Cold Burn by A. J. Landau (aka Jon Land, Jeff Ayers) is a highly recommended investigative thriller and climate science fiction novel. Cold Burn, following 2024's Leave No Trace, is the second book in their National Park Series.

National Park Service investigator Michael Walker is investigating the theft of artifacts when the case takes a fatal turn and becomes more mysterious. Then he is called to Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska to look for a team of missing U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists. FBI investigator Gina Delgado works on the case of a body found in Florida’s Everglades National Park. The body is discovered to be a USGS intern, but before she can wrap up the case, she is called to the scene of a sunken U.S. nuclear submarine where the entire crew has inexplicably been killed. Eventually all the action leads back to one man.

Chapters in the novel switch between multiple locations and characters with no connections in sight, which can feel disconcerting at first. Readers may be tempted to set the novel aside, but keep with it and everything will sort itself out. The mystery deepens as the action accelerates, connections begin to appear, and the tension increases up to a global scale. As in the first book in the series the antagonists are identified early on but this time all the various story lines are intriguing.

This is the second book in the series but it can be read as a standalone. Reading Leave No Trace, however, will provide more background information about the characters which helps with their development and portrayal as individuals. The focus is on the action rather than the parks. Expect to have to suspend disbelief along the way, with some lecturing on social/political topics included. 3.5 rounded up

Cold Burn will be appreciate by readers who like action-packed novels. Thanks to St. Martin's Press for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

The review will be published on Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

Started a little slow, but took off quickly into a one more chapter read. Multiple POV and locations, weaving together a great mystery. All take place within the National Park Service locations in the Everglades and Alaska, likable characters trying to solve a murder and missing people that leads to fast paced adventure and detective work. A thank you to St. Martin's Press | Minotaur Books and NetGalley for providing me with an early copy to read and review, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

This was another excellent thriller starring National Park Investigator Michael Walker and FBI Agent Gina Delgado. When the story begins, Michael is in Alaska trying to track down smugglers of Native artifacts and Gina is in Florida looking into the death of young man associated with the US Geological Survey.

Michael learns, after the people he was shadowing were murdered, that there was a mysterious substance in many of the artifacts he was tracking. Gina learns that the USGS in the Florida Everglades were experimenting with the water temperature to ease global warming. They were also using a mysterious substance.

Another viewpoint character in the story is multi-billionaire Alex Cole who will do anything to fulfill his dream of going to Mars and who sees the mysterious substance as the key to his successful journey. And still another viewpoint character is a Russian general who wants to take over Russia and return it to what he sees as its glorious past.

Since the mysterious substance has the potential to wipe out vast quantities and species of life, Michael and Gina need to find a way to stop the Russians from weaponizing it, the billionaire from misusing it, and elements from within the government from using it for political gain. Michael is aided by a Tlinglit microbiologist who got wealthy for her discoveries and has come home to her village in Alaska.

I liked this story very much. It was packed with action. One quibble is that a number of chapters ended with the viewpoint character making a discovery but not saying what it was until their viewpoint chapter came around again. It did add to the suspense, but I still found it annoying.

Fans of ecothrillers will enjoy this one.

Cold Burn is a fast moving story that jumps between a murder in the Everglades and mysterious deaths in Alaska. The book starts a bit slow with multiple locations, but it all comes together after a few chapters. What a great story, but also a little scary if it could really happen. I haven't read the first book but will now because I liked the characters and authors.
Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for my review copy of this book.

A big thank you to St. Martin's Press | Minotaur Books and NetGalley for providing me with an early copy to read and review.

What a fun and fascinating read! It was fast-paced and I could hardly put it down. Fortunately, the characters were all easily identifiable so there wasn’t confusion. I appreciated how the story weaved multiple locations and characters together.

I’m looking forward to reading more from this author and sharing this book with family and friends.

with multiple POVs and locations, which kept things moving and made the mystery feel bigger and more urgent. There’s a ton of science in the story — especially around the strange deaths — and honestly, I spent half the time wishing I was smart enough to crack the case alongside the characters. (Spoiler: I wasn’t. But I definitely pretended I was part of the team.)

If you like a mix of science, suspense, and that eerie feeling of nature turning against you, this one's a good pick.

Gina Delgado and Michael Walker are back in action in Cold Burn. The pair literally saved America in the first book in the National Park series, the edge of your seat thriller Leave No Trace. In this National Parks tense thriller Gina, now assigned to the White House, is sent to the Everglades to investigate the death of an intern working for the USGS. Michael, an investigator for the National Park Service, meanwhile is in Sitka, Alaska, shadowing a family of expected smugglers of native Alaskan artifacts from museums in the national parks. Simultaneously, a state of the art US navy submarine is on a test cruise under Alaskan waters and is accidentally damaged causing it to sink to the ocean floor. Rescue efforts lead to a shocking finding that eventually connects Gina and Michael’s investigations.

Michael’s case takes an unexpected twist when he is about to arrest the smugglers a man appears who shoots the wife and husband carrying the contraband. After a deadly showdown with the shooter Michael recovers the stolen artifact and discovers a its filled with an unknown substance that was the actual reason for the smuggling. Gina’s investigation leads to a USGS researcher leading a team looking to find ways to reduce water temperatures in the southern waters as climate change is a threat to rising waters threatening coastlines.

Once the two seemingly different events, thousands of miles apart, begin uncovering scientific evidence that convince Gina and Michael that someone is stealing and testing this mysterious mineral that is destroying ecosystems in both Alaskan waters and the Florida Everglades. Interestingly Gina and Michael are never together in the book. Evidence, investigative findings, and observations are done by phone. Their shared information is enough for them to unravel a conspiracy, corruption, an unscrupulous billionaire, a foreign power attempting to take over control of the mineral, and a connection to a corrupt politician who was at the center of the first book in the series. How all this comes together makes for an exciting read.

Note that Cold Burn is full of scientific research sections explaining to the reader the way the mysterious mineral came to be, how it has “lived,” undiscovered in the cold Alaskan environment for millions of years on an island that belongs to the Tlingit tribe that has been victimized by the United States for decades. The science background is informative but skimming it won’t diminish your enjoyment of the book. However the history and culture of a proud native Alaskan tribe should be read by all.

Thanks to Netgalley and Minotaur Books for the opportunity to read and review Cold Burn. It was time well spent.

DNF at 50%. This just wasn't for me. Way too cerebral, I felt like I was reading a textbook instead of a thriller. I just couldn't do it. Respect to the authors for the amount of research that must have gone into this book!

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC.

I appreciate NetGalley for allowing me to read and review Cold Burn by A.J. Landau. A.J. Landau is a writing duo - Jon Land and Jeff Ayers. I wanted to read this book because I LOVE visiting parks and areas under the National Park Service. Having visited Glacier Bay, Sitka, and Everglades National park I couldn't wait to dig into this story. The book follows two characters Michael Walker and Gina Delgado. One is sent to Alaska to figure out who was stealing Tlingit artifacts, and the other to solve a murder in the Everglades. Both agents quickly find themselves trying to solve a crime involving ancient organisms, Russians, and a Billionaire who thinks he is above the law. The story was interesting, and the science, which there was quite a lot of, was shared understandably. The amazing backdrops of Alaska and Florida added to the story. I can't wait to go read the first novel in this series (this was the second)

A.J. Landau’s “Cold Burn” is yet another compelling novel in the National Parks Thriller series, boasting a highly sophisticated and terrifying premise with plenty of twists and turns along the way. It is well written and quite detailed, with historical facts seamlessly interspersed to truly bring this story to life. And while it is, indeed, the second novel in the series, it can easily be read as a stand-alone for those who are just discovering it for the very first time.

Though several aspects of this story appeared unrelated initially, it eventually became clear that everything was interconnected in ways I had not even begun to imagine. I did grapple some with the scientific and cultural jargon, as well as the various agencies and their respective acronyms, but not so much that it deterred from my overall understanding and enjoyment of this book.

So, If you are looking for a unique and intelligent spin on the typical procedural thriller, then look no further. “Cold Burn” promises to deliver this and so much more.

Cold Burn is the second in a series featuring FBI agent Gina Delgado and National Park Ranger Michael Walker. I read this without reading the first book, and I definitely missed some context. For example, there is a pair of men who make an entrance late in the book but are never introduced. I assume they were introduced in the first book.

The premise of this book intrigued me- stolen artifacts, a murder, and a deadly microbe that could sweep the world. Theresa execution did not work for me. There were too many things going on, and I didn’t think the military or scientific jargon was well explained. I had a hard time finishing.

I received an ARC in exchange for my honest review. Thanks to the author. The publisher, and to Netgalley.

"Cold Burn" is to second book in this series. This story was well written and made you want to keep reading to find out how everything is connected.
Michael is drawn into a case to figure out who is taking Native American artifacts from Alaska. When he starts to investigate it turns into something much bigger than steal artifacts. Gina is investigating a murder in Florida, before she is relocated to Alaska. As both Michael and Gina investigate their separate cases they find things that link the cases together. As they are working against time and other people they will need to pull all their resources together to save many people.
Recommend for those that like save the world stories.

I always love a National Park Thriller and this one did not disappoint.
It did take some time and rereading to understand what was happening at the beginning. Towards the end the thriller aspect really picked up and took off. There were a lot of parts to pay attention to and remember when reading.
Overall a good enjoyable read!

My thanks to Net Galley and St Martin's for allowing me this arc. Unfortunately I could not get through this and dnf.. It was a heavy read and all the navy terms and climate issue was hard to keep focused.

3.75 Stars

Michael Walker is an investigator for the National Park Service, and is hot on the trail of thieves that have been stealing native artifacts for the last three years. He thinks he has those responsible in his sights, when they are murdered in a museum in plain sight. But he is puled off of this case to get to Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska because a USGS team has disappeared.

Gina Delgado, a special FBI investigator assigned to the White House, has been sent to the Everglades National Park to investigate the murder of a USGS intern. She too is pulled from this mid-investigation, and sent to Alaska to learn how all of the people on a US Submarine died.

Michael and Gina worked together in the first book of this series, and they find their cases colliding again. They must find a way to stop what is happening in order to stop the potential threat to all humans.

This is the second book in the National Parks Thriller series. The settings being in the National Parks, I expected to have more interactions with the Parks themselves. Admittedly, the harsh climates did play a role, but they were not as central as I would have liked. The two main characters are interesting and well written, and the story was fairly fast paced. If you like political intrigue with a unique setting, add this to your TBR!

Thank you to Net Galley, the publisher and authors for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you St. Martin's Press and Minotaur Books for a copy of this book!

A pulse-pounding eco-thriller with high-stakes suspense, this gripping novel follows National Park Service investigator Michael Walker and FBI special agent Gina Delgado as they race against time to stop a global catastrophe. From the icy expanse of Alaska’s Glacier Bay to the swamps of the Florida Everglades, the story blends scientific intrigue, environmental urgency, and political tension with a terrifying twist: a deadly prehistoric organism reawakened by climate change. With rogue billionaires, geopolitical threats, and an ancient enemy unlike any other, this is a fast-paced, high-concept thriller that fans of Michael Crichton and James Rollins will devour.

Title: Cold Burn
Author: John Land, Jeff Ayers, and AJ Landeau
Series: National Parks Thriller Book #2
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Publisher: St Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books
Pub Date: April 29, 2025
My Rating: 3 stars
Pages: 368

In this story Agent Michael Walker is joined by another park ranger in a complexly different location.

In Alaska’s Glacier Bay National Park, a frozen woolly mammoth is uncovered by a geological survey team. When all of them are found dead at the site of the thawed-out carcass, National Park Service ISB special agent Michael Walker is called in to investigate.

In Florida’s Everglades National Park, FBI special investigator Gina Delgado traces the murder of an environmental science intern back to another U.S. Geological Survey team’s ongoing experiments that are decimating the fragile ecosystem.

Story took me awhile to get into it. I did enjoy the first in the series and do like these characters so am sure I will love book Three 3!

Thank You NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Book for this this early eGalley.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for April 29, 2025.

Something sinister is afoot, encompassing the globe and balancing on the knife’s edge of ecological climate change, and nothing is as it seems. Seemingly unrelated events, in different forms and in different locations, tie together in a horrifyingly realistic way, made even more so when realizing that we’ve done this to ourselves.
There are some heady events happening within these pages, both thought provoking and fascinating, and the smallest incident cannot be overlooked or you may miss the big picture. The threads of Environmental and Biological Science, US Intelligence, Native Alaskan culture, wealthy madmen running amuck and covert Russian forces come together in a timely, quite realistic novel.
This is the second book of the AJ Landau duo I’ve read and I appreciate the focus on National Parks and the factual information provided in the snippets that begin each chapter. Cold Burn, as well as Leave No Trace, are intelligently and intricately written, a treat for any adventurous mystery lover.

For me this was not a bad book, but this book just was not for me.
I had a hard time reading the navy talk and keeping up with that was going on.

I liked the plot and enjoyed reading about Tlinglet culture, very interesting.

The going back and forth between the myriad of things happening at once got a little distracting. The last bit of the book was very thrilling and I kept wanting to turn pages.