I cannot understand why Tom Piccirilli is not more widely read. Picking up where The Cold Spot left off, Chase is recuperating from injuries suffered in the retribution in Newark for his cop wife's senseless killing, and has found a job driving for a NJ mob family. His agenda is to steal some money and then go after his crazy, larcenous grandfather and Chase's young step-sister, who he may have with him. After all, what is more important than family? As in the prior book, Chase lays it all on the line, befriending some and alienating others. Good characters, fast paced. Fun, but quite violent. ( )

This is Piccirilli's second book involving Chase, a thief and getaway driver. The first THE COLD SPOT was awesome! A hard to put down novel that sucked you in. Fortunately THE COLDEST MILE is equally strong. The action picks up shortly after the end of THE COLD SPOT. Chase is recovering from his injuries and still dealing with the emotional aspects of what happened. However, he also has a goal, a goal reinforced by the ghosts of his loved ones who have died. The goal: to rescue his grandfather's daughter, Kylie, from being raised in a life of crime by his amoral grandfather. To finance that goal, Chase has a score in mind of robbing a weakening and dysfunctional crime family. Once he scores the money, then he'll hunt his criminal grandfather and rescue Kylie.

The book is moody, brutal and addictive! The action is equally intense as the previous book but at the same time it almost seems subdued. Chase is dealing with issues and problems that take up most of his attention. So the action becomes almost secondary to a lot of what is happening to him. But this also means that Chase is not thinking about what he is doing and making mistakes. It is these mistakes and the brutal bursts of action combined with Chase's emotional turmoil that suck us in. We can't turn away from watching someone hurt and try to do something about it. And having the whole book be retro-pulp noir set in today makes it even more enthralling. A fact that even Chase acknowledges when he notes his "throwback mentality" for using the term strongarm. This time the story is about love and moving on and having to continue to face life. A fact that slaps us across the face at the end of the book. There were revelations made at the end that totally flipped the story and left me aching for more. There is obviously more story beyond this book. Most likely one more novel to complete the trilogy. According to Wikipedia, it is tentatively titled THE COLD AND THE DEAD with no release date planned. I hope that Piccirilli doesn't forget about writing it because I know that I will snag it up in an instant. ( )

I wasn't expecting this one to move as fast as 2008's THE COLD SPOT, but it does. In fact, like our anti-hero Chases' GTO, it actually moves faster.

On a mission to locate his tougher-than-nails grandfather Jonah (as well as Jonah's daughter Kylie), Chase makes his way through the brutal NJ underworld before heading down to Florida. During his trip he gets involved with a couple of different crews, manages to piss of everyone from the low man to the Main Man (and Woman), and somehow avoids the temptations of the sexy Hildy (a street girl who floats between gangs) while keeping her just close enough to find out what he needs to know.

THE COLDEST MILE just didn't want to leave my hands; Piccirilli's prose is as smooth and readable as ever, his characters gritty, scary, and real, and I can't recall this many things happening in a single crime novel since Mario Puzo's grossly underrated OMERTA.

With action and suspense-filled gun fights, knife fights, fist fights, scams, cons, double and triple-crosses, car chases, and, as with THE COLD SPOT, no filler, fans of this neo-noir saga can only hope there's another Chase adventure on the horizon.

Don't miss this. ( )