Sandra Ruttan reviews: The Cold Spot by Tom Piccirilli
As a teenager, Chase is already an accomplished wheelman, working robberies with his grandfather, Jonah - a career criminal who can kill a man in cold blood without batting an eye. Unlike Jonah, Chase has heart. When Chase witnesses his grandfather commit murder, Chase quickly realizes that would kill his own grandson without hesitation if he thought he needed to. Chase decides to walk away from the only family he has.
Chase falls in love, settles down and walks the straight and narrow. It isn’t until the unthinkable happens that he turns to his grandfather for help to avenge the death of his wife.
The Cold Spot is a fast-paced, adrenaline charged story with multiple layers. The book has a lot of action: car chases, murders, heists, and even some physical combat. However, there’s a deeper story simmering beneath the plot twists. The question The Cold Spot poses is whether a tiger can change its stripes. How much of Chase was programmed from an early age? Can he ever truly break free from his roots, or will one tragedy send him back to his criminal ways?
It also probes the ties that bind us to our families, forgiveness, and the fine line between love and hate. The relationship between Chase and his grandfather is an uneasy one at best, and with a hardened criminal like Jonah as one part of the equation the reader knows anything can happen.
Piccirilli’s writing is fluid and his storytelling has a natural rhythm that makes it nearly impossible to critique. He masters energetic, action-packed stories that cut deeper and probe questions about what it is to be human, to love, to change, and how the things that happen to us in our lives shape the person we ultimately become.