by Tami Hoag
First published 2016
Detective Nikki Liska transferred to cold cases to spend more time with her sons, but she misses the adrenaline of active investigations. Her former partner Sam Kovac struggles with a rookie partner while working a savage double murder. A husband and wife were butchered in their home with a Japanese samurai sword. Liska handles a twenty year old case involving a slain sex crimes detective whose killer vanished without a trace. Across the city, Evi Burke enjoys the stable family life she never had as a foster child. She has a loving home, meaningful work, and people who care about her. Burke doesn't realize that someone from her past is watching her carefully constructed world. This threat from her history will force Kovac and Liska back together as partners. The danger targeting Burke connects to both their cases in ways that could destroy everything she has built. The bitter Minneapolis winter becomes the backdrop for crimes that span decades, testing the bond between the veteran detectives and threatening to unravel the life Burke fought so hard to create.
Genres: mystery, crime, thriller, detective
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, emotional, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family, second-chance
Setting: Minneapolis
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
416 pages · Hardcover · Dutton
Content warnings: violence