Now, Ewers's wife comes to Cecil desperate to find her husband, who has disappeared with a $50,000 advance from a tabloid for the rights to his story. Cecil is reluctant to revisit this unsolved case, but some persistence on Patricia's part has him looking for clues as to where Ewers might have disappeared to and why. Little does he realize that his search will be taking him close to the truth about the murders and fire and to the people who were involved, and who are not at all interested in having Cecil looking back at that night nor the events surrounding it.

Cold Water Burning is a well-paced private eye novel that reflects the atmosphere of the small Alaskan town where it is set. A brewing coastal storm adds to the tension in the final confrontation of the past and present, and the time building up to it. Cecil Younger is a likable PI, appropriately brooding and quick thinking, yet with a certain amount of tenderness. The other characters are intriguing, especially police trooper George Doggy, who investigated the murders three years ago and for whom Cecil has been doing some fall chores.

Cecil's investigation leads him to places he never expected to be and provides many twists he never sees coming. As hard as reopening a past case might be, Cecil handles it and all its consequences in traditional PI style, yet with understanding as he see things as a new father. Readers meeting Cecil for the first time will be eager to seek out earlier novels as they await his next case.

--Jennifer Monahan Winberry