Chill of Fear

Chill of Fear by Kay Hooper

FBI agent Quentin Hayes always knew he had an unusual talent, even before he was recruited by Noah Bishop for the controversial Special Crimes Unit. But, as gifted as he is, for twenty years he’s been haunted by a heartbreaking unsolved murder that took place at The Lodge, a secluded Victorian-era resort in Tennessee. Now he’s returned one final time, determined to put the mystery to rest. Diana Brisco has come there hoping to unlock the mystery of her troubled past. Instead, she is assailed by nightmares and the vision of a child who vanished from The Lodge years ago. And an FBI agent is trying to convince her that she isn’t crazy but that she has a rare gift, a gift that could catch a killer. Quentin knows that this is his last chance to solve a case that has become a dangerous obsession. But can he persuade Diana to help him, knowing what it could cost her? For something cold and dark and pure evil is stalking the grounds of The Lodge. Something Diana may not survive. Something Quentin never felt before: the Chill of Fear.

--Chill of Fear by Kay Hooper, Copyright © 2006 Bantam Books


My Review:

Number 8 in the Bishop/Special Crime Unit series, this story takes a different track than the others in the series, and sets up the darker twist that the series is about to take.

Quentin Hayes has always been haunted by the murder of a little girl he came to know one summer long ago at The Lodge, a secluded resort in Tennessee. He regularly returns to the town of Leisure to pore over the case files, researching every little fact until there simply aren’t any more facts to research. But still he persists, hoping this visit is the one that breaks the case. Finally, twenty-five years after Missy’s death, this may finally be the year he solves the case.

Diana Brisco is at The Lodge attending a therapy seminar, hoping this time she can finally work out the demons that haunt her. Since the age of eleven, the deeply disturbed woman has been in and out of therapy, trying almost every anti-psychotic medicine known to man. Now, finally clean of all the drugs, her mind is struggling to figure out who she is, who she was always supposed to be.

When Diana and Quentin meet, a connection is made, opening pathways in each other that had never been explored before and maybe, just maybe, they can lay each other’s ghosts to rest.



This is a new twist in the series because the SCU is not being called in on an unusual case. This case comes from Quentin’s past, one he’s tried but just can’t seem to put to rest. Diana’s trying to put her own past to rest so she can move forward into her future. While the other books in this series all deal with evil in one form or another, the evil in this story takes on a new form, one bent on justice and revenge.


I give this story FOUR STARS.