Each month, I will feature a book I have read that contributes to the thriller genre or lends insight to a topic area I am writing about. This month, in my inaugural posting, I am pleased to feature “A Cold, Dark Place” by Toni Anderson. 
Imagine having an identical twin sister. She’s your playmate, your best friend, you share a connection deeper than most people understand. Now, imagine that twin is stolen from the safe haven of your bedroom in the dark of night when you are still a child. You would be haunted by her loss, driven to find her, tormented by thoughts of what might have been done to her. Welcome to the adult life of Mallory Rooney, the twin who was left behind.
This is the compelling premise of “A Cold Dark Place,” Toni Anderson’s first novel in her new “Cold Justice” series. Mallory Rooney has had to grow up in living in the tragic shadow of her sister’s abduction. Yet her powerful parents and a life of wealth and privilege cannot bring back her sister, Payton, nor change what happened. Nothing eases the guilt of being the sister who remained. So FBI Special Agent Mallory Rooney dedicates herself to finding the truth about that night. Every perp, every case, is one more opportunity to find Payton, or at least protect another young girl from disappearing.
The story opens with the abduction of a young woman, and we, the readers, are taken along with her, experiencing her desperation and terror as our own as she tries to fight off her abductor, just as we would. Set against the stark barrenness of West Virginia at the onset of winter, the story takes us inside the mind of a serial killer, ties us to his victims to be dragged along with them in his twisted journey. Toni’s evocative description and taut writing style drag us from the security of our world and into the cold, dark one she has created.
Enter Alex Parker, former soldier, ex-CIA, and a trained assassin with a conscience. His current project just happens to intersect directly with Mallory’s case. Only, unlike Mallory, Alex wants out of his career and is counting the days until he is done. Pulled from the hell of a Moroccan prison, he’s been given one choice: serve his country as a hired killer. He works off-book for The Gateway Project, a shadowy organization designed with one purpose: hunt down and eliminate those beyond redemption, serial killers, pedophiles, serial rapists. Alex has a licence to kill so long as he doesn’t get caught. If he does, he goes back to prison, only this time on American soil where he could face the death penalty for following orders.
The stakes are high, and so are the risks. Like when Alex and Mallory just miss each other after he puts a bullet in the head of the serial killer she and her fellow agents are tracking. When our intuitive rookie FBI agent figures out quickly that a vigilante is working the same cases as the FBI, the game is on for Alex.
Sensitive, intelligent, and dangerously haunted by the demons of his past, Alex Parker is sexy as hell, and irresistible as an unlikely hero. The last thing he needs is a romantic entanglement with anyone, least of all Mallory Rooney. Alex knows he is playing with fire, but his attraction to Mallory grows deeper as he watches over her, finding in her something he thought was lost to him. And yet, he is exactly who she needs, exactly when she needs him. Alex doesn’t just rescue her from the bad guys; he rescues her from herself, unleashing a torrent of passion that neither of them expects. But how will he rescue her from the truth he hides about himself?
Toni Anderson has crafted what may be her best thriller yet. The deeply sensuous relationship forged between these two lost souls intensifies Mallory’s search to find the truth, and Alex’s quest for redemption. Rich in procedural detail, populated by characters complex and diverse, this fast-moving, intricately laid out series of twists and turns keeps us guessing in heart-pounding suspense right up to the end.
Published: April 1, 2014. Available on Amazon
Issues and Intersections 