Cold, Cold Heart

by Ann Williams

TO SAVE A CHILD

Jake Frost --- FBI agent. Specialty: Finding missing children. Status: Self-imposed exile. In hiding --- from himself.

Rachel Dryden --- Single mother of kidnapped child. One step away from falling apart completely.

After being kidnapped as a child, FBI agent Jake Frost had made finding missing children his life's work --- until a rescue attempt gone wrong sent him over the edge. Now a mother's anguished plea for his help forced him out of exile, forced him to focus on someone else's pain. Because somewhere out there was a scared little girl, and right next to Jake was a terrified woman for whom he'd risk more than just his sanity ...

252 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

A specialist in the history of Anglo-Saxon England, Ann Williams is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and a research fellow at the University of East Anglia. From 1965 until 1988 she was a lecturer in history at the Polytechnic of North London.

Reviews

[Saly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cold, Cold Heart had a very sad and tortured hero. Jake an FBI agent used to specialize in finding missing children, but in his last case he lost the child and the mother killed herself. The case haunts him and he is guilt-ridden. Then there is also his childhood who he has never told anyone about. Jake was a kidnapped child himself, his nanny took him away from his parents who got their rocks off in beating him. Jake didn't remember that part of his life but after the woman he thought was his mother died, it all came back and it is eating him alive.

Rachel is desperate woman. Her child Amy has been kidnapped by her ex-husband and she comes to Jake. Jake who doesn't want to help and is not the most gracious but Rachel refuses to take no for an answer. Jake is someone who doubts everybody, he questions Rachel and doesn't take what she says at face value, after all his parents looked normal. Rachel refuses to be be pushed aside and wait for information, instead she says she will tag along. She feels guilt that she missed the signs and finds out that her husband was a freak and not the man she knew. He got weird after her daughter was born and when he hit her she filed for divorce.

The book somehow didn't gel with me. There is this moment when Jake thinks that Rachel may harm herself, Rachel gets scared and the next moment everything is fine. At first they are very antagonistic. Rachel I didn't like her much, for some reason. These both get intimate and then just ignore it. The book just seemed a bit disjointed to me. Rachel was just too stubborn and interfering. I just expected more angst maybe since a missing child was involved.

[Debby · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jake Frost is a burned out FBI agent who specialized in finding missing/kidnapped children. After his last case ended with the girl getting killed and mother committing suicide, he quits. Rachel Dryden's daughter Amy has been kidnapped by her ex-husband, a college professor who wanted a child to become his dead grandmother. Rachel and Jake team up to find Amy. Jake has flashbacks to his own kidnapping from abusive parents by his nanny. They find and rescue Amy, falling in love along the way. They part at her rescue and reunite 6 weeks later when he sorts out some emotional problems.

Several sex scenes, strange mental twists with ex-husband. Graphic suicide/child abuse scenes. Set in Texas.