FROZEN LIVES

A doctor who returns to her hometown to help with the case of a missing child gets more than she bargains for when her best friend goes missing too.

When she hears that her friend Jo Blakely’s 11-year-old son, Jeremiah, has disappeared, Dr. Emily Hartford rushes from her work as a Chicago surgeon to her hometown of Freeport, Michigan. She’s able to connect about the case immediately with her old friend Detective Ishkode Aditson about the case, but there’s nothing to learn. Emily offers Jo what comfort she can, but she knows from her father’s line of work as a coroner that the worst may be coming. So Emily’s as thrilled as Jo when Jeremiah comes home safely. Though he has little memory or information about where he’s been, his family is deeply relieved, and Emily can shift her focus back to life in the Windy City and her neglected relationship with her boyfriend, Brandon. But no sooner does she breathe a sigh of relief than the trouble multiplies. This time, not only is Jeremiah missing, but so is Jo, shocking Emily into investigative mode. Was Jeremiah’s earlier absence part of some deeper plot? Emily fears that this double disappearance may be related to the case of the Sailor Slayer, a killer who kidnapped boys on Lake Michigan, doing unspeakable things before tossing their bodies away. In the absence of obvious leads, she draws on her experience as the coroner’s daughter and on her knowledge of Jo to find out what happened to her friend and stop a potential killer.

Everyday family dynamics are darkened by a creepy backdrop.