Cold Spots

LIBRARY JOURNAL -- An expert at locating missing persons, Dan Kerr is called in by Mr. Warren to find his daughter Alyssa and her daughter Grace. Dan agrees, particularly after discovering Grace is the offspring he never knew was his. The trail eventually leads him to remote Quarrels Island just as an out-of-season, chilling cold descends on the surrounding area; one shop owner is found frozen solid in his office after helping direct Dan. Finally reaching the mysterious locale and making it past a folk shrine of discarded toys and handwritten notes, our protagonist is picked up by a patrol and taken to the gilded Quarrel family mansion housing Alyssa and her child. Eventually, Dan uncovers the shocking truth: undead spirits are drawn to semicatatonic Grace like ghostly moths to a living flame, and the Quarrels, who possess a sinister motive behind their aid, have no intention of letting anyone leave until Grace has completed a task involving the dank tombs of their family crypt.
VERDICT Writer Bunn (Harrow County) and artist Torres ( Judge Dredd) slowly freeze readers' fears with a compellingly frightening tale of ghosts and family secrets under an entertaining narrative that ultimately reaches a temperature of true zero.-Douglas Rednour, Georgia State Univ. Libs., Atlanta