Title: The Chill of Night
Author: James Hayman
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: June 22, 2010
Hardcover: 352 pages
ISBN: 978-0312532710
Genre: Fiction, Suspense

About the book:

Some Crimes Can Never Be Forgiven.

The Chill of NightLainie Goff thought she had it all. The ambitious young attorney was brilliant, beautiful, and on a fast-track to a lucrative partnership at one of the top firms in New England. But then, one cold night, a dark and ugly secret comes back from Lainie’s past and she pushes things too far. Soon her body is found, frozen solid in sub-zero temperatures at the end of the Portland Fish Pier.

A mentally ill woman named Abby Quinn witnesses the brutal crime. But when she tells what she has seen, nobody will believe her. Not until she too mysteriously disappears.

In The Chill of Night, Portland homicide detective Michael McCabe finds himself finds himself fighting memories from his own past as he races to find the killer before another life is lost.

James Hayman once again tells a gripping tale of evil and deceit and creates characters so real and so human, we want to meet them again and again.

My Review:

James Hayman’s delightful character Detective Michael McCabe is back in Hayman’s newest novel, The Chill of Night. Readers first met Detective Michael McCabe in The Cutting and while it is not necessary to read the books in order, I believe the reader will want to after reading The Chill of Night. A woman’s body is discovered frozen in her truck, the dead woman turns out to have been a high-powered attorney with a lot of secrets and even more enemies. To further confuse the investigation, the only witness is Abby, a schizophrenic whose life may very well be in grave danger. While McCabe finds himself struggling with not only the case of Goff and who murdered her, but also with his inner demons as Goff eerily resembles his ex-wife. Hayman once again takes the readers into a complicated web, masterfully woven and delightful to read through. As before, Hayman’s characters are realistic and as with Detective McCabe, flawed, making them all the more realistic. The Chill of Night will keep the reader up long into the night, as this is one book that the reader will not want to put down. I highly recommend The Chill of Night to anyone looking for an extremely well written suspense novel.

About the Author:

Like McCabe, I’m a native New Yorker. He was born in the Bronx. I was born in Brooklyn. We both grew up in the city. He dropped out of NYU Film School and joined the NYPD, rising through the ranks to become the top homicide cop at the Midtown North Precinct. I graduated from Brown and joined a major New York ad agency, rising through the ranks to become creative director on accounts like the US Army, Procter & Gamble, and Lincoln/Mercury.

We both married beautiful brunettes. McCabe’s wife, Sandy dumped him to marry a rich investment banker who had “no interest in raising other people’s children.” My wife, Jeanne, though often given good reason to leave me in the lurch, has stuck it out through thick and thin and is still my wife. She is also my best friend, my most attentive reader and a perceptive critic.

Both McCabe and I eventually left New York for Portland, Maine. I arrived in August 2001, shortly before the 9/11 attacks, in search of the right place to begin a new career as a fiction writer. He came to town a year later, to escape a dark secret in his past and to find a safe place to raise his teenage daughter, Casey.

There are other similarities between us. We both love good Scotch whiskey, old movie trivia and the New York Giants. And we both live with and love women who are talented artists.

There are also quite a few differences. McCabe’s a lot braver than me. He’s a better shot. He likes boxing. He doesn’t throw up at autopsies. And he’s far more likely to take risks. McCabe’s favorite Portland bar, Tallulah’s, is, sadly, a figment of my imagination. My favorite Portland bars are all very real.

James Hayman’s THE CHILL OF NIGHT VIRTUAL BLOG TOUR ‘10 will officially begin on July 6 and end on August 27 2010. You can visit Hyman’s blog stops at www.virtualbooktours.wordpress.com during the month of July and August to find out more about this great book and talented author!

I received a complimentary copy of The Chill of Night by James Hayman from Pump Up Your Book Promotion as part of the tour. Receiving a copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned novel.