COLD HUNTER'S MOON

Wear a parka and snow goggles while you read this frosty and blood-spattered first novel. Set in the north woods of Wisconsin, the tale pits widower sheriff Lark Swenson and his inamorata, state police officer Lacey Smith, against a relentless killer who murdered two U.W. coeds three years apart and hid the bodies in a snow-covered marsh on the property of John and Ann Ranson in Big Oak, Wis. The investigation bogs down when someone starts taking potshots at Ann, and even shoots out the sheriff's windows. Police procedure and medical terminology are spot on, as is the aura of winter in the woods with hunters (of both deer and humans) zipping around on snowmobiles. The burgeoning love relationship between Lark and Lacey is sweetly developed and eerily set against the cruelly abusive partnership of Lonnie Chevsky and his battered wife, Betty. The plot races along with the threat of more murders heightened by a bone-chilling blizzard. To give more focus to the story, it is set in Thanksgiving week, with characters leaving and visiting, deer hunting still in season and the early winter weather covering all leads with a patina of ice. Lark and Lacey keep fighting their developing attraction, despite getting thrown together at every turn. Some of the rationalizations for their togetherness are a little weak but, overall, the story not only coheres but holds the reader's interest like glue. This is a great read for a night in front of the fireplace. (Jan. 14)