The Cold Nowhere by Brian Freeman

John found this book to be easy reading and a real page turner.

Ten years ago, six year old Catalina Mateo hid while a knife butchered her mother and a bullet killed her father.

Now, a rough-sleeping orphan, Cat arrives at the house of Detective Jonathan Stride, pleading for protection. Covered in blood and drenched in the icy waters of Lake Superior, she claims to have escaped a killer.

Stride’s instinct is to protect Cat, whose late parents’ case still troubles him, and he takes the troubled teenager under his wing. However, Stride’s partner Maggie is not convinced. She doubts Cat’s sincerity, who now sleeps in Stride’s house with a butcher’s knife under her pillow.

As Stride continues to care for Cat, Maggie’s suspicions solidify, and a single question occupies the void between them. Should Stride be afraid for, or of, this terribly damaged girl?

Recommended by John H, one of our readers