Great new thriller set in Seattle

7th April 2016

Hard Cold Winter by Glen Erik Hamilton – thriller set in Seattle.

Hard Cold Winter is a real page-turner… In Van Shaw, Hamilton has created a flawed character who somehow charms as he investigates the murder of a billionaire’s son, Kend. Van is ex-military (he fought in Afghanistan) whose grandfather was a mid-range villain in Seattle. He is called in by Willard (a friend of his grandfathers and promoter of illegal gambling) to determine who murdered Kend and, more importantly, his daughter Elana – a friend of Kend’s – in a remote cabin in the country outside Seattle. Van is aided by Leo, another ex-army veteran.

Van and Elana go back a long way to when they were both teenagers, engaged in petty (and not so petty) crime. Alternate – well almost – chapters in the book trace their story to when they were seventeen involved in the robbery of some pretty expensive optical lenses… and to Elana’s eventual imprisonment. Van’s current girlfriend Luce runs a bar, and provides some sanity to Hard Cold Winter.

Hard Cold Winter has a cast of exotic characters – from Kend’s property tycoon father and the people that surround him, to his high living friends, to a very undesirable and dangerous lone shark, to various members of the criminal underworld of Seattle, and to members of the Russian mafia. It is a very gripping story that culminates not only in the solving of the mystery of who killed Kend but also in the prevention of a firestorm that would have engulfed much of the Seattle waterfront. The characters are not drawn too deeply (no time to dawdle here…), but they are all believable in their roles. The reader sees a real cross-section of the inhabitants of the city.

In TripFiction terms the book is very much about Seattle. Not a city with which I am that familiar (although I have visited). But the descriptions of the downtown area, the gentrification of the run down suburbs, and the decay of some of the waterfront areas all seem pretty authentic. Hamilton is a native of Seattle, and he clearly knows his way around.

Hard Cold Winter is not a book for someone looking for a leisurely read – but it is absolutely a book for anyone looking for a fast moving and exciting story told with some panache. I recommend it.

Tony for the TripFiction team

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