Very interesting book but I feel like if I read the previous one I would enjoy it more. The characters were good but sometimes it felt unrealistic to me.

Cold Trace was interesting and Nick Severs is a character whose pursuit of justice I enjoyed and appreciated. However, the wild trip to Ukraine just as Russia is set to and then invade, made this story a bit too implausible and Nick’s girlfriend, Claire, is too impulsive to be believable as a nurse charged with caring for sick patients! I am intrigued enough to read book #1 of the series because of great reviews. Hopefully, the author will get back on track with the next installment of the series. I received an ARC from NetGalley, and the opinions expressed are my own.

When the body of a dead man is discovered on his watch, FBI agent Nick Severs is plunged into a mystery that gets bigger the more he learns about it. For the John Doe turns out to be that of a boy who had been abducted from his home twenty years before. And it is not the first child abduction, now a cold case from his area.

The autopsy shoes that terrible things appear to have happened to the John Doe. What on earth could have happened to him?

He is to stumble upon a whole industry dedicated to making money out of child pornography, its tentacles reach from the States into Eastern Europe. Possibly, beyond even the means of the FBI to resolve. But Severs has help from other sources, for his wife once worked as a professional hacker. It seems that she can get to places where more conventional tactics must fail, though morally thos sits uneasily with a law-abiding cop.

One mystery and one villain later, things at half mark or so seem to be wrapped up. But no! In fact the real story with all it's dangers to Claire, Silver's wife have only just begun, as Nick Severs goes in search of her in Ukraine, where war has just broken out.

This book is an excellent thriller, crafted not to detonate just one reveal, but several others. On another level, this novel touches upon the effects of history and historical trauma on the present, alongside the the need to counter evil, with the importance of valour. No one can remain unscathed by encounters such as these, but for those with a need for heroes and dragon killers, this book makes ap highly satisfactory read.

Cold Trace - 8/10 - A good paced story from start to finish that was hard hitting and didn’t hold back with the details. An enjoyable read.