Review: Cold Burn by A. J. Landau

 

Cold Burn (National Parks Thriller #2) by A. J. Landau

Publication Date: April 29th 2025 by Minotaur Books

Pages: 336

Source: Publisher 

Rating: ★★★★

Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Libro.fm | Audible | Kobo | Goodreads

My Thoughts:

Special Agent of the National Park Service, Michael Walker is in Alaska tracking down the multiple thefts of Tlingit artifacts but is pulled off the assignment when a U.S. Geological Survey team has gone missing after an avalanche in Sitka, Alaska. He’s sent to help find them, but the Tlingit tribe settled in the area may not cooperate as there have been strained relations between them and the government.

 

Meanwhile, Gina Delgado, now working directly under the White House, is sent to investigate the murder of a man found in the Everglades. Her case ends up being connected to another U.S. Geological Survey team, but she is also called away to Alaska on a separate disaster involving a submarine.

 

There was an Elon Musk type of character, as well. This guy felt like his riches and intelligence put him above others and the law and didn’t care who he stepped on to get what he wanted.

 

The story was fast paced with chapters alternating between Michael and Gina’s investigations, and I wasn't sure when or even if the mysteries would connect. There was a lot going on and all of it interesting! With cutting edge science, nefarious characters and world ending possibilities!

 

Cold Burn was an exciting and satisfying thriller! I look forward to Michael and Gina’s next mystery!

4 Stars

Book Description:

Agent Michael Walker returns when multiple deaths at Glacier Bay National Park are just the first steps in a potential global disaster.

In Alaska’s Glacier Bay National Park, a frozen woolly mammoth is uncovered by a geological survey team. When all of them are found dead at the site of the thawed-out carcass, National Park Service ISB special agent Michael Walker is called in to investigate.

In Florida’s Everglades National Park, FBI special investigator Gina Delgado traces the murder of an environmental science intern back to another U.S. Geological Survey team’s ongoing experiments that are decimating the fragile ecosystem.

Beneath the icy waters of Alaska’s Elfin Cove, the crew of a stranded Los Angeles class attack submarine is wiped out by a mysterious contagion, inexplicably causing their lungs to freeze. The link between these apparently disparate events lies in a deadly, prehistoric microbe that killed the mammoth the same way it did the USGS survey team in Glacier Bay and the crew members of the submarine. A microbe that a rogue billionaire is desperate to attain, and a Russian strongman will do anything to weaponize to achieve even greater, wide-ranging power. Fighting a battle on several fronts—militarily, intellectually, and biologically—Walker and Delgado are running out of time to stop a devastating attack that would reshape the entire world.