Chill Factor: A Novel

~Chill Factor~ *set in the small town of Cleary, North Carolina, where magazine publisher Lilly Martin is packing up her things at the cabin she shared with her ex-husband, Dutch Burton. Now the police chief of Cleary, Dutch desperately wants another chance with Lilly. She refuses, and he leaves the cabin, warning her of an impending blizzard. On her way down from the mountains, she accidentally hits a man in the road. She manages to get the man, Ben Tierney, back to her cabin, where they decide to wait out the storm. But the more time she spends with Tierney, the more Lilly fears he might be the serial killer dubbed "Blue," who has been abducting women in Cleary for the past year. Despite her mounting concerns, Lilly can't help her growing attraction for the man. Back in town, Dutch is frantic when he learns Lilly is trapped up in the cabin with Tierney, whom the FBI also suspects might be Blue. Dutch's concern grows, and he mounts a desperate attempt to rescue his ex-wife. The suspense builds as Brown's novel chugs toward a gripping, surprising conclusion.* * After Lilly has packed up all that she wants from the cabin that belonged to her and her ex-husband Dutch (Cleary, North Carolina police chief) Dutch wants a second chance with Lilly and she is finished as far as she's concerned the marriage is over. Being frustrated leaves Lilly in the cabin with a bad storm coming, Lilly falls asleep wakes a while later. checks the cabin one last time locks the door and starts down the mountain roads are icy while driving down the mountain road a man comes out of the woods on to the road right in her path Lilly hits the brakes the man jumps back, but the car fish tails and the man is hit, Lilly gets out to find Tierney.has hit his head on a rock and it's bleeding pretty bad,and her car hit a tree when lilly helps him back to the cabin, and she checks him out he has the symptoms of a concussion and his ribs are bruised *Before her suspicions about Ben arise, she manages to get a partial call to her ex-husband, who happens to be Cleary's chief of police, but the call is just enough to get Dutch Barton's dander up. Dutch has a lot of problems, between his wife divorcing him, being fired from the Atlanta PD, the parents of a missing girl showing up at the police station at all hours to pester him about progress on the case, and now Lilly is shacked up in the mountains with another man. To make matters worse, a couple of interfering FBI agents show up to take over his investigation, and they aren't showing him the respect he deserves. Dutch's best friend, Wes Hamer, is the high school football coach and on the city council. For his own reasons, he is just as anxious to reach the mountain cabin before anyone else, and they're all wrapped up in his football star son's relationship with one of the missing women. The whole quiet town of Cleary is a hotbed of secrets, between a school teacher and her secret lover, the police chief's problems, and Wes Hamer's infidelities, which all seem to be tied to the disappearances of the five women. While the tension heats to the boiling point in town, Lilly and Tierney have their own issues to deal with, between her asthma, his injuries, and the evidence she keeps finding that points to him as the killer, every time she's just about to trust him. I LOVED this Book! I Couldn't put it Down!! A REAL PAGE TURNER!!!!

The ink isn't quite dry on Lilly Martin's divorce papers when she and her ex-husband, Dutch Barton, part for the last time after selling their mountain cabin in Cleary, Virginia. Dutch keeps trying to win her back, but Lilly is through with him, and the emotional exhaustion brought on by their last meeting has her falling asleep when she should be heading back down the mountain before the weather gets bad. When she wakes up and takes off, she winds up hitting hiker Ben Tierney and crashing her car. The two of them limp back through the woods to Lilly's cabin to wait out the storm, where they both reminisce about the first time they met on a kayaking trip the summer before. Attraction had flared between them, but Lilly put Tierney off because she was still married. Just when Ben thinks he may have a second chance with Lilly, however, she stumbles upon his backpack, which is full of incriminating evidence tying Ben to the disappearances of five women in Cleary over the past two years. With cell phone service spotty at best and roads made completely impassable by a raging blizzard, Lilly is stuck with a man who just might be a serial killer. Before her suspicions about Ben arise, she manages to get a partial call to her ex-husband, who happens to be Cleary's chief of police, but the call is just enough to get Dutch Barton's dander up. Dutch has a lot of problems, between his wife divorcing him, being fired from the Atlanta PD, the parents of a missing girl showing up at the police station at all hours to pester him about progress on the case, and now Lilly is shacked up in the mountains with another man. To make matters worse, a couple of interfering FBI agents show up to take over his investigation, and they aren't showing him the respect he deserves. Dutch's best friend, Wes Hamer, is the high school football coach and on the city council. For his own reasons, he is just as anxious to reach the mountain cabin before anyone else, and they're all wrapped up in his football star son's relationship with one of the missing women. The whole quiet town of Cleary is a hotbed of secrets, between a school teacher and her secret lover, the police chief's problems, and Wes Hamer's infidelities, which all seem to be tied to the disappearances of the five women. While the tension heats to the boiling point in town, Lilly and Tierney have their own issues to deal with, between her asthma, his injuries, and the evidence she keeps finding that points to him as the killer, every time she's just about to trust him. Once again, Sandra Brown delivers a page-turning suspense story that bounces from character to character, creating more questions than answers as the story unfolds. Living in Minnesota, the only issue I had was with the woeful inadequacies at the cabin. Don't they have insulation in Virginia to prevent water pipes from freezing? Who keeps their woodshed so far from the cabin that it's such a production to collect firewood? From the moment the first snowflake flew, I had to wonder why nobody was using snowmobiles. That's just a no-brainer around here, and they are not at all difficult to drive, as implied in this story. They also do not have to keep to the roads, and when there is snow on the ground they can zip over all sorts of terrain, through the woods and otherwise. Those colloquial things aside, however, this was a quality suspense thriller that kept me guessing to the very end, and I give it a strong recommendation.

Oh...my...God. I have been away from this author waaay too long to have come back to her for the first time in ten years and read something as phenomenal as this. Seriously, it has been that long for me. I used to read Sandra Brown all the time, but when I was still reading her she was still writing predominantly romances. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who has since evolved in my choice of topics because if Chill Factor is any indication, she has evolved a sharp edge to her romance and I'm all for it. This was exceptional. As always I want to put it out there - I always try to give spoiler-free reviews so if I sound a big vague and you don't find this review helpful because you prefer a more synopsis type of review, then sorry to disappoint. I believe that the story info gives more than enough to help a potential reader decide whether or not to buy this to read. I just have a beef with reading reviews prior to reading the book itself now because I have had my choice to read taken from me more than a few times now by people that can't seem to tell the difference between giving a good review and telling the whole damn story. I promise I won't do that to you here. But I will tell you why this book kicked-ass. First of all, the book starts out with a vengeance. From the very first page you are already suspicious of the characters. Cleary is one of those little hick mountain towns where everyone knows everyone and everything - or do they? You have Dutch, the most dislikeable, self-centered police chief there ever was trying to solve his own personal vendetta instead of trying to solve the case involving the five missing women, there's his womanizing and egotistical best friend, Wes, and his self-destructive son, Scott, the nosy pharmacist, William, and his insecure sister, Marilee, and then we come to Lily and Ben (or Tierney, since that's what Lily called him) - the stars of the show. I love how Brown didn't force the chemistry between them. It was just there. You know, it's a bit cliche - a man and a woman is stranded together all alone in a survival situation and the author does everything in their power to get two total strangers to copulate in their stressful circumstances. But in this story, Brown didn't have to create a fantasy - Ben and Lily were not mere strangers, yet they were comfortable ones. They only met each other one time before and hadn't gotten over each other since. So even with the mounting tension between them as suspicions became aroused, they never lost their underlying attraction to one another. I really liked the merry-go-round in this. After a while, some of everyone looked guilty in this - I loved that! I didn't find this predicable in the least - although I did suspect correctly of a certain person's affair... In any case, this was damn good. I will definitely be making this author a regular in my choice of reading.

Clearly, North Carolina Clearly is the type of town that the biggest criminal activity is parking violations. Now though there have been four women that have disappeared without a trace over the past two years. The only clue is a blue ribbon left at each of the abduction sites. There are no suspects for who is abducting the woman. Now another woman has disappeared without a trace. Lilly Martin has returned to the sleepy mountain town of Clearly to close on the sale of her mountain cabin that is marking the end of her marriage to Dutch Burton the town of Clearly’s chief of police. Dutch is having a problem letting her go which is proving to be an obstacle for Lilly. Trying to out run the storm that is bearing down on Clearly Lilly ends up skidding her car on the icy road and strikes a man that has emerged out of the woods on foot. Lilly quickly recognizes Ben Tierney as the injured man and who she met the previous summer. Now with the storm on top of them they are forced to wait it out at the cabin. As the length of their confinement mounts Lilly begins to wonder if the storm is the biggest threat she faces. The biggest danger just might be the man that is beside her. Now Lilly has to figure out if Ben Tierney is the feared abductor or is who he claims to be is the truth. The man that has rescued her from harm and from the tragedy that haunts her. This is a story that keeps the twists and turns coming throughout the whole book. The suspense keeps building until the very end. This is one book that pulls the reader in and doesn’t let go until the very end when everything is completely revealed. Just as the reader thinks they have it figured out another twist comes to make them doubt everything they think they know about this one. The action and suspense keep the story moving along at a fast pace but the reader is never lost and will stay in a story that comes to life with every word that is read. This definitely one book that readers should take the time to read.

Excellent reading and story!

Sandra Brown’s talent for keeping readers on edge flourishes in Chill Factor. During the last two years five women have gone missing in the small North Carolina town of Cleary. The local police chief, Dutch Burton, a former Atlanta PD detective who was fired for drinking problems, has made no headway in solving the disappearances. His estranged wife, Lily, divorced him after years of marriage. She is headed for a new life in Atlanta as a women’s magazine editor in chief. However, a winter storm of the century has moved into the North Carolina mountains bringing people and transportation to a standstill. As Lily cautiously drives down the slippery mountain road a man darts out in front of her. She skids off the road into a tree. Because of the intensity of the storm and her damaged vehicle she and the man, Ben Tierney, who has sustained nonlife threatening injuries from contact with her vehicle, are forced to seek shelter in her mountain cabin. Fearing Lily is marooned with a killer, Chief Burton launches several failed rescue attempts only to be turned back because of the storm’s intensity. To the chagrin of the police chief, the FBI arrives and takes over the investigation of the missing women. Hope for saving Lily dims but Chief Burton doesn’t give up. Chill Factor takes the reader through more twists and turns than a Vietnamese rabbit hole. Sandra Brown wraps up the story with a wild and harrowing finish. The story will keep you engaged right up to the last sentence. I give the story a rating of 4.

I’ve always been a fan of Sandra Brown but had not read Chill Factor. I can’t believe I waited this long. It was the perfect book to read during our recent snow and extreme cold. A trapped in a cabin during a blizzard with a potential murderer is a favorite trope of mine. This book had so much going on but in a good way. I would think I knew who the killer was but then something else would happen and I’d be on another wavelength. Small town can be scary. Lots of crazies. Read this book and you will understand what I’m talking about.

This book had a number of positives, but ultimately, it was an unsatisfying read. I liked the plot, but the pacing was too slow. The story bogged down in places and there was a lot of repetition that didn't further the plot. For example, the heroine, Lily, had slow scenes where she vacillated about whether or not the hero, Tierney, was the killer. These scenes should have built tension and quickened the pace, but instead, they seemed oddly slow and flat. Scenes with Lily and Tierney, that took place at the cabin, were also slow and dull. Too often the narrative concentrated on how cold it was, what Lily and Tierney needed to do to keep warm and hydrated, the frequent forays necessary to get wood and medication, and Lily's asthma symptoms. It focused on the mundane rather than building on characterization. Yes, Lily talked about her daughter and her marriage to Dutch, but she felt remote when talking about it and Tierney never did communicate in the cabin scenes. Consequently, it was difficult to establish any rapport with the hero and heroine, until the end. As well, Dutch's and Wes' scenes, where they expressed anxiousness to get up the mountain and those scenes of their efforts to do so, were repetitious and ineffective at creating urgency and tension. I don't like too much sex in my romance books, so I was surprised when other reviewers felt the book had an excessive amount of sex, because I didn't think it did. Because this was a romantic suspense book, I found the supporting characters' sex scenes between teachers and students over eighteen to be acceptable for that genre. In a straightforward romance, it wouldn't fit, but this genre is usually a bit grittier. I found the depiction of the student/teacher sex scenes to be well written. The author managed to convey that it does harm, even though it is technically legal, and she was able to portray the ambivalence that a lot of people have about it. In addition, I don't like 'forced seduction' scenarios in romance books, and there weren't any; the rape fantasy is apparently popular, though, so I was not bothered by its inclusion. The book was certainly not pornograhic, in my opinion. I don't think the sex scenes were hot enough for readers who want erotica, but they will probably offend those who want a clean read. I was ambivalent about this book. I liked it enough to replace my paperback with a Kindle edition when it was on sale. I liked how the author brought the supporting characters to life; they were well written and I actually felt more of a connection with these secondary characters. I liked some aspects of the hero and heroine, but disliked others, and ultimately could not really connect with them. I liked the idea of the plot a lot but wasn't entirely happy with the execution. I was disappointed with this book, but Sandra Brown writes very well, so even though it was disappointing, I still enjoyed it. I would not recommend this book as the place to start for readers who aren't familiar with Sandra Brown's writing. I would recommend it to her fans, especially for those times when a reader is looking for an easy read and understands that it isn't her best work but is still a good way to pass the time. I would have given this book two and a half stars, but rounded it up to three.

I really enjoyed this book I liked the fact the book ended and I did not have to buy a second book to continue reading - I enjoyed the fact the you weren't sure till the end who the actual killer was Thanks Sandra great book

toujours convaincu que Sandra Brown est un très bon auteur et que j'ai lu presque tous ses livres. Certains ne sont pas toujours aussi réussi mais celui-ci vaut le coup. Bonne lecture

Eu gostei. É um livro , no idioma inglês , cujo argumento eu gosto Obrigado

I was on the edge of my seat from the beginning to the end. I changed my mind many times throughout as to who the guilty person was. Fantastic read.

Another great read from Sandra Brown, her stories have everything you need, intrigue, suspense, a great who done it and romance to top it off. Have read 12 of her books so far and have enjoyed them all and will continue till I've read them all