters was the murderer, I was on edge from start to finish. I expected the unexpected, and that's exactly what I got at the end! Very well done.

I will be looking for more from this author. In the meantime, I'm going to search out her backlist. COLD CASE has made a Kate Wilhelm fan of this reader!

Kay James