Ice Shear: A Novel

		Ice Shear: A Novel by M.P. Cooley Edition: Hardcover Price: $19.25
4.5 Stars Nothing is Really Perfect, But This Book is Close!, June 20, 2014 This review is from: Ice Shear: A Novel (Hardcover) Book Description Publication Date: July 22, 2014 A small town cop’s murder investigation turns deadly when she uncovers a web of politics and drugs linked to an outlaw motorcycle gang in this gripping debut suspense novel for fans of Winter’s Bone, Frozen River, Breaking Bad, and Sons of Anarchy. As a cop on the night shift in Hopewell Falls, New York, June Lyons drives drunks home and picks up the donuts. A former FBI agent, she ditched the Bureau when her husband died, and now she and her young daughter are back in upstate New York, living with her father, the town’s retired chief of police. When June discovers a young woman’s body impaled on an ice shear in the frozen Mohawk River, news of the murder spreads fast; the dead girl was the daughter of a powerful local Congresswoman, and her troubled youth kept the gossips busy. Though June was born and raised in Hopewell Falls, the local police see her as an interloper—resentment that explodes in anger when the FBI arrive and deputize her to work on the murder investigation. But June may not find allies among the Feds. The agent heading the case is someone from her past—someone she isn’t sure she can trust. As June digs deeper, an already fraught case turns red-hot when it leads to a notorious biker gang and a meth lab hidden in plain sight—and an unmistakable sign that the river murder won’t be the last. I have to say that this book totally surprised me. I never thought I would like it as much as I did. I love mysteries and although this was a rather complex plot, eventually hard-core mystery lovers will most likely figure out who-dun-it before the end. This is not a bad thing since you still need to know why they done it! June (Juniper) Lyons is an ex-FBI agent who quit the Feds and came back home with her husband and daughter to Hopewell Falls New York while her husband succumbs to cancer. She is now working as a regular cop in this rather impoverished corner of New York. Nothing much ever happens, until one early morning a body is found. This was never going to be a simple case considering that the dead girl is a Congresswoman's daughter who is married to the towns' very bad boy. Eventually we start getting a very clear picture of just how bad so many of the people involved with this young woman are. And we soon find out what lengths people will go to cover up just how bad things are going to get. As far as this being a debut, you would never know it from this book. This is a gripping story that was well thought out and plotted. The characters are very `real' and while you may not like very many of them (I did not). Some areas of this book could have used a little more explanation, some of the characters didn't ring quite true and some things just did not add up for me but never enough to pull me out of the fascination I had with the whole story. I am hoping that this is the start to a series and that some of the issues that I had, will be explained and the characters I had problems with will be more fleshed out. This is a great debut and the perfect read when the thermometer climbs over 90% this summer!