Broken Ice
Ratings2
Average rating3.5
15
Ratings2
Average rating3.5
"Nils Shapiro has been hired to find missing Linnea Engstrom, a teenager from the small northern hockey town of Warroad, MN. Most of Warroad is in Minneapolis for the state high school hockey tournament, and Linnea never returned from last night's game. Linnea's friend Haley Housch is also missing--and soon found dead. Shot through the arm with an arrow at the Haley Housch crime scene, only the quick work of medical examiner Char Northagen saves Nil's life. Nils should be in the hospital recovering from his near fatal injury, but he knows that the clock is ticking. Linnea could be anywhere, and someone doesn't want her found. Is Linnea a victim, or is she playing a dangerous game? As bodies start piling up, the clues lead Nils and Ellegaard north to Warroad, a small, quiet town with many secrets to hide"--
Series
4 primary booksNils Shapiro is a 4-book series with 4 primary works first released in 2017 with contributions by Matt Goldman.
Reviews with the most likes.
Second in the Nils Shapiro series, but my least favorite. Perhaps because I'm not all that interested in hockey?
Matt Goldman writes a solid mystery. The inciting incident is confusing at the beginning, and by the end, you understand how everything went down, even if the ‘why' of human nature doesn't necessarily jibe with how you roll. The detective, Nils Shapiro, is sharp, but he's not Sherlockian. Nor is he Mike Hammer. He doesn't walk into a room and instantly know everything like Holmes would, and he would never beat an answer out of someone. He gets it done by being smart, asking good questions, and paying attention. He dogs out the answers with relentless pursuit and the occasional epiphany. The characters in Goldman's books are real. The mystery and the solution are believable. And the prose is as crisp as a late fall evening in Minnesota.
This being the second go-round of the aforementioned Mr. Shapiro, as a reader, you're always on the lookout for the proverbial Sophomore Slump. I'm glad to say that if Goldman's first book, ‘Gone to Dust,' was a solid base hit, then ‘Broken Ice' is a stand-up double. I'm using baseball analogies, but given the subject of the book, I think hockey analogies would be a little bit more productive, but it's a little tougher to think of one.
Let me think for a second...
In this book, Goldman five-holes the goalie from just inside the blue line. I found the prose even better than it was in ‘Gone to Dust,' and the mystery was even more interesting. Nils Shapiro, being a private detective, only gets called into things that the police can't figure out on their own, so by that notion, the mystery is never going to be cut-and-dried, and Nils will have to do his own legwork.
The story clips along at a good pace, but it's never hurried. The writing is readable and adult. Goldman doesn't pull punches, but he can gloss the prose with a little Minnesota Nice when necessary. Goldman's background in TV writing is evident as the book is also quickly recognizable as being worthy of a film adaptation. You can see the television beats and the scenes flow with visual appeal. I'd love to see the BBC get ahold of this series for a run on ‘Masterpiece: Mystery.'
I'm looking forward to starting the third Nils Shapiro book, ‘The Shallows,' because of how much I enjoyed the first two of Goldman's books. If the publishing gods are willing, Shapiro will have a long and healthy run at the presses.
