I have been a fan of Carla Neggers for a long time, loving her blend of a hint of romance with suspense. I am a fan of her U.S. Marshall and FBI series and some of her standalone novels but I'm not so keen on her new Black Falls series. The series revolves around numerous characters set in Black Falls, Vermont basically involving a handful families, the Camerons and the Harpers. The Cameron siblings recently lost their father Drew Cameron, who was murdered by assassins because he was asking questions about something...but we don't know what that something is. There are many secondary characters which have cameos in each book.

The second book in the series, Cold River, falls short of the mark for me and was not as good as the first book Cold Pursuit, which I rated 3.0. To be honest I'm not even sure what the title of the book represents because I don't think a "Cold River" or similar was ever mentioned...although most of the cast seem to be outside in freezing weather a lot of the time. The book summarized too much the first book in the series and didn't really develop the characters, the plot or the relationships between characters enough. I would recommend skipping this series. On the other hand I liked The Angel, the second book in the FBI series a bit better and would recommend this read for a good suspense story set in Ireland. I'll probably pick up The Mist, the third book in the FBI series to be released March 30, 2010 but I'm afraid for me this is the end of the road for the Black Falls series.

My Rating: 2.5

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Black Falls, Vermont, is still reeling from having contract killers in their midst. Especially since there is at least one loose end, the person who set off a car bomb killing the second killer. Suspicion has fallen on the local bad boy, back in town after a few months in prison, but his childhood friend is determined to defend him.

Another solid entry in Neggers's long-running series of interlocking Secret Service suspense novels. ( )