THIN ICE BY IRENE HANNON

I signed up to review for Revell several months ago, but didn’t read much from them. (They publish a lot of Amish.) The premise of Thin Ice pulled me in. I’ve always had interest in figure skating and used to watch it quite a bit. The book is well researched in this regard, although the skating element is only mentioned sometimes because the heroine is a retired skater and no longer competitive. Christy Reed has put Christine Reed, a promising Olympic-hopeful teen star, behind her and created a new life for herself. Christy is devastated when her sister Ginny is killed in a fire—and mystified when a note from her dead sister pops up months later. She goes to the FBI for help and teams up with agent Lance McGregor to solve an increasingly frightening case.

I liked how fast-paced and well-written this book was. All the details of Lance’s office co-workers, his family of brothers, and Christy’s personal life as a former skater were succinct and made the storyline seem as visual as watching a crime show on TV. (Which is not easy to recreate in a book.) Christy’s faith was clear and woven into the plot without seeming pushed or unnatural. Her selfless actions in leaving the skating world underpinned her sincerity and it was easy to see how Lance would be impressed by her. However, I just didn’t like Lance at all. He was unprofessional and greasy towards her, with a cocky chip on his shoulder, and an invasive attitude. By the time he was openly drooling over her legs in a skating costume—legs, legs, LEGS now noticed by him for the thousandth time—I was like “dial it down, WEIRDO. She’s got legs, get over it!” Also—I don’t want to give too much plot away—but the villain was a rather garishly troubled young man who was cruel to his feeble, demented grandmother and tortured mice. We’re supposed to think of him as a psychotic kind of case, but I didn’t really find his mind pleasant to explore.

So---it’s good. But maybe could have been better. It might be somebody’s cup of java, though.