Dave is married to Susan, who runs her own chocolate shop and is the acting guardian to her fourteen year old, adopted sister Lisa. Lisa attends a prestigious music school, and has a classic artistic temperament. She’s also been making noises about finding her birth parents. Susan feels that now is the time, so she tells Lisa her Big Secret – the secret the family has been keeping from Lisa her whole life.

Lisa reacts like a fourteen-year-old girl, and runs out into the night – where she disappears. Frantic with worry, Dave and Susan know that no matter how upset Lisa was, she wouldn’t run away. Then Becky Rothka’s mother receives another phone call, and Dave knows that Lisa is in grave danger.

Pepper writes suspense novels for readers who normally wouldn’t read them. That is to say, while her suspense threads are compelling, it’s not what truly drives the story. While One Cold Night unfolds over the course of one very long day, it’s a long day complete with plenty of opportunities for the author to explore her characters. How much can you truly learn about a person in 24 hours? Well the reader learns an awful lot here.

Susan and Dave have a good marriage, but the Big Secret changes all of that. Blessedly, Susan tells Dave fairly quickly about her argument with Lisa, and what caused the girl to go running out of their apartment. Lisa, Susan and Dave all react to this news believably – with the requisite shock, dismay, and hurt that follows the truth finally being told.

There are several secondary characters here, most of them police officers assigned to Lisa’s case. Lupe Ramos is the most notable and intriguing – a young, single mother who plays a part in order to be taken seriously by her colleagues, and to get the job done. All of these characters crash into each other, bouncing off, providing a larger picture for the reader and fleshing out the story.

The suspense angle is pretty good, although at times it smells of convenience. Given the short time frame of the story, the characters seem to make an awful lot of assumptions – most of which turn out to be correct. Also, while the internal musings help flesh out the characters – Lisa’s voice has a tendency to ring much older than fourteen years. Sure she’s a little diva in training – but to be that wise beyond her years?

All in all, this is an interesting and engaging story. The suspense thread isn’t a potboiler, but it does serve to cook up some very interesting character studies. Finding Lisa is what drives the plot, but it is how the characters react and play off of each other that make One Cold Night a page turning read.

--Wendy Crutcher