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Chuck Logan, . . HarperCollins, $16.95 (360pp) ISBN 978-0-06-057020-0

U.S. Army Maj. Nina Pryce and ex-undercover detective Phil Broker return from Logan's After the Rain in this follow-up thriller. After Pryce endures a debilitating psychological and physical breakdown from a nasty tangle with a psychopath, the estranged spouses reunite. Eager for a fresh start, Broker, Pryce and plucky young daughter Karson ("Kit") move from St. Paul to bucolic, frosty Glacier Falls, Minn., home to howling wolves and an elementary school mixed in with "all the special-ed students in the county." When Kit gives playground bully Teddy—scion of the town's notoriously disruptive, methamphetamine-cooking Klumpe family—a black eye, a blood feud is ignited that accelerates with increasing menace. A slashed tire, a stolen cat and a housebreak all lead up to Broker being outed as a former cop—the very same cop who was involved in the death of Jojo, the son of Danny Turrie, Klumpe compadre and imprisoned murderer. Revenge plots boil as Turrie looks for a way to get at Broker—and his family. Logan is terrific on the particular ex-army, ex-cop tension between Pryce and Broker, and gives his bleak rural setting real menace. With a special low "summer price," Logan's latest should easily cool numerous beachgoers with icy thrills. 8-city author tour . (July)