Road Trip Reads Giveaway (Missouri): Cold Pursuit by Nancy Mehl

today’s book: Cold Pursuit by Nancy Mehl

We are moving right along on our summer-long Road Trip Reads Giveaway where we will be visiting all 50 states on the pages of recently released books. Because road trips are always better with friends – and books – right? So grab your fave snacks, a cold soda or bottled water, an upbeat playlist and let’s head toward the middle of the US!

today’s stop: Missouri

COLD PURSUIT by Nancy Mehl
SERIES: Ryland & St. Clair #1
GENRE: Suspense (Christian)
PUBLISHER: Bethany House
RELEASE DATE: July 11, 2023
PAGES: 328

“Guaranteed to captivate with plot twists you won’t see coming.”–Tosca Lee, New York Times bestselling author

“This story is sure to leave you breathless from the thrill of the ride. Hold on tight, it’s about to get exhilarating!”–Lynette Eason, bestselling and award-winning author of the Extreme Measures series

“Cold Pursuit sucked me in from the first riveting page and pulled me deeper into an intricate, danger-filled plot.”–Elizabeth Goddard, bestselling author of Cold Light of Day

Ex-FBI profiler River Ryland still suffers from PTSD after a case went horribly wrong. Needing a fresh start, she moves to St. Louis to be near her ailing mother and opens a private investigation firm with her friend and former FBI partner, Tony St. Clair. They’re soon approached by a grieving mother who wants them to find out what happened to her teenaged son, who disappeared four years ago. River knows there’s almost no hope the boy is still alive, but his mother needs closure, and River and Tony need a case, no matter how cold it might be.

But as they follow the boy’s trail, which gets more complicated at every turn, they find themselves in the path of a murderer determined to punish anyone who gets in his way. As River and Tony race to stop him before he kills again, an even more dangerous threat emerges, stirring up the past that haunts River and plotting an end to her future.

Whenever I start a new Nancy Mehl suspense, I know there will come a moment when I’m absolutely gobsmacked by a twist I didn’t see coming. And even when I try to figure out the twist ahead of time (because I know it’s waiting for me), I rarely can. I’m still gobsmacked when it shows up even when I’m bracing myself for it. I don’t know how she does it so consistently but it’s always one of my very favorite parts of her stories, and that proved true for Cold Pursuit as well.

River Ryland and Tony St. Clair are former profilers with the FBI who left after a very traumatic experience that happened as they tracked a serial killer. Now they are partners in a private detective agency in a small St. Louis suburb while River cares for her mother who was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. There’s a lot of family dynamics involved in River’s story, and I appreciated the emotional layers we unpacked in Cold Pursuit.  I am also looking forward to further development of the existing layers – as well as exploring new ones – related to River’s family in the next books. River & Tony’s relationship is promising for romance potential as the series progresses, but right now they are just best friends and partners with the faintest stirrings of more. I suspect that Tony’s feelings have been leaning that direction a bit ahead of River’s, and I can’t wait to see who initiates any changes in their relationship status in later books.

BUT, first and foremost Cold Pursuit is a suspense novel that will have you on the edge of your seat as various threads intersect and separate and tangle together. River and Tony’s honed skills in behavior analysis serve them well in many ways in their new gig as private detectives, but their investigation into a missing son whose mother desperately wants closure stretches requires a different skill set as well. I enjoyed watching their sharp minds, intuition, and friendship work together on this case that takes them in directions they never imagined going, not to mention the twists that threw them – and me – for a loop. There’s an overarching plot thread that I suspect will carry across the series, and I can already tell that it will keep my heart in my throat until it’s resolved. I’m still shivering a bit when I think of a couple of scenes/revelations in this book!

Bottom Line: Riveting suspense. Unique characters. Layered relational dynamics. Realistic explorations of faith issues. A hint of romance. And those stunning twists. These are all trademarks of a Nancy Mehl novel and, in particular, of Cold Pursuit. You will find yourself unable to put down this story until you’ve reached the end and then you’ll inevitably start stalking the internet for word of book two. I look forward to watching Ryland & St. Clair’s relationship develop in future stories and also watching how the author resolves the series arc that had me on the edge of my seat throughout Cold Pursuit. Is it 2024 yet?!? Pick up Cold Pursuit by Nancy Mehl if you’re in the mood for an intriguing read that’s part psychological thriller and part cold case mystery with romance potential and a sweet message of faith.

(I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book which I received from the publisher. All views expressed are only my honest opinion.)

My Rating: 4 stars / loved it!

affiliate links used

Nancy Mehl (nancymehl.com) is the author of more than fifty books, a Parable bestseller, and the winner of an ACFW Book of the Year Award, a Carol Award, and the Daphne du Maurier Award. She has also been a finalist for two Carol Awards and the Christy Award. Nancy writes from her home in Missouri, where she lives with her husband, Norman, and their puggle, Watson.

Bethany House is offering a print copy of Cold Pursuit by Nancy Mehl to one of my readers! (US only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.) This giveaway is subject to Reading Is My SuperPower’s giveaway policies which can be found here. Enter via the Rafflecopter form below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

What about you? What makes you want to read Cold Pursuit by Nancy Mehl? Have you ever visited Missouri?