In FROZEN, FBI profiler Ulyssess Grove is investigating the maddeningly random Sun City serial killer when, on a trip to the latest crime scene, he’s waylaid by an uncharacteristic dizzy spell. To give him some time off, his superior sends him to Alaska for a piffle of an assignment: meeting a Discover magazine reporter to profile a body recently discovered in the ice that appears to have been murdered some 6,000 years ago.

Any hopes of rest and relaxation for Grove are shattered when he sees the prehistoric mummy posed in exactly the same position as the serial killer’s long string of victims. Though the mere thought seems impossible, the evidence points to a clear connection, and Grove hopes to finally catch the killer by studying this iceman. What he ultimately discovers is beyond anything he or his peers could ever imagine. I hate to sound so vague, but I don’t wish to give the surprises away.

FROZEN’s ingenious plot is like the kind of bizarro high-concept story CSI likes to trot out for sweeps weeks, but Bonansinga infuses his narrative with a 18o˙-turn that takes it somewhere into X-FILES territory. Grove is a strong, principled character, not to mention ripe with franchise potential (indeed, he’ll return in a storm-set TWISTED next year), anchoring a wholly absorbing story of science and suspense. Why this didn’t debut in hardcover is beyond me, because it’s one of the best pure thrillers I’ve read all year – a marvelous, addictive piece of detective fiction that will appeal to anyone who enjoys the strange-science leanings of the Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child novels.