Cold Fear by Rick Mofina, a former crime reporter, is
about Doug and Emily from San Francisco who take their family on a camping trip
to a National Park located in Montana and Canada. The majority of the
book is about them being interrogated by the FBI when their 10-yr. old
daughter, Paige and her Beagle dog turn up missing. They went looking for
her mother in the woods when her father was angrily chopping wood, cut his hand
and didn’t want to talk to her. Her dog went off the path after a
chipmunk and she followed, but he didn’t come back so she just kept looking for
him, going farther and farther off the path and getting lost in bear
country. Search and Rescue teams, forest rangers, and police all go
looking for her. Reporters come on the scene and the FBI shows up to
investigate the parents who were the last ones to see her. What they dig
up is a lot of information that makes it look very bad for the parents.
This was an interesting read for me because of how it was
written. Usually, things happen and the reader is kept in the dark,
wondering along with law enforcement officials what really happened.
However, in this book, the reader gets to know right from the start what really
happened—that the parents are telling the truth. Consequently, the reader
is sympathetic towards the parents and the FBI agents look like bad guys
harassing them during their crisis. The author switched from the search
and rescue, the FBI investigation, the reporters trying to get the story, the
convict scheduled to be executed for murder of a little girl in the same park
22 years ago, and Paige’s frightening time in the woods.
I enjoyed reading this book but didn’t think it was very
believable. The author certainly gives a comprehensive picture of the
news event of the lost girl, but by including so many people, it was difficult
at times to keep track of everyone.
(Karen's review, 4 stars)
I made a COLD FEAR Booktube video about this one.
Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!
