The Man Burned by Winter

by Pete Zacharias

Overview

An investigative journalist on the edge. A serial killer testing his limits. What they have in common can freeze the blood.

Still reeling from a personal tragedy, investigative journalist Rooker Lindström finds a grim hideaway from the world. It’s the dilapidated cabin on Minnesota’s Deer Lake bequeathed to him by his late father—one of the most notorious serial killers in the state. If the walls of this murder house could talk, they’d scream.

Detective Tess Harlow needs something from Rooker only he can provide: a window into the mind of a murderer. A copycat is on the prowl, following in the footsteps of Rooker’s father. After reluctantly agreeing to take on the role of consultant, Rooker makes a chilling discovery. Every victim—five and counting—is a depraved taunt meant only for him. Rooker is not just tracking a killer playing sick games. In this brutal Minnesota winter, Rooker is confronting his past.

Maybe working with Tess is Rooker’s last chance at redemption. But to outrun his father’s legacy, he must follow a darker path still to come.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781542039659
Publisher:	Amazon Publishing
Publication date:	06/01/2022
Series:	Rooker Lindström Thriller , #1
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Pete Zacharias received a BA in English with a concentration in creative writing. He is a lover of Nordic noir, dark thrillers, and anything spy, and credits Michael Connelly’s The Poet as the novel that inspired him to become a writer. The Man Burned by Winter is Pete’s first novel.

Editorial Reviews

An author to watch.” —Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

2022-03-16
A debut that introduces a bleak Minnesota landscape, a tormented investigator, and more murders than you can count on your fingers and toes.

Rooker Lindström has always had an unhealthily close relationship to mortality. His father, Gunner, was a notorious serial killer who abducted and beheaded at least 14 young women before he was caught and died in prison. His son, Britton, was killed and mutilated in turn by Tate Meachum, the Madman, whom Rooker helped track down when he was a crime reporter in California. Now returned to his childhood home to get away from it all, he’s drawn a little out of his shell by his neighbor Evelyn Holmberg during a night of carnal pleasure and by Detective Tess Harlow, of the Itasca County Sheriff’s Department, who wants his unofficial help in identifying an apparent copycat who’s honoring Gunner Lindström’s example by claiming another four victims—no, make that five and counting. Small wonder that Rooker’s convinced that “the past is coming back to haunt me.” The relationship between the two sleuths is ruled by mutual suspicion, and several other members of Tess’ team are vocally unhappy with Rooker’s participation since they still suspect him of complicity in either that first round of homicides or the present reprise. Zacharias ladles on the hero’s isolation and angst and the icy rage of the killers, one of whose point of view he repeatedly adopts, but mercifully spares the flashbacks that might have turned his first outing into torture porn. As early as the title page, it’s clear that a series is planned.

An author to watch—for those who can bear to watch this sort of thing.

Kirkus Reviews