Deep Freeze — Patricia Hall

Yorkshire newspaper reporter Laura Ackroyd and DCI Michael Thackeray are finally trying their hand at living together after years of carrying on a tumultuous affair. Though they care deeply for one another, each seems to constantly have one foot out the door, reluctant to allow their personal relationship to interfere with intense professional ambitions that often conflict.

Neither is surprised when their new domesticity proves complicated as they end up investigating the same controversial case---the fatal shooting of a young teenager outside a women's health center and abortion clinic in town. Tensions in Yorkshire are running high anyway, because the tragedy coincides with the visit of a notorious American right-to-lifer, and the vicious murder adds fuel to an already out of control fire.

Ackroyd and Thackeray must use their vastly different investigation styles to find the truth about what happened to the young victim, and before they are finished they just might be forced to work more closely together than they ever have before.

Patricia Hall's Yorkshire mysteries are highly praised both for her intricate and authentic procedural style and for the engaging and complicated relationship between Ackroyd and Thackeray. In Deep Freeze, Hall once again delivers a tense, emotionally involving, superbly plotted, and suspenseful mystery.