A review by crystalisreading
Cold Burn by Max Allan Collins
2.0
Reading this, I thought it must be the first one Collins wrote. It just had an awkward feel to it, especially all the parts involving Sara Sidle. I thought maybe the author was just getting the hang of writing out the series. Apparently I was incorrect. This is number three, which leaves Collins no excuse for the weird CSI meets Miss Marple mystery that took up half the book. Sara and Gil, off at a CSI conference--at a remote hotel in remote rural upstate New York, in blizzard season. Yes, that makes total sense. I'm sure event planners do that a lot. It's a perfect way to leave your characters stranded in the middle of nowhere with some local yokels and a few other professionals, when they arrive early, just beating a storm there. Because I'm sure event planners would not have checked the weather report. Or the travelers. Whatever. Full disclosure, I did not read that whole mystery. A few chapters in, I gave up. Knowing what we do about Sara Sidle now, about her unhappy home life and time as a foster child, she certainly doesn't fit the happy family and neat Harvard education described in this book. I don't know chronology of CSI character revelations, so it may not be the author's fault he was incorrect. but it was distracting.
So was the overuse of the word "smirk". Every author seems to have a fall back word or two, that gets very much overused. Collin's word is apparently smirk. Fine in some contexts, but it gets old after awhile, and eventually starts to feel like a drinking game.
I'm being mean and critical, and I'm not sure the other half of the book deserves that. The run of the mill CSI case in Vegas with a frozen dead female was interesting. I figured out who the killer was a chapter or two ahead of the reveal, so the foreshadowing wasn't very subtle, but that's OK. it made me feel smart. Aside from the overuse of variations on the word "smirk", it was a good sturdy generic forensic detective story, and I enjoyed it.
I'm definitely glad I read a different book in this series first. If I had read this one first, I probably wouldn't have read any more of them. As it is, based on half of this book and the other one that I read, I'll still give Collins a chance when I'm at a reading lull and need something undemanding but enjoyable.
(For full disclosure, I used this as a stop-gap, carry-in-my-purse book, reading it when I finished with another book and wasn't sure what to read next, or when I was stuck waiting somewhere without whatever other book I was reading at the time, etc. I don't think it had a bearing on my enjoyment of the book, but who knows? It did take some time to reorient myself occasionally and remember what was going on and who the peripheral characters were. If nothing else, it shows you how "riveting" this book was, if I was able to pick it up and put it down so easily, often with long stretches of time in between.)
So was the overuse of the word "smirk". Every author seems to have a fall back word or two, that gets very much overused. Collin's word is apparently smirk. Fine in some contexts, but it gets old after awhile, and eventually starts to feel like a drinking game.
I'm being mean and critical, and I'm not sure the other half of the book deserves that. The run of the mill CSI case in Vegas with a frozen dead female was interesting. I figured out who the killer was a chapter or two ahead of the reveal, so the foreshadowing wasn't very subtle, but that's OK. it made me feel smart. Aside from the overuse of variations on the word "smirk", it was a good sturdy generic forensic detective story, and I enjoyed it.
I'm definitely glad I read a different book in this series first. If I had read this one first, I probably wouldn't have read any more of them. As it is, based on half of this book and the other one that I read, I'll still give Collins a chance when I'm at a reading lull and need something undemanding but enjoyable.
(For full disclosure, I used this as a stop-gap, carry-in-my-purse book, reading it when I finished with another book and wasn't sure what to read next, or when I was stuck waiting somewhere without whatever other book I was reading at the time, etc. I don't think it had a bearing on my enjoyment of the book, but who knows? It did take some time to reorient myself occasionally and remember what was going on and who the peripheral characters were. If nothing else, it shows you how "riveting" this book was, if I was able to pick it up and put it down so easily, often with long stretches of time in between.)