Heart of Ice - by Lis Wiehl

I just read Heart of Ice by Lis Wiehl as part of the Book Sneeze Blogger program (http://booksneeze.com/blogger). This was another title in the Triple Threat series, wherein the stories involve three main characters who are friends and whose professional lives also intersect as they deal with various crimes. In this story, the women encounter arson, theft, fraud, and murder, all at the hands of a master manipulator- a woman who becomes part of their lives and is not as she seems. While the three try to figure out the connection between the crimes, they are unaware of how close they are to the source of the danger. Little do they realize the threat she poses to them and their families. Not only is it suspenseful, but like the previous books involving this trio of friends, there are also back stories in each of the women’s personal lives, that lend an emotional slant to the book.

This book dove right into the action, but then seemed to bog down for a few chapters, causing my interest to wane. Thankfully, I kept reading, because the storyline suddenly picked up again and drew me in once more, this time for the duration of the book, making it an overall quick read. Wiehl always does a great job with character creation, making the people in her novels incredibly realistic and believable, and this book was no exception. The three main characters encounter and deal with issues and problems in their personal lives, such as a miscarriage, weight struggles, a recovering drug addict sister, and a cancer diagnosis, all of which bring a certain depth to the overall story. The villainess was a woman easy to imagine knowing, with multiple layers and reasons for them, causing me to wonder if I could fall prey to someone like her. Whereas I enjoyed the last book in this series more, Heart of Ice is definitely worth a read for people who have enjoyed Wiehl's other books or who like realistic, suspenseful stories.