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Summary
Summary
"Like all things good and bad in the world, it began with a woman..."And so begins the first chapter of Edna Buchanan's Cold Case Squad, a new suspense novel that features a special homicide unit that breathes new life into old cases.A man and a woman are shot dead at a strip club in Miami Beach. A few hours later, an explosion in a garage rocks a child's birthday party and burns a father of three to death. The murders go unsolved and the fire is chalked up to an accident.But was it an accident? Twelve years later, a blonde walks in to the Miami Police Department's Cold Case Squad -- which Buchanan fans will remember from The Ice Maiden -- and complains that she's been seeing her husband everywhere she goes. Trouble is, he's been dead for twelve years. In Buchanan's characteristic voice, "Some guys just don't know when to let go."As the Cold Case Squad unearths the details of the strip club deaths and the dead or missing father -- as well as the unsolved killings of a series of little old ladies -- readers get to know the three cops and their boss: veteran homicide detective Sergeant Craig Burch, whose marriage has turned into a case he can't solve; Detective Sam Stone, for whom the past will always be a mystery; Detective Pete Nazario, airlifted out of Cuba during "Operation Pedro Pan" in the 1960s; and Lieutenant K. C. Riley, for whom one case will never grow cold.Edna Buchanan has been thrilling readers since her Pulitzer Prize-winning stint as a crime reporter for The Miami Herald. The Chicago Tribune once raved that "few writers can touch Buchanan," to which The Washington Post Book World seemed to respond, "I doubt if anyone else is doing it better." In Cold Case Squad, Edna Buchanan, the woman the Los Angeles Daily News calls "the Queen of crime," delivers unlikely killers, near-perfect murders, and her most suspenseful novel yet.
Author Notes
Edna Rydzik Buchanan was born in 1939 near Paterson, New Jersey. She attended creative writing classes at Montclair State Teacher's College.
Buchanan was one of the first female crime reporters in Miami. Her police reporting for the Miami Herald won her a Pulitzer Prize in 1986.
In 1979, Buchanan produced her first book, Carr: Five Years of Rape and Murder; From the Personal Account of Robert Frederick Car III. This nonfiction book recounts the story of a convicted rapist and murderer. In 1987, she published her memoirs, The Corpse Had a Familiar Face: Covering Miami, America's Hottest Beat. That book was followed in 1991 by Never Let Them See You Cry: More From Miami's Hottest Beat.
Buchanan's crime novels include Nobody Lives Forever and Pulse. She is perhaps best known, however, for her mystery novels featuring a Cuban American crime reporter, Britt Montero. These titles include Contents Under Pressure; Miami, It's Murder; Suitable for Framing; Margin of Error, and Act of Betrayal. She has been a contributor to several magazines, including Fame, Family Circle, Cosmopolitan and Rolling Stone.
Buchanan has received awards from the American Bar Association, National Newspaper Association, and the Society of Professional Journalists.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Usual series heroine Britt Montero (The Ice Maiden; You Only Die Twice) is nowhere to be seen as Buchanan focuses instead on the Miami Police Department's Cold Case Squad, led by Sgt. Craig Burch: "I breathe new life into old, cold cases and track killers whose trails vanished long ago like footprints on a sea washed beach." Burch is backed by detectives Sam Stone and Pete Nazario and takes orders from Lt. K.C. Riley, who is grieving the death of ex-lover, Kendall McDonald. In fact, all of the squad members have problems both on and off the force, subplots that play out alongside the several murders that command most of the attention. Detective Stone is on the trail of a serial killer who specializes in old ladies, laying the bodies out in meticulously composed death scenes. Stone suspects the killer is an orthodox Jew, clued in by his feisty grandma, who used to work for a Jewish family. The chief case is 12 years old and involves Charles Terrell, who everyone thought was accidentally blown up while working on his car. This cold case heats up quickly when the team chases down Terrell's sexy ex-wife, Natasha, who's dallying with her gardener, Nelson, a na?ve Cuban immigrant who provides an amusing Carl Hiassen-like chase scene toward the end. With Buchanan's practiced expertise, all the cases eventually get solved, and the squad's personal problems are either squared away or kept in abeyance for another installment. Buchanan's memorable characters strut their wacky stuff, but, as always, it's the fascinating, hothouse city of Miami that's the real star of the show. Agent, Don Congdon/Michael Congdon. (June) Forecast: All Buchanan's fans will climb on board for this one, which is set against the same backdrop as her regular series. Eight-city author tour. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
A suspicious 12-year-old blaze is the main course in Buchanan's banquet of homicide served cold. Not even Miami's Cold Case Squad would normally pay attention to law-office manager April Terrell just because she thinks she might have seen her pharmacist ex-husband Charles burned to death in a garage fire ruled accidental long ago. But Lt. K.C. Riley, haunted by the fiery death of her longtime lover, Homicide cop Kendall McDonald (The Ice Maiden, 2002, etc.), orders the squad to reopen the case, even though it means pulling them off the even older trail of an elderly Miami woman, strangled 24 years ago, whose death may be tied to seven others across the country. Sgt. Craig Burch and Dets. Sam Stone and Pete Nazario attack the ancient files with such vigor that the cold case rapidly heats up. Charles Terrell's death conveniently coincides with a pair of homicides the city had been all too eager to close out. And Charles's second wife, a calculating beauty now on her fourth husband, has present-tense troubles. Buchanan plots so generously and dovetails her dozen stories so diligently that foreground and background merge in an endless carnival of crime. As a late-arriving FBI agent exults: "Only in Miami could a pregnant Miccosukee Indian cave in the skull of a Cuban exile who has snatched a native of Croatia. By God, I love this place!" Readers will too. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Buchanan launches a new series with this novel, starring Sergeant Craig Burch of the Miami Police Department's Cold Case Squad. Fans of Buchanan's Britt Montero series may recognize Burch as the cop who helped crime reporter Montero solve a cold case in The Ice Maiden (2002). Although Burch made a superb supporting character, in his first role as the lead, he comes off a bit like a newborn colt on shaky legs. Buchanan has given him the traditional backstory of the homicide cop so haunted by his work that his family life unravels, but he needs considerably more fleshing out if he is going to become a fully formed character. In addition, his first-person narration is wince-producing, a collection of Chandleresque cliches (Like all things good and bad in the world, it began with a woman ) and strained alliterations (booze, broads, and busted marriages ). Buchanan is on more solid ground with plot and forensic procedure. The ex-wife of a man who was blown to bits while working on his vintage Thunderbird 12 years previously seeks the aid of the Cold Case Squad. The mystery is intensified by the ex-wife's conviction that her deceased husband may still be alive. Despite the missteps, this may yet develop into an intriguing series, and with Buchanan's name on it, it's sure to attract interest. --Connie Fletcher Copyright 2004 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Buchanan launches a new series. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.