Cold Fear by Rick Mofina.

10 year old Paige Baker is on a camping trip with her parents when she goes missing. Will she be found in the remote Glacier National Park? Will a cold fear grip Paige or her parents? How will the multi-agency response handle her disappearance? Will the reader feel a cold fear or is this book like drinking cold tea?

Rick starts his novel by casting doubts on the parents. He develops a mystery surrounding their back story. He brings in lots of characters who are on the trail of finding Paige. He follows the news media as they report the disappearance and the search. He slowly reveals what happens to Paige after she has gone missing.

Rick’s writing style is that of a newspaper reporter in that his novel is bite-sized and snappy. I found this book shallow and under-developed. The mystery elements are okay and make you wonder how this story will pan out. But the search for Paige and the plot of this novel are mundane. It is all rather run of the mill and nothing was outstanding or radically different. Rick does try to develop a mystery of the dark secrets held within the Glacier National Park to give the reader a chill factor but fails as this is not cold fear but like drinking cold tea.

Cold Fear is an okay read with nothing special. It is very much like following an everyday newspaper story of a missing child. My reading pleasure was very limited and I took nothing away from this book. The ending was very far fetched and unrealistic. Rick did not develop social issues and did not have an attitude or message. There was no real darkness to this novel and overall it was very light. The plot, mystery, dialogue, character development and entertainment were all light.

Cold Fear is a disappointment for one simple reason. Rick tried to instill a fear that within the Glacier National Park there lurks an evil. To tell a tale that gives you the creeps and makes your mind wander when walking your dog, takes great skill but can be done. Cold Fear for me was like cold tea, an okay read that I will vote the middle score of 3 stars. If you want a 5 star novel that employs the hidden darkness and evil held within a landscape, then I can recommend Black Wood by S.J.I. Holiday. She can teach Rick a thing or two about writing a good novel.

Cold Fear is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook and was written in 2001.