Tuesday, October 2, 2007

A Cold Day in Hell-Stella Cameron

A Cold Day in Hell
Stella Cameron
Mira, Nov 2007, $6.99
ISBN: 9780778324959

When her son Aaron is shot on the bayou just outside Point Judah, Louisiana, Eileen Moggeridge rushes to the hospital. Accompanying her is her friend Christian "Angel" DeAngelo, whose nephew Sonny was with Aaron. Angel, a former CIA and ATF agent, wonders if Sonny was the intended target as the teen has been hidden by the Feds under the witness protection program.

Back in Point Judah to Eileen's disgust is her abusive former husband, Chuck, who insists he wants to make amends with his wife and former a father-son relationship with his child. Eileen does not trust Chuck as he was always a bully towards her and uncaring about having a son who he had nothing to with before. She even wonders if he was the sniper who shot Aaron; besides which she prefers Angel even as more incidents happen to her.

This is a strange entertaining romantic suspense thriller starring a horde of eccentric characters; none more odd than the “root doctor”. The mystery is cleverly designed, but Stella Cameron used voodoo so that the villain is in plain sight yet not easy to identify. Although too many sidebars add unneeded mumbo jumbo, sub-genre readers will enjoy spending A COLD DAY IN HELL out on the bayou.

Harriet Klausner

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