A Killing Frost by Hannah Alexander

A Killing Frost by Hannah Alexander ISBN-13: 9780373786404 Trade Paperback: 368 pages Publisher: Steeple Hill Released: December 25, 2008

Source: Bought through Half.com.

Book Description, my take:
Doriann never expected to be kidnapped--what eleven-year-old would? Both the killer and his girlfriend are high on drugs, and reckless driving seems likely to kill her before they do. Instead, it provides a way for her to escape. But her kidnappers are trying to catch her, and Doriann is lost in a swampy wilderness with freezing temperatures predicted for that night...

Dr. Jama Keith has returned to her home town to work at the new medical clinic under a difficult boss. She doesn't want to be there: everyone knows her mistakes from when she was a rebellious teen and the man she just refused to marry lives there. It doesn't look to be a pleasant two years to work off her student loan, especially since Tyrell doesn't seem ready to take "no" for an answer. And she does love him. It's simply that he's bound to hate her if he ever learns the secret guilt she carries from her past.

Events throw Jama and Tyrell together to save lives and then to help search for Doriann, Tyrell's niece.


My Review:
A Killing Frost is Christian romantic suspense. Actually, it's two stories--Doriann and the kidnappers in one storyline and Jama and Tyrell in another, and they only briefly merge at the end.

The characters were complex and acted in realistic ways. The vivid details brought the setting and characters alive in my imagination. The high suspense was created by medical emergencies, threat of physical danger to Doriann, and relationship tensions.

Doriann--the kidnapped 11-year-old--was grabbed by the bad guys while she was disobeying her parents, so she started bargaining with God that she'd never do this or that again if he'd only protect and save her. By the end, she realized that God had been taking care of her long before she started making bargains with him. One of my favorite lines was, "This was why Humphrey was a wandering dog. Because God knew that someday, this dog would need to wander here and find a freezing kid in the middle of a killing frost" (to help keep her warm). I loved Doriann's part of the story.

The Christian element was woven into the story, and it never came across to me as preachy. There was a minor amount of "he swore" style bad language. There was no sex. Over all, I'd recommend this well-written, suspenseful novel.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


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