The Cold Nowhere

Book excerpt: Edgar Award finalist and international bestselling author Brian Freeman brings the long-awaited return of Lieutenant Jonathan Stride to the bitter cold of Duluth, Minnesota. Sixteen-year-old Catalina Mateo shows up unannounced one night in Detective Jonathan Stride's home, dripping wet from a desperate plunge into the icy waters of Lake Superior. Her sodden clothes stained with blood, Cat spins a tale of a narrow escape from a shadowy pursuer. Stride decides to trust this girl, but his judgment may be clouded by memories of Cat's mother. Ten years earlier, Cat hid under the porch of her family home while her mother was brutally butchered by her ex-con father. Stride still blames himself for not preventing the slaughter. But is Cat telling the truth? Stride's police partner, Maggie Bei, doubts the homeless girl, who has been living rough on the streets of Duluth since her mother's death--and now sleeps with a knife hidden under her pillow. As Stride investigates Cat's story, more violence trails in the teenager's wake--and Maggie's suspicions about her deepen. Now a single question haunts the void between them: Should Stride be afraid for--or of--this terribly damaged girl?