Tom Donaghey's Reviews > Cold Snap

Cold Snap (2022) (A. Cutler #4) by Marc Cameron. This is a standalone novel, thankfully, as I have not read any of the previous three books featuring US Marshal Arliss Cutter. He is working in Anchorage, Alaska when body parts are discovered dotting the shoreline. Arliss and his Marshal partner, Lola Teariki, agree to lend the local police a hand in tracking the killer. There is the label the “Tall Man” applied to the unknown abductor of local prostitutes and he becomes the center of the search. But Arliss gets sidetracked into agreeing to go north on a prisoner transport mission.
And so the real story begins. The four prisoners should have been an easy cargo but things never go smooth in this kind of novel. And Alaska is a huge state where the wilderness starts just about 100 feet off of most highways and roadways. This shouldn’t be a problem as the Alaska Police are providing air travel for the group, but things go wrong.
Mr. Cameron’s three decade time in law enforcement including time with the Marshall Service brings all the technical knowledge of the law into play on nearly every page. And his details of life and survival in Alaska help the reader feel the wind on their face, hear the sniffling grunts of bears nearby, and the bitter chill of near-death exposure to the bitter climate. The two parts of this book, the investigation into the killer’s identity and Cutter’s trek through the wilderness, play well off each other and draw the reader in with a masterful touch.
It is no wonder that Mr. Cameron was chosen to work on some of the Tom Clancy, Jack Ryan novels. He brings an authenticity to his work few writers can.