I don't want to sound biased at all in this review but it may benefit you to know that Tess is my all time favourite author. In my head, she can do no wrong in her work. I will give my honest opinion of her latest novel. Gripping, brilliant and entertaining throughout. My only issue with this novel is that it ended. I wanted to carry on reading right through the back cover. Though this is usually the case when I read crime.

Ice cold is the latest release in Tess Gerritsen's Rizzoli & Isles Crime/Medical Thriller series. When Boston Medical examiner Maura Isles visits Wyoming for a medical conference, she makes a bad decision in deciding to join an old friend and his group on a ski trip. When the GPS gives bad directions and they find themselves lost, the worst happens. The car ends up in a ditch, the group have no cell phone signal and they are miles from the nearest populated area. After Maura discovers a sign-posted slip road, the group descend into the valley close by, leading them to Kingdom Come, unknown to them that they are heading toward the religious cult town of The Gathering. When they arrive, due to the heavy snow there is nobody left in the village. They believe everyone has left for the winter. Though shortly after their arrival, strange happenings and unusual circumstances suggest that nobody ever left Kingdom Come.

Jane Rizzoli, Boston homicide detective. After receiving the news of her friend Maura's disappearance, Jane, FBI agent and her husband Gabriel Dean and Maura's secret love interest Vicar Daniel Brothy all travel to Wyoming to embark on a missing persons case that will soon turn into much more, and probably one of the biggest cases they have ever tackled. Once they discover Maura had left with her friends and his group, they soon after discover his car, crashed off the side of a hill in a blazing inferno, with four bodies inside, all burnt beyond recognition. Was Maura Isles amongst these bodies? They believe so, until a clue suggests there were five amongst the group, and Maura could still be alive.

The first half of this novel actually scared me. I was finding myself checking outside the windows late at night, worrying about who might be out there. I must admit that I enjoyed the feeling of a novel making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Though towards the second half of the book, the fear drained and was replaced with the mystery of the case.  I went from fearing the unknown to making guesses at who did what. I was disappointed to see the loss of Tess' telltale suspense building toward the back end of the novel, but at the same time I was enjoying all the pieces falling in and out of place. Though I do still wonder of the possible outcome to Rizzoli's opening case, it never seemed to get mentioned outside of her opening chapter. Another mystery I suppose.

Overall the novel had me hooked from start to finish. For the eighth book in the series of these characters I was extremely impressed, Tess never seems to run out of ideas for them, and they show no sign of getting old. The extremes of how developed these characters have become is reflected in the TV listings. The upcoming Rizzoli & Isles series will be starting soon on TNT and I can see best selling author Tess Gerritsen selling even more in the future.

If you want a good read this summer, Ice Cold is at the top of my recommendation list. Tess Gerritsen will chill you to your very core.