Black Ice opens with Fog Points’ local busybody Lenore Featherjohn’s discovery of a young girl frozen outside her bed and breakfast entrance. Fearing her sons involvement in the murder of this unknown girl, Lenore moves the body, and positions the girl’s hands together as if in prayer. Lenore’s decision to alter the body’s location and position the hands fuels the local gossip and draws media attention, as they ask, are the folded hands a sign that she is an angel? Does she have mysterious healing powers? Who is she? Who killed her and why?
Thus begins a mystery that involves a cast of thoroughly developed Fog Point characters that includes the resident minister, his wife, and his adopted daughter, along with the local PI team of Jake Rikker and May Williams. But Hall doesn’t stop with the locals, as she delves into the girl’s past and through varied points of view she brings us characters who unravel the far reaching mystery.
A fan of Linda Hall’s writing for years, it wasn’t difficult for me to thoroughly enjoy Black Ice. I am drawn to Hall’s work because of her rich characters and her ability to engage them in fast moving yet intricate plots. Black Ice is no exception. Hall breaks the stereotype of a minister’s wife with Amy who battles her burgeoning unbelief and gives us a glimpse into the real life of a minister’s wife. Hall takes Lenore Featherjohn, a woman who would fall under the ‘extra grace required’ category, and shows us what God sees in her, reminds us that no one is unimportant to God. All in all, Hall provides us with real people faced with real problems who happen to be caught up in a mystery that needs solving.
Though you don’t need to read Dark Water to understand Black Ice, you might want to pick up Dark Water first so you can enjoy the books in the order Hall has released them. Either way, you won’t be disappointed.
