Cold to the Touch: A Thriller

by Kerri Hakoda

Overview

American Predator meets Harlan Coben in this taut, ticking-clock thriller in which women are being kidnapped and murdered in the dead of an Alaskan winter.

When the body of a barista is found in the once-pristine Alaskan snow, Anchorage homicide detective DeHavilland Beans is gutted to recognize the young woman, Jolene. He’d bought coffee from her every morning and knew her as a bright college student working her way through school. Devastated by the murder and by the life cut short, Beans vows to find the killer.

Since scavengers damaged the body, obtaining any usable evidence is impossible, even with the assistance of wildlife expert Raisa Ingalls, Beans’s ex. When the body of another woman is found, a serial killer is suspected and the FBI joins the hunt.

After a third body turns up, Beans is desperate to find the killer—especially when another woman goes missing. With the murderer moving so quickly, Beans and his team are determined to stop the spree and catch the killer before it's too late.

Pulse-pounding and vividly depicted, this Alaskan thriller will electrify fans of Lisa Gardner and true crime junkies fascinated by the Israel Keyes case.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781639107759
Publisher:	CROOKED LANE BOOKS
Publication date:	04/09/2024
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	234,636
Product dimensions:	5.76(w) x 8.51(h) x 1.09(d)

About the Author

Kerri Hakoda was born in Hawaii, but calls the Pacific Northwest her home and Alaska her inspiration. She lives with her husband in northwest Washington, where she writes mystery, historical, and young adult science fiction.

Editorial Reviews

03/25/2024

A serial killer targets baristas in and around Anchorage, Alaska, in Hakoda’s immersive debut. When homicide detective DeHavilland Beans is called to the grisly scene where Jolene Nilsson’s corpse has been ravaged by predators, he feels “an eerie sense of abandonment”—Beans regularly bought coffee from Nilsson at the Snow Bunny café, where she worked as a scantily clad barista. With help from his ex, a wildlife expert he still harbors feelings for, and canny Oregon FBI agent Isabelle O’Reilly, Beans launches an investigation into Nilsson’s death. Over the next few weeks, more young baristas turn up dead, and Beans, the son of a Japanese mother and Irish Athabaskan father, identifies a pattern: like him, all of the victims are mixed-race. Though the familiar plot is hampered by a protracted climax that succumbs to hackneyed psycho-killer tropes, Hakoda’s skill for setting and character development save the day. Beans, in particular, is a memorable leading man, and Hakoda’s Alaska is a diverse, fascinating landscape readers will want to get lost in. This has series potential. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Cold to the Touch:
“[An] excellent, fast-paced police procedural . . . For fans of Harlan Coben or Lissa Marie Redmond.”
—Library Journal, starred review

“[An] immersive debut . . . A memorable leading man . . . [And] a diverse, fascinating landscape readers will want to get lost in.”
—Publishers Weekly

“A fast-paced, riveting story . . . Fans of police procedurals will want to pick up this one.”
—Lesa's Book Critiques

“Vivid descriptions, a complex and thoroughly human detective, and rapidly escalating suspense make Cold to the Touch a first-class thriller.”
—Pamela Beason, author of the Sam Westin Wilderness Mysteries

“With one diabolical murder after another, this startling depiction of Anchorage, Alaska’s highly diverse world of cops and bad guys keeps a reader waiting for the next shoe, or more to the point, the next body to drop.”
—Richard Chiappone, author of The Hunger of Crows

“Young women murdered. Bodies buried in the Alaska winter snow where animals eat their entrails. Who is the savage human beast doing this? And why? From the crime scene to the suspect interviews to Beans, a multi-racial detective with a lot on his mind, Cold to the Touch zings with the elements of the procedural detective story mixed with the unexpected complexities of family relationships. Hard hitting and plotted with high craft, Hakoda’s novel is a joy to read . . . and a fast one, too.” 
—Jack Remick, author of Blood and Man Alone; co-author of The Weekend Novelist Writes a Mystery

“Murder in the snow just outside Anchorage, Alaska. A frantic call to the cops—but the crime is nastier when the cop knows the victim—all that responsibility—all that remorse crashing down onto the shoulders of Detective DeHavilland Beans, Kerri Hakoda’s bi-racial sleuth, the hero of Cold to the Touch, who joins the ranks of intrepid crime-fighters—Holmes and Poirot, Marple and Marlowe, Spade and Warshawski—for a good fast police procedural, from an author who has a tight grip on her own prose.”
—Robert J. Ray, author of the Matt Murdock mystery series and The Weekend Novelist

From the Publisher

★ 02/01/2024

DEBUT Twelve days before Christmas when a body is found, ravaged by scavengers, Anchorage homicide detective DeHavilland Beans catches the case. He's stunned to recognize the victim, Jolene Nilsson, a barista at his favorite coffee shop. Beans and Jolene often talked about their childhoods growing up as multiracial children in small villages in the remote Alaskan Bush. Even before the coroner can gather details from the body, including the unusual murder weapon, another victim is found. She was another barista, but this time found on federal land, so the FBI sends in an agent. While the Anchorage police try to quash media rumors of a serial killer, Beans worries about a friend dependent on pills, another one caught up in the disappearance of a bookie, and his own sister, who just started a new job as a barista. The one thing the Anchorage police department doesn't have is time as they race to stop a murderer who targets young coffee-shop workers. VERDICT Alaska in the winter and a likable protagonist come to life in this excellent, fast-paced police procedural. Suggest for fans of Harlan Coben or Lissa Marie Redmond.—Lesa Holstine

Library Journal