Full review to be published online in late August.

THE COLDEST FEAR picks up immediately where ‘A Deeper Grave’ left off, as Bobbie Gentry rushes after Nick Shade to help conquer his demons, just as he helped her with hers. There’s so much I like about this series and it's primarily because of the unusual partnership that we’ve got going between Bobbie and Nick; their pasts, their sheer capabilities to rise above their broken lives, their similar passions and the depth of their own feelings. Yet very little of that shows up in this book and without this defining feature that I’d found in the past two books, THE COLDEST FEAR stayed a very good read, but not an exceptional one.

There are however, shocking revelations towards the end and these strings are brought together quite masterfully by Webb as characters finally reveal the fractured history that they all share. It almost makes the long detour worth it, though it was difficult to see anything past the destruction of all the characters' lives after a while. The hunt for twisted, psychopathic serial killers is claustrophobically wearing and the characters do bleakly reflect this: their personal tragedies are worn deep on their skin and psyches and no one comes away untouched at all.

THE COLDEST FEAR is the third book in Debra Webb’s fascinating “Shades of Death” series, and is every bit as intriguing as the first two books. Bobbi and Nick’s partnership is moving along (mostly) nicely, and their adventures always interesting to the reader.