Winter cold

I’m not very enthusiastic about the winter. I don’t like the cold, I don’t like the snow (except when I can stay at home and watch it from indoors), I don’t like the wind, and I definitely don’t like the darkness.

Tess Gerritsen (what a very Dutch name) writes about Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles. Also known from the television series ‘Rizzoli and Isles’, where Angie Harmon plays Jane and Sasha Alexander plays Maura. I was familiar with television series, but not with the books. And that is the great thing about the Book Festival. It gives you the opportunity to try out new authors for not too much money. I bought The killing place, just to give it a try.

The killing place – also known as Ice cold – takes place in Wyoming, during winter. It is cold. Maura is on a conference when she meets an old study friend. Out of a whim she decides to join him and his daughter along with two friends to go skiing not far away.

Of course you know things will go wrong. As they follow the instructions of their sat nav during a snow 

storm, they crash. As it is impossible to get the car out of the ditch, they decided to walk to what seems the nearest village. This village – Kingdom come – however is abandoned. Food is left on the tables to rot, loving pets lie dead. As one of their attempts to leave the village fails and one of them gets seriously injured, it all goes from wrong to worse. It is obviously clear something is not right in the village. One of them tries to go for help. After several days Maura sees no other option than to give it a try. As she reaches their stranded car, she gets knocked in the head and abducted.

Jane – in the main time – first neglects the worries of Daniel, Maura’s priest friend. As Maura does not fly home, she finally gets concerned. The police in Wyoming however isn’t very impressed. The story then enfolds in twofold: besides the search for Maura by Jane, the story also tells what happens to Maura.

The story actually has a deeper layer: what people will do to others to get what they want. In this case it is the Prophet, Jeremiah Goode. He will get you to heaven. In the mean time you shun your adolescent son and your daughter is abused. But hey, heaven awaits, just turn a blind eye.

This is what happened to the young man – nicknamed Rat – who abducted Maura. Later you find out he only abducted her to help her. Prophet Goode can only run his affairs with paid assistance from the local police and justice department. A local policeman was looking for Maura. His only intentions were to kill her as she was an unwanted witness.

In the end it turns everybody at Kingdom Come is indeed dead, but that Goode wasn’t responsible. A company dumped chemical weapons in the valley. The containers rusted and released their deadly gas. That is what killed everyone in Kingdom Come. That is why so many measures were taking to cover things up. Greed. Greed for money, greed for young girls. The lesser things a human can do.

Of course it all turns out alright, even for Rat.

Is this a good book? Yes, it made me forget about time. I wanted to finish the book. It definitely tastes for more.