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Cold Malice

Cold Justice, Book 8

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Cold Malice

By: Toni Anderson
Narrated by: Eric G. Dove
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About this listen

ASAC Steve "Mac" McKenzie is out to prove himself by leading a task force investigating a series of murders in the heart of Washington, DC. His undercover work in an anti-government compound twenty years earlier is related - as is the sweet, innocent girl he befriended back then. Now that girl is a beautiful woman, and she has something to hide.

Tess Fallon spent a lifetime trying to outrun her family’s brand of bigotry, but someone is threatening her anonymity by using the anniversary of her father’s death to carry out evil crimes, and she’s terrified her younger brother is involved. She sets out to find the truth and comes face-to-face with a man she once idolized, a man she thought long dead. As the crimes escalate, it becomes obvious the killer has an agenda, and Tess and Mac are running out of time to stop him.

Will the perpetrator use a decades-old dream of revolution to attack the federal government? And will the fact that Tess and Mac have fallen hard for each other give a cold-hearted killer the power to destroy them both?

©2017 Toni Anderson (P)2017 Toni Anderson Romance Romantic Suspense Suspense Thriller & Suspense Crime Heartfelt Government
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My first Toni Anderson book but I'm already looking forward to reading more. Mac and Tess have a history that holds them together as much add it pushes them apart, so their HEA is hard-won, which I always find so satisfying!
The plot has enough twists & turns to keep you guessing right to the end.
Eric G Dove is a new narrator for me too, but he has a smooth delivery for both genders' dialogue, and it's clear from changes in tone/accent when he switches characters.

Unexpected twists and turns

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Having listened to all the previous books in this series over the past few week I think this one is not the best. The end is rushed and some of the characters cringe worthy.

However, having said that, I found myself rushing to find time to listen to the next chapter. I was fully engaged in the story!

Excellent narration, not a bad story but not 5* from me.

book 8 in the series

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One of the strongest elements of Cold Malice is the world‑building. Tess’s traumatic upbringing inside a white supremacist, abusive family is portrayed with unsettling clarity, and it gives the story a dark, gritty foundation that feels all too believable. Mac’s undercover work within that same family adds another layer of tension, and the suspense throughout the book is consistently gripping.

Where the story faltered for me was in the romance. I didn’t love the way Mac treated Tess. He fluctuated so much between being defensive of her to being suspicious of her that it became frustrating, especially given everything she’d already endured. And while decades had passed since their first meeting, the fact that Tess was a child and Mac was a young adult at the time made their eventual romance feel uncomfortable for me. It’s a dynamic that never fully stopped feeling a bit icky.

There’s also one suspect who stands out early on, and it was surprising that none of the characters connected the dots until the very end. It didn’t ruin the story, but it did make the mystery feel a little less sharp than the tension deserved. However, those final moments when the reveal was made made for the most suspensful and heartpounding reading.

Overall, the atmosphere, backstory, and suspense are excellent.

This is a series I prefer to enjoy in audio as Eric G Dove's excellent narration elevates the experience every single time.

Another excellent read

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This is an excellent romance/thriller with a storyline that moves along quickly and never loses pace. Mac is an ambitious FBI agent who has no intention of jeopardising his rapid and successful career development by having any hint of a relationship with Tess, whose late father had been a notorious right wing extremist. Tess has managed to hide her identity and reinvent herself after most of her family were either killed or imprisoned after an FBI shoot-out when she was a child. Unfortunately it seems that someone is trying to bring her father’s political agenda back to life with a series of murders, which means Tess unwillingly finds herself the centre of FBI attention yet again.

Apart from a few stupid moments (why do so many romance books feature a couple having sex with the curtains open?), this was a solid book, with lots of red herrings and surprises along the way. I did like the way that falling in love did not miraculously take away all their problems and that Mac was particularly aware of the damage a relationship would do to his career. I know some reviewers didn’t like this, but no one would easily throw away a lifetime career without a qualm, nor would an experienced FBI agent let his personal feelings for a suspect make him ignore clues indicating she could be involved in a terrorism plot.

Unfortunately it seems the writer ran out of steam in the last part of the book and the last chapters were rushed, with both the mystery and the relationship being hastily and neatly tied up by a series of implausible events, to enable them to get their “happy ever after”. A pity, because apart from that, this is an excellent book, and well worth a credit.

Excellent book, but rushed ending

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I found this book to be thought provoking on so many issues. Incest, forced marriage, fanatical beliefs, prejudices, government protocols, guilty by association. This story spans over 20 years of hatred and paranoia yet has an underlying love story and hope for the future. I thought the author wove an incredibly gripping story that had so many unexpected twists and some realistic events. This review is not a synopsis of the book but rather my opinion of it. I think the narrator does an excellent performance in this book and the others in the series. I received this review copy audiobook and voluntarily written this review.
I will continue to listen to more books by this wonderful author and narrator

Radicals!

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