Cold Day in July by Stella Cameron

From Barnes & Noble

The Barnes & Noble Review
Simmering passions, quirky townspeople, and a gruesome murder in a bayou town that’s not as sleepy as it appears are the main elements in this sizzler from Stella Cameron. The romantic thriller kicks off with an intense middle-of-the-night chase through deserted backroads and swampy woods, a scene that will leave readers just a tad wary of driving alone at night. Soon, Reb O’Brien and Marc Girard -- each harboring their own motives, along with barely concealed feelings for each other -- find themselves teaming up to expose a murderer in quiet Toussaint, Louisiana. Cameron adds enough humor to the story, by way of a cast of colorful secondary characters, to counterbalance the slowly but steadily developing attraction between Reb and Marc and the mounting tension of their investigation. The oppressive Louisiana heat pervading this heart-stopping novel will be no match for readers' emotions as they race through to the end. Karen Burns

From the Publisher

In bestseller after bestseller, Stella Cameron has thrilled critics and fans alike with her fast-paced, spellbinding novels of romantic suspense. Now, the New York Times bestselling author weaves a tale as darkly sensual and dangerous as its Southern setting, where a beautiful doctor and a prodigal son investigate the murder of a woman whose identity is as mysterious as her death…

Toussaint, Louisiana, is a sleepy bayou town where live oaks stretch over roadways, men raise crawfish the way their granddaddies did, and Spanish moss hangs in ribbons above the swamps and dirt roads, keeping everything shaded from the hot July sun. It’s a place where people are used to feeling safe-until the body of singer Bonnie Blue is found at the base of St. Cecil’s belfry stairs, her eyes searching, her neck broken.

Local medical examiner Reb O’Brien has lived in Toussaint all her life, but she doesn’t believe the gossip -- that Bonnie’s death was an accident, an unfortunate fall in the dark. She remembers all too clearly the rape/murders of two other women a year earlier. The killer was caught and placed behind bars. But now, what happened to Bonnie raises chilling questions about a case thought long closed.

Marc Girard doesn’t believe in accidents. What he does believe is that the dead woman may be his missing sister, Amy, a lost soul with a history of drug and man problems. Though he’d vowed to stay away from Toussaint, where his wealthy, aloof family had been disliked by the ordinary townsfolk, Marc is coming home to search for the truth -- even if it means joining forces with Reb O’Brien, a woman he left behind with his past. But the Reb he remembers -- an annoyingly brainy, precocious seventeen-year-old who followed him like a puppy -- has matured into a fascinating and beautiful woman who doesn’t get pushed around by anyone. Not anymore.

Though they may not like each other, Marc and Reb will have to work together to solve riddles with no answers: Who could Bonnie have been meeting at St. Cecil’s in the dead of night? What does she have to do with the disappearance of Marc Girard’s sister? And if the wrong man is sitting in prison, could the real killer still be slipping through the bars and cane fields, front porches and back roads of a town they once thought safe? It’s a tangle of secrets as dark and deep as the muddy waters of the Atchafalaya, where friendly faces and Big Easy manners hide deep-rooted jealousies and cold-hearted hate. With only each other to trust, Marc and Reb’s mutual wariness gives way to newfound closeness that marks them for gossip in a town ready to explode, and leads them to a blinding passion that may make them vulnerable to the greatest betrayal of all…

Stella Cameron is a bestselling, award-winning author of contemporary and historical romantic suspense novels. There are over eight million copies of her books in print including, Tell Me Why, Finding Ian, Glass Houses, Key West, and French Quarter. She lives near Seattle with her husband, Jerry.

Publishers Weekly

Popular romantic suspense writer Cameron (Glass Houses, etc.) concocts a gummy Cajun stew of a novel, cramming a cast of bayou denizens into this oddly off-balance offering. When Bonnie Blue, an enigmatic singer passing through Toussaint, La., is strangled at the local church, town residents assume her death has nothing to do with two other recent murders. Redhead Reb O'Brien, the local doctor, isn't so sure, and when Marc Girard, town prodigal son and Reb's high school crush, comes back to investigate the crime, matters become even more complicated. Marc believes Blue was his estranged older sister Amy; Reb is ready to believe him, but finds she must concentrate on her own safety when she and her poodle, Gaston, are attacked. Local priest Cyrus and his assistant Madge are also distraught, as they had been trying to help Bonnie Blue before she was killed. Cyrus's eccentric housekeeper, Oribel, and her beautiful, sly daughter, Precious, have their own ideas about what is going on, and Precious is involved in more than just plotting to keep her errant husband, Chauncey Depew, in line. Meanwhile, Marc finds himself still inexorably drawn to Reb, and she to him, just as when they were in school. Strangely for so ordinarily adept a writer, Cameron fumbles her plot and badly misjudges the novel's pacing. The dialogue is choppy and the ending is jarringly abrupt, as if missing a large piece of the action. (Sept.) Forecast: Cameron has a proven track record, but even fans may be baffled by this latest. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

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