The Book of Cold Cases

This is my second Simone St. James book, the other being The Broken Girls, and I can see where she has a certain "flavor" as an author:  a strong-willed but broken female protagonist, a Gothic setting with a haunted atmosphere, a malevolent or dark spirit, and a dual-timeline mystery that the protagonist is investigating.  Where I mostly enjoyed that in her previous effort, I found this story far more compelling.

Shea Collins works as a receptionist in a Claire Lake, Oregon medical office, but her true passion is her website, the Book of Cold Cases - a project inspired by her own abduction and near demise as a nine-year old.  Divorced and alone, she's isolated herself from most others, apart from her sister, Esther, and her online friend, Michael De Vos, an ex-cop who helps her investigate the cold cases she writes about.  When a mysterious older woman walks into her workplace one day, she immediately recognizes her:

Beth Greer - or as the papers dubbed her: The Lady Killer, despite her acquittal for the murders of two men in 1977.  

When Shea asks rich and aloof Beth for an interview and Beth surprisingly agrees, Shea is unprepared for the door this opens into the past and the ominous repercussions it will bring from those who may not appreciate her digging up its secrets.  Even worse, Beth's mansion, which is where Shea's interviews take place, has its own way of communicating its displeasure with her efforts.

It's a solid dual-timeline story with intriguing, mostly likable characters - the cat-and-mouse interplay between Shea and Beth always feeling like a tightrope between them being friends or enemies, which added a perfect amount of tension.  It also had just enough creepy vibes without being over-the-top and silly.  As for the dual timelines, both past and present day were interesting, with the 70's one giving me all the nostalgia.  Pintos and polyester, anyone?

It's an engaging mystery/ghost story, mildly repetitive at times, but it kept me interested throughout and ready to see what St. James comes up with next!

★★★★

Thanks to Berkley Publishing, NetGalley, and author Simone St. James for this ARC.  My opinions are given freely and honestly.  It's now available.