Category: Mystery/Suspense Publisher: Champagne Book Group
Type: Fiction
Pages: 206
Copyright: Feb 6, 2017
ISBN-13: 9781771552578
Price: $3.01 (eBook)
Can they conquer the mountains and the past in time to save Hope?
~ A romantic suspense
Seventeen-year-old Hope Craig is deaf and training hard to make the biathlon Olympic Team. But when she is kidnapped from the groomed trails and taken into a remote cabin in the mountains, she must battle more than the elements to survive.
On the hunt for her daughter's abductor, Colonel Amelia Matheson enlists the help of Richmond Morgan, a local Sheriff who once hurt her. To find Hope, Sheriff Morgan and Colonel Matheson must untangle a web of secrets, including their own.
Using her wits and skills, Hope sets out to escape the mountains and save the man her mother had sent to rescue her – a man who is not who he appears to be.
Excerpt
The snow glistened in the early morning sun and the air sparkled with tiny crystals, changing the mountains into a picturesque Christmas card.
Quest loved the serenity and beauty of winter with as much passion as she loved skiing and shooting.
Her skis glided on the trail, packing the fresh snow into two parallel lines every time she raced down a hill and adding crisscross design to every slope she climbed. Ahead of her, a cute blond guy with dark brown eyes and a smile that could melt a glacier, groomed the trail. The vibrations of his machine sizzled through Quest’s body, but as the distance between them grew farther, the sensation faded away.
Her rifle bounced on her back, unloaded, a comforting ally in her silent world. Alone on the trail, Quest didn’t bring any ammunition for target practice and didn’t wear her bothersome transmitter. Later on, once she rejoined the other athletes, she would rectify both situations.
To give her brief reprieves from the white noise she must endure in order to hear, Coach Goldman had requested that special accommodations be made. Thanks to him, Quest had been granted permission to train in the early morning solitude of the sleepy mountains, outside the normal hours of operation. Alone. She appreciated the consideration.
As she ventured deeper into the forested area, the naked trees cuddled closer against the evergreens, blocking her view of the valley below.
Being invited by her coach to the altitude training camp at Snowy Tip had been a dream come true. Convincing her mother and grandfather to let her take the year off and postpone her entrance to Princeton University in order to train full-time for the Olympic trials had required grueling efforts and perseverance.
White clouds formed around her mouth with every breath she took. After two months in Montana, her lungs had adapted to the lower atmospheric pressure. She no longer felt the effect of the altitude. The trials were three weeks away. She was as ready, mentally and physically, as she’d ever be.
Beads of perspiration trickled between her shoulder blades, quickly whisked away by the microfiber undershirt she wore like a second skin. Every piece of clothing and equipment played a role, down to her gloves from which she’d cut off the tip of the right index finger to better feel the resistance of the trigger when she fired.
The flat section ahead curved around a frozen pond. Red markers delineated the perimeter of the ice surface in case some skiers were tempted to cross over.
A yellow light reflecting over the white blanket of snow caught Quest’s attention. She looked over her shoulder. Two snowmobiles headed in her direction. The last one pulled a rake on the ground, mimicking the grooming effect and erasing her ski tracks.
Puzzled by their presence on the trail, she moved to the side to let them pass. As they approached, they slowed down before stopping a few feet away from her.
Despite the cold and wind, the ski masks covering their faces weren’t common attire among maintenance crewmembers. One driver stood up. Big and stocky in his black snowsuit, he looked more like a man than a woman.
Trying her best not to appear intimidated, Quest glanced back and forth between the two of them as she tried to decipher which one led the pack. “Is there a problem, guys?”
The lips of the closer individual moved. “Hope Craig?”
Only strangers, and her mother, called her Hope.
“Who wants to know?”
He pulled a gun on her.
“No reaching for your rifle. You’re coming with us.”
Professional Reviews
The TBR Pile - 4 stars
Hope Craig, better known as Quest, is seventeen, deaf, and training for the Olympic Biathlon team when two men accost her on the trail and kidnap her. The reasons are extremely convoluted and as her mother, Army Colonel Amelia Matheson and local sheriff Richmond Morgan look for her, they find several cases coming together. However, they have a past that is also complicating the investigation. At the end, who needs saving?
I really enjoyed this story of past lovers overcoming hurts and mistakes. I especially appreciated Quest's determination not to let her deafness stop her from reaching her goals and the way she worked to save herself and the sheriff. Although I guessed at some of the plot twists, several of them still surprised me and I never would have expected how all the threads eventually fit together. This is a wonderful read for romantic suspense fans and those who like books about second chances.
Readers' Favorite - 5 stars
J.S. Marlo excels in writing romantic suspense, but Cold Sweat adds a twist when Richmond Morgan and Amelia Matheson had their chance at love once but broke it off. When trouble arose, neither one of them stepped forward and fought for the other. Now eighteen years later they meet again and must work together to find Amelia’s deaf daughter, Hope Craig. Believing they kidnapped her in a case of mistaken identity, this young woman lives up to the training her mother and grandfather had instilled in her. The kidnapper, thinking Hope’s father is a senator, tries to extort money from a man who couldn't care less about a deaf teenager, making her expendable when he realizes the truth. Amelia and Richmond realize time is running out and several mysteries turn into one, making this a powerful read.
Cold Sweat: Heart and Endurance Book 1 skillfully presents different points of the whole plot, then draws each character and event together. J.S. Marlo intricately weaves characters from a political scandal to old lovers. The kidnapping brought out many secrets, solved murder cases, and created a home that many thought impossible. I found Hope Craig an inspiring teenager who was not only training for a biathlon but was also deaf. Her dedication to detail and calculated thinking gave her an advantage when others looked at her hearing loss as a handicap. J.S. Marlo gives each character a unique skill and voice, making them come alive. I was spellbound by how the pieces of each mystery came together with an intensity that was rewarding.
