Cold Burn

A National Parks Thriller, Book 2

By: A. J. Landau

Narrated by: Gregory Abbey

Agent Michael Walker returns when multiple deaths at Glacier Bay National Park are just the first steps in a potential global disaster.

National Park Service investigator Michael Walker is battling smugglers stealing priceless artifacts when he’s dispatched to Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska, where, in the first stage of a potential global disaster, a team of scientists has gone missing.

Meanwhile, in Florida’s Everglades National Park, FBI special investigator Gina Delgado traces the murder of an environmental science intern back to another U.S. Geological Survey team’s ongoing experiments that are decimating the fragile ecosystem. That is before she’s dispatched to the scene of a sunken U.S. nuclear submarine, the entire crew of which has inexplicably been killed.

The connection between these disparate investigations lies in a deadly prehistoric organism, frozen for thousands of years in the ice until global warming brings it back to life in what could mean the death of all life on Earth. An organism that a rogue billionaire sees as the ultimate fuel source and a Russian strongman views as the ultimate weapon that can shift the global balance of power forever. Against that backdrop, Walker and Delgado find themselves desperately doing battle across multiple fronts against an ancient, unstoppable enemy.

“AJ Landau knows how to keep the pages turning. A gripping read.”—Harlan Coben, #1 NYT Bestselling Author of Think Twice

©2025 Jon Land and Jeff Ayers (P)2025 Recorded Books

Good story. I enjoy the historical references and detail.

A little hard to follow, possibly due to a couple things associated with the narrator. The narrators voice is not built for multiple character voices (they all sound similar in tone and inflection) that along with mis-pronouncing words and pausing in the middle of sentences made it difficult to keep my attention.

great writing, just not for me

3.5 stars for Cold Burn which would probably be closer to 5 stars in the hands of the right reader. This was 100% just a "not for me" read, although it was really well written. I enjoy any mystery in a national park, but this book exceeded my retention capacity with three different stories occurring simultaneously in three different national parks. I feel like it must have taken an enormous amount of research, work, and skill to put this book together, and I can't say enough that the writing was really good. It was just too much for me. I couldn't keep track of all of the characters or what was going on at the different locations and within each story. Everything does come together at the end and I really enjoyed certain aspects of how that happened - won't spoil anything! If you enjoy a more complicated sociopolitical mystery with some Indigenous culture and folklore and climate change worked in - this is a great book for you.

Terribly read

The reading is absolutely terrible. I wanted to listen because the story was interesting, but could not get past the reader.