Chill Factor

by Sandra Brown

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Seeing Red comes a suspense novel about a woman trapped in a remote cabin with a man who may be a serial killer.

Five women are missing from the sleepy mountain town of Cleary, North Carolina, and a blue ribbon has been left near where each woman was last seen. Lilly Martin has returned to Cleary to close the sale of her cabin. But when her car skids and strikes a stranger, Ben Tierney, as he emerges from the woods, they've no choice but to wait out a brutal blizzard in the cabin. And as the hours of their confinement mount, Lilly wonders if the greater threat to her safety isn't the storm, but the stranger beside her....

• ISBN10: 1416593527
• ISBN13: 9781416593522
• Publish Date: 1 June 2008 (first published 1 August 2005)
• Publish Status: Unknown
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Imprint: Pocket Books
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 416
• Language: English

Reviews

[Nadz@Totally Addicted to Reading]

I have a few Sandra Brown books on my shelves, and I hope to read them all for 2020. The next of her books on my list was Chill Factor. I was ecstatic when I discovered it was also in Kindle Unlimited so I went with reading the e-book version which made things simpler, when I needed to read during my lunchtime at work.

Chill Factor proved to be an interesting read. The story takes place in the small town of Cleary, where nothing is secret. Gossip, blackmail and the illegal dispensing of drugs is rampant in this little town and it would appear that the chief of police had no control over the illicit activities. He could not even solve the case of the five women who had gone missing in the last two years, all because he got caught up in his own personal issues.

I thought the mystery was well done. It had me guessing from the start the identity of the person responsible for the missing women and wondering what was their motive. What made this interesting and had me thinking was the fact that the five women who had gone missing had nothing common except for their kidnapper/killer. There were so many things happening and it was hard figuring out who could be trusted. There were so many suspects, which also included the male protagonist Ben Tierney. Yep, this added to intrigue. I didn’t like how the FBI handled the situation to begin with, but they redeemed themselves.

The characters proved an interesting bunch. We have Lilly, who finds herself stranded in her cabin with a man she is attracted to, but who may be a serial killer. Ben (Tierney), who proved difficult to read and who has the hots or Lilly. Dutch, the chief of police and Lilly’s ex-husband who was manipulative, selfish, and a serial cheater. Wes, the chief’s best friend a womanizer who had an ego the size of the Pacific Ocean. Then there was Scott, who was heading down a road of self-destruction, which was inevitable with a father like Wes. Then we have William, the town’s pharmacist and his spinster sister Marilee. These two came with their own brand of issues stemming from losing their parents at an early age and a host of other problems.

The story focused on the happenings in the town and the search for the villain, therefore the romance took a back seat. One could not deny the chemistry between Ben and Lilly. They were not strangers as they had met a year ago, but only for a short time. So, their being trapped in her cabin was a reunion of sorts.

Conclusion/Recommendation
Fans of romantic suspense would love Chill Factor. It’s entertaining, riveting and filled with several twists.

[ibeforem]

This book has stolen the "my favorite Sandra Brown" title from Envy. It is an extremely well crafted thriller, where everyone has a secret and even nature is the enemy. This book has it all.. secret affairs, drugs, washed-up-middle-aged-bullies, a serial killer, divorce, unwanted pregnancy, the FBI, a whole lot of snow and ice, and a red herring to beat all red herrings. Brown had me fooled through the entire novel, and even when I knew I was wrong I still couldn’t quite believe it. To me, this is the mark of some masterful character crafting. There’s not as much romance as you usually find in a Sandra Brown, but there’s enough to whet your whistle. And enough secrets to last a lifetime. There are a few holes in the police procedural parts of the plot (say that 5 times fast), but with all the intrigue, I just didn’t care.