Title: Cold as Hell
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Published: February 18, 2025
Format: e-ARC
My Rating: 5 stars/5
Synopsis: Haven’s Rock is a sanctuary town hidden deep in the Yukon for those who need to disappear from the regular world. Detective Casey Duncan and her husband, Sheriff Eric Dalton, are starting a family now that they’ve settled into their life here. As Casey nears the end of her pregnancy, she lets nothing, including her worried husband, stop her from investigating what happens in the forbidden forest outside the town of Haven’s Rock.
When one of the town’s residents is drugged and wanders too close to the edge of town, she’s dragged into the woods kicking and screaming. She’s saved in the nick of time, but the women of the town are alarmed. Casey and Eric investigate the assault just as a snowstorm hits Haven’s Rock, covering the forest. It’s there they find a frozen body, naked in the snow. With mixed accounts of the woman’s last movements, the two begin to question who they can trust—and who they can’t—in their seemingly safe haven.
My thoughts from the Vault
Disclaimer: I received an e-ARC of this book. I chose to review it and this in no way impacts my opinion of it.
This novel is book 3 in the Haven’s Rock series which is a spin-off series of the Rockton series by Kelley Armstrong. While it is not entirely necessary to read the Rockton series first, it is recommended as the Haven’s Rock series will refer back to things from the original series.
The novel opens up with one of the towns residents being drugged and dragged into the woods. While kicking and screaming, she draws the attention of a passing resident who comes to her rescue. When another resident goes missing during a storm, Casey and Eric begin the hunt to find her and the person who is intent on harming women, in their secret town.
As is usual for a Kelley Armstrong novel, this book wastes no time in getting to the action. I was hooked from the very first sentence and could barely put the book down. I have been a huge fan of Casey and Eric since the very first novel in the Rockton series came out as a weekly serial online.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about the accidental baby trope being played in the second book in the series, Murder at Haven’s Rock but the nearing arrival of the baby was well down in this novel and I am excited to see how Casey and Eric will deal with the newest addition to their secret town.
I found this novel to have the perfect amount of suspense and thrills I’ve come to love in both the Rockton and Haven’s Rock series. I will forever be highly recommending these series to all my thrill loving friends.
Alice's Book Vault 