More Simone St. James! “The Book of Cold Cases” leaves inter-war England behind for a contemporary Oregon coast setting, but it certainly doesn’t abandon the gloomy Gothic vibes.
Shea Collins is a medical office receptionist by day and a true crime blogger by night. As a child, Shea was abducted but escaped, and her abductor went on to murder another girl before he was caught, which has saddled Shea with inexpressible guilt which fuels her interest in true crime. A chance encounter with Beth Greer, a wealthy and reclusive woman who was herself accused and acquitted of being a serial killer forty years ago, causes Shea to become entangled in a deadly who-dunnit.
Like “An Inquiry Into Love and Death” and “The Haunting of Maddy Clare,” “The Book of Cold Cases” is a ghost story, but some of the ghosts are alive. It’s tense and frightening, and more than a little poignant, with characters who are bristly and challenging.
