The Cold Room

De: J.T. Ellison

Narrado por: Joyce Bean

When Nashville detective Taylor Jackson discovers a murder victim posed like a famous painting, she’s drawn into an international manhunt in this bone-chilling thriller by New York Times bestselling author J.T. Ellison.

After being demoted, Detective Taylor Jackson is fighting to redeem herself at Nashville Metro Homicide when she is called to the scene of a nightmarish new case. A young woman is found starved to death, her emaciated body posed to echo a famous painting.

When the autopsy reveals that the victim was violated postmortem, Taylor’s fiancé, FBI profiler Dr. John Baldwin, recognizes similarities to Il Macellaio (“The Butcher”), a serial killer who has been operating in Italy for years. To further complicate the case, a Scotland Yard detective confirms similar homicides in the UK. But how could the Butcher be operating on two continents?

As the investigation spans from Tennessee to the hills of Tuscany, Taylor and Baldwin must race to find the link before the body count rises—and before whomever is watching Taylor from the shadows makes their move.

Revised edition: This edition of The Cold Room includes editorial revisions.

© 2010 by J.T. Ellison. ℗ 2010 Brilliance Audio.

Ok

Will try the next one but the whole pretender thing — it’s stale. Usually I give this author 5 stars. But I’m bored with the same under world villain.

Overall pretty good

Good story, in line with the rest of the series. My only complaint is the narrator's Italian accents sound more like Transylvanian joke voices.

Addictive

I just can’t get enough of this series! Taylor Jackson is so much fun and I love how Ellison writes her. Must listen!

Unusual mystery

This is a bit of mystery, but the type where the listener/reader knows more than the detectives, including the name of the killer—though not necessarily who he is. But the listener/reader doesn't know everything. So the reveals occur in a different way, and the listener/reader gets the perspective of the killer and the detectives concurrently. The murders are not gruesome in the typical bloody way but more eerie and psychologically frightening. Necrophilia plays a part, which I'm adding just as a warning, not to spoil anything. It could be problematic for some listeners/readers. I liked that some of the info was educative too.
The writer does an adequate job in eliciting a bit of pity, and possibly, sympathy for the murderer along with requisite negative feelings and thoughts. There's an interesting racial component to the story which the author handles well, primarily; improvements could be made. But I have read/listened to much worse. And, unfortunately, people of greater cultural understanding and sensibility are too rare to expect in commonplace fiction.
As the book nears its culmination it moves overseas, and we get a sense of Italy, it's language, the sights, smells and tastes. The narrator handles it well, and it adds another layer to the story, albeit, an unnecessary layer.
There's a bit of an established romance between Baldwin, a male FBI agent, and Taylor, a female detective. But there's no explicitness sexually, and the relationship was less than half the focus of the story. As the book is closing, manufactured conflict in the romance comes to a head. So it becomes a bit more of the focus, unnecessarily. The author seemed to be trying to make the book something it wasn't or couldn't be. Here the story was at its worst. Still, Baldwin and Taylor are likeable characters. Taylor was described as 5'9 or 6' and has a scar while also considered stunning. So she wasn't entirely the "typical" beauty and heroine in EVERY way.
The book held my attention until one of the final reveals in the last 2+ hrs.; it was just so cliché. Also, I think the story could've been wrapped up a little sooner. And I was turned off by the compliment to a woman regarding her emotional strength when she was told that she was stronger than 10 men. So even emotional strength is based on a man too?
There's a small thread in the story that references an unrelated case, and that case is dangled as bate to continue with Taylor's story. I'm not interested.

Good Story bit of everything

Good story intriguing, gave main antgonist character a little early for me. ended with an opening for another story. not so keen on the accents however was easy to follow.