Cold Dawn

Black Falls #3

by Carla Neggers

The small town of Black Falls, Vermont, finally feels safe again—until search-and-rescue expert Rose Cameron discovers a body, burnt almost beyond recognition. Almost. Rose is certain that she knows the victim's identity…and that his death was no accident.

Nick Martini also suspects an arsonist's deliberate hand. Another fire killed an arson investigator in California months ago. Now the rugged smoke jumper is determined to follow the killer's trail…even if it leads straight to Rose. Nick and Rose haven't seen each other since they shared a single night of blind passion, but they can't let memories and unhealed wounds get in the way of their common goal—stopping a merciless killer from taking aim straight at the heart of Black Falls.

Genres: Mystery, Romantic Suspense, Romance, Suspense, Thriller, Fiction, Contemporary

379 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 1, 2010

About the author

Carla Neggers is the New York Times bestselling author of the Sharpe & Donovan series featuring Boston-based FBI agents Emma Sharpe and Colin Donovan, and the popular Swift River Valley series set in the small, fictional New England town of Knights Bridge. With many bestsellers to her credit, Carla loves to write now as much as she did when she climbed a tree at age eleven with a pad and pen and spun stories perched on her favorite branch.

A native New Englander, Carla and her husband divide their time between their hilltop home in Vermont, a sofa bed at their kids' places in Boston and various inns, hotels and hideaways on their travels, frequently to Ireland.

Find out more and sign up for Carla's newsletter at CarlaNeggers.com.

Reviews

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cold Dawn is the third and final book in the Black Falls trilogy. It is a good finish with all the bad guys found and dealt with. This is Nick Martini and Rose Cameron's story. They are meant to be together but it takes them a while to get there! All the characters from the three books are in this one. I would recommend this trilogy which is best read from the beginning or it can get confusing. Good read!

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining suspense with good characters. Loved the Vermont setting!

[Cheryl · Rating 1 out of 5]

You know a book is not for you when you try to read it not once but twice and get no further than about chapter 3. It is made worse when the book you tried to read was done in about a year span. I read or I should say attempted to read the book when I first got it and then as part of my effort to clean up my TBR pile, I picked up the book again and put it down. So I guess I will never find out how this story ends or really began.

[April · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the characters in the book and thought that it had a good plot, but felt like I was missing a lot of the background. There were many references to things that happened in other books and I felt lost at times. I would recommend reading the other books in the series before reading this one, as I think I would have given it a higher rating if I knew more of the back story as to what had happened in the town and with the characters.

[Janet Schwiebert · Rating 3 out of 5]

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[Suzanne Barrett · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book for review from the Vine program. Here’s my take on it:

This is my second Carla Neggers book to review (and also the second in a series). Cold Dawn is a romantic suspense set in rural Vermont. Neggers does an outstanding job of using atmospheric mood and setting. One can almost feel the cold, the lonely harshness of Vermont in February.

Cold Dawn is the third book in the Black Falls series. Like The Whisper, this story suffered from a cast of thousands where I didn’t know who was involved in what and couldn’t follow the events. This is not a stand-alone book. I felt to fully understand the story, it is necessary to have read the two stories preceding this one. I liked Rose, liked Nick and the past relationship they had to work through, however, all the other characters muddled the story and made it difficult to follow events. Suffice it to say Rose, a search and rescue expert discovers a body burned almost beyond recognition in a nearby cabin and Nick, a smoke jumper in Southern California who has come to Vermont to discover (partly) if he’s after a serial arsonist and (partly) if he can rekindle his relationship with Rose, the sister of his business partner.

I felt the connections between events were vague, and when additional suspects were introduced, their motives also seemed vague. At the conclusion, I couldn’t see the villain’s motive for his actions, so the entire story did not jell for me. I also did not find the other characters compelling enough for me to want to read the previous books to learn where they fit into this story.

This particular story seemed convoluted with most of the characters somehow involved in secret government or military operations, making keeping track of them impossible. I wish I could give this book a higher rating because Ms. Neggers is a fine writer. I suggest you choose a non-series book or read the series book in order of publication.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started reading Cold Dawn not realizing it was book three in a series. I want to be fair since I jumped into a story already in progress but....
Smoke jumpers, paramedics, special forces, search and rescue, secret service, reporter.... Oh my! Each character was so full of drama it was just a bit too much. Also with the exception of Grit, the Navy SEAL, all the characters seemed cold, not just professionally, but also personally. For a group of people that are family and/or grew up together, their interaction was stiff, guarded, just did not ring true.

But I did want to see how the arson mystery was resolved so points for that. but I did figure it out, the red herring was so obvious and did not make sense on any level. So I feel this is more of a 2.5 star read but I gave it three because I did care enough to finish the book.

[Cheryl · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could not finish this book - it was so weak. :( It is clear that the author has written about these characters before, and this is the first one in the series I'm reading, so I'm not reading in the correct order. But, there are so many characters thrown at the reader, and the connections are so unclear. The timeline is incorrect, too, at times, based on what characters are saying. The author is very repetitive in the ideas she's trying to get across to the reader, and in other ones, too vague. One character is desperately trying to hide the fact that she "had a relationship" with another character, but it turns out the "relationship" was never more than her turning him down after a date or 2 - no sex, no nothing. And yet this is a HUGE premise of the book. ?? The plot flops around all over the place. Not a fan - couldn't stomach it enough to finish it.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

In my opinion, the best book in the series. Very little repetition and filler conversation, action right from the start. A serial arsonist/killer is loose mainly in Black Falls but can also be traced to California and Washington, DC.

More info provided for some of the main characters and some new characters introduced. From Secret Service agents to professional smoke jumpers - this book was well worth the read.

2 thumbs up and 4.5 stars!

[Loretta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh the tangled webs that have been woven... and obsessions warped... and, well, this was an entertaining trek to find the firebug in the dreaded team of assassins that had been plaguing the globe. Still not sure who was pulling the strings but definitely love that Charlie is finding a devoted friend in Grit.

[Harlequin Books]

Categories
Crime Thriller, Contemporary Romance, Suspense, Romantic Suspense
Miniseries
A Black Falls Novel (Book #3)

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though this would probably work as a standalone, it is so much better as a satisfying end to the trilogy. I like how each book focuses on a different Cameron sibling while following the overarching theme of the assassin network. Each book has a satisfying ending, with a bad guy being caught and the main couple coming together and admitting their feelings for each other. I also like how, even though Elijah, Sean, and--in this one--Rose struggles with their feelings and trusting a relationship is possible, their elder brother A.J. is always in the background as the foil to their angst. He is happily married with kids, showing them that they can have it all. I really liked watching Rose and Nick struggle in this one to admit their feelings for each other and trust that they could be more, that they deserve to have more . . . while also struggling to find answers to the violence around them. Is there a serial arsonist? Did they personally have something to do with bringing Black Falls (and friends in California) to the arsonist's attention? Neggers does an excellent job of balancing all this with an intense and well-crafted narrative.

[Jeannine Wickliffe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great ending to the Black Falls trilogy. Everyone is breathing a sigh of relief in Black Falls and looking forward to the festival coming up. Then Nick Marini shows up in Black Falls and catches up with Rose Cameron while she is training her dog Ranger. While there they find a body of a man who is partially burned. Rose is sure she knows the dead man, and does this have something to do with what had been happening in Black Falls. Could this also have something to do with the fires that happened in California. Is it the workings of a serial arsonist that had been working for the assassin group. Now The Camerons, their friends, and the Secret Service are all on the ball. What is going to happen next?

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book and author a lot more than I do, but this book was a struggle. There wasn't a single part of it that flowed well and allowed me to get lost in the story. They whole time I was bothered by the dialogue that comes out like word vomit and the lack of different character voices.

It's time for me to give up on Neggers and find another author because I can't sit through another one of her books. I'm just glad I at least got to find out who the arsonist is so at least I got closure.

[Iris Blobel]

My first book by Carla Neggers and I am aware of the fact that this story is part of a series, but still ...

It took me an awful long time to get into the story. It was drawn out and loooong and lots of people involved in many places. Confusing. For a little summary you need to go by the blurb, I wouldn't have a clue how to write one.

All in all, the plot was okay and kind of different from other books I've read, which made it interesting for me, but as I said above ... IMHO it needed a bit more oomph to pull me in more.

[Sarah Baxter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Action Packed.

I loved the characters in all three books in this series. I was able to figure out the "bad guys" in the last two books! I cried at the end of the third book, I'm not sure if it was because of Nick and Rose's love story or because I didn't want to leave Black Falls!

[Terri Borkgren · Rating 5 out of 5]

The third book to complete this series Black Falls Novel by Carla Neggers. In search of the firebug that killed a fellow smoke jumper Sean Cameron and Nick Martini encounter three candidates who may be this serial arsonist and killer who has already succeeded in killing more victims.Will they identify the arsonist and killer before he kills again?

[Darlene Torday · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book but maybe if I'd read the first two in order it would have been easier to keep track of the cast of characters. Also for me the actual killer/arsonist was not one I would have picked as no trail of crumbs I caught.

[Joanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read the first 2 in the series but still had a hard time keeping characters straight. Too much going on all over the place. I didn’t think the characters had any “sizzle” between them. Really, did not enjoy any in the series. They’re now off my TBRpile.

[Jill Sage · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did't realize it was the third in a series, although I definitely figured out pretty quickly that it there was something that came before. Very difficult to stay engaged with this one. There are a lot of characters and it just isn't interesting.

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was fine. I was a few chapters in before I realized I'd read another book from this series before. They get me with the cover art. I guess I expect this genre to be a bit formulaic, but when you read more than one in a series, the formula gets super obvious.

[Jessi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked most of this book. The last 150 pages or so got too complicated and the end felt rushed to me but I’d definitely try another book by this author. I was just expecting more mystery and more romance with fewer characters.

[Candy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Third book in trilogy. Ties things up nicely, especially the personal relationships. The three books should be read in order, beginning with Cold Pursuit, then Cold River. Nice characters and interesting plot throughout.

[Judith Sherrod · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cold Dawn

I'm finished with the trilogy of Black Falls, Vermont. I read all three books and found them to be interesting but I had figured out the "bad guys" before the middle of the book. Still worth the read. The Cameron family was worth the read.

[AnnMarie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed it long time since read one of her books. Was book 3 would of liked to
read first two before to find out more about all the characters,which were
great to read about them & jobs they all held.

[Crystal L Archer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great twist

You meet a lot of interesting characters in this book as the work to discover a killer for hire and serial arsonist. Well developed plot and it pulls you into interesting lives.

[Susan E. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Predictable

[Shelley-Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

The series started off good but became redundant by the third.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked the suspense. Flipped past the hot romance scenes.

[Kristin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too many characters...who is who and why do we care?