Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Ice Cold Heart by P. J. Tracy

P. J. Tracy was the pseudonym of mother and daughter writing duo P. J. and Traci Lambrecht. They created the Monkeewrench team, a group of crack cyber and software professionals led by Grace MacBride in the Twin Cities. The first book in the series, Monkeewrench (Putnam, 2003), won the 2004 Anthony for best first novel. They wrote seven more books about the Monkeewrench gang and their growing involvement with the Minneapolis police before P. J.'s passing in December 2016. So far, the series has won Anthony, Barry, Gumshoe, and Minnesota Book awards. Traci continues to write, producing two more books about the Monkeewrench crew and beginning a new series set in Los Angles introducing LAPD Detective Margaret Nolan.

Ice Cold Heart (Crooked Lane Books, 2019) is the 10^th and latest story about the Monkeewrench software experts. I was interested to note that the team has transitioned from focusing on game software, their occupation in the first book, to cybercrime and digital forensics. It’s a pleasure to see technical IT details gotten right. Having some background in this area, it is annoying to read largely inaccurate descriptions of hacking teenagers. Grace MacBride has progressed, too, now married to Minneapolis detective Leo Magozzi and the mother of their daughter Elizabeth. She no longer jumps at the slightest sound and surrounds herself with over-the-top security measures.

The lull in MPD’s homicide workload ends when Kelly Ramage’s tortured and manacled body is found in an empty house. As gruesome as the crime is, worse follows when Magozzi learns it’s identical to a murder that happened in California a year before. Both are linked to exhibits by avant garde artist Rado, whose work is considered by some to be genius and some to be pornographic. Other threads woven around the search for what may be a serial killer are Monkeewrench’s current assignment to plug the holes in cryptocurrency software that allowed the theft of millions of dollars and an ICE investigator’s hunt for war criminals from the 1990s Yugoslavian conflict.

As always, a visit with the Monkeewrench team is an intense experience. A chilling set of crimes conveyed in a complex entwining of story lines that come together in the end for a satisfactory conclusion. I am a little afraid this might be the last of the Monkeewrench tales; there are definite indicators of wrapping up character arcs. I can understand Tracy’s interest in branching out into new territory but I am always sorry to see original and fully realized fictional worlds archived. The door is not completely closed so I will hope to see a new adventure featuring Grace, Annie, Harley and Roadrunner with Leo and Gino again. Library Journal starred review.

 

·         Publisher: ‎ Crooked Lane Books (September 10, 2019)

·         Language: ‎ English

·         Hardcover: ‎ 320 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎ 1643851322

·         ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1643851327

  

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2021 

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.