Irene Hannon’s second installment in her “Men of Valor” series, “Thin Ice,” picks up with the story of the next McGregor brother — Lance, ex-Delta Force and now rookie FBI agent in St. Louis.
His first case as an FBI agent is a real doozie — Christy Reed has received a kidnapping letter about her sister, who died in a fire two months ago. But you see, the envelope is addressed to Christy in her sister Ginny’s handwriting. So Christy secretly turns to Lance for help.
What follows is a crazy story as Lance must figure out if Ginny died in the fire, or, if she didn’t, whose body was recovered; if she was taken, why would the kidnapper wait two months and not demand a ransom; and who is the lunatic toying with Christy, and why?
In addition to Christy and Lance’s story, we revisit brother Mac and his now-fiancee Lisa, and Army Ranger Finn who faces his own crisis. And for fans of Irene Hannon, we meet Mark and Emily again, characters from her prior book “An Eye for an Eye.”
“Thin Ice” is a great, fast-paced suspense book with just enough romance to soften the hard, tension-filled story. It also touches on the subject of God and the characters’ belief in him, but not in an overt, pushy manner.
It deals with many themes, such as mistakes happen, sometimes with deadly consequences, and how we deal with them; fear, which can be confining and restrictive, and overcoming it (“Sometimes the darkness can overwhelm — and blind. When that happens, it’s easy to get lost. I’ve been there — and it’s not a pretty place” — Lance); second-guessing; and faith and hope. Two common threads that repeat throughout the book are “to everything there is a season” and “trust in the Lord with all your heart.”
Irene Hannon never disappoints with her novels, and “Thin Ice” is no exception to that rule. And, on a weird side note, her novels always have amazing covers!
I can’t wait to read the next installment, which I assume will tackle Finn’s story.
Five stars out of five.
Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group, provided this complimentary copy for my honest, unbiased review.
“Thin Ice” (Men of Valor series, #2) by Irene Hannon