Back From the Brink starts with a chaotic scene that left me scrambling for a moment to breathe.The bulk of the book keeps up the pace, detailing the investigation trying to both piece together and unravel what happened.

The fast paced yet meticulous investigative process was fascinating to a geek like me. Instead of just providing the time of death for a character, the Medical Examiner and Sheriff’s Office discussed the evidence leading to the conclusion. For example, determining whether someone could have swam from a boat to the shore required calculating how far an average man could swim based on the distance to shore, the water temperature, and subsequent onset of hypothermia.

It felt authentic to have flawed characters who knew their own shortcomings. They made mistakes and second-guessed themselves. They weren’t cut out or omniscient characters, which made the story more compelling.

By the end of the book, all storyline questions had been answered, good guys and bad guys were sorted out, and the door was firmly left open to tell more stories about Blue Mesa, Montana.

This is not the first Nicole Cobain thriller published, but it is the first one I’ve read. It didn’t matter that I hadn’t read the earlier book, because Hayes provided just enough background to explain how that case’s results contributed to characters’ motivations in the second. The characters and locations are introduced well enough for new readers to become acquainted without boring those who had read the first book.

I will happily read more of Emery Hayes’ books based on this introduction to her work. I also happily recommend Back From the Brink to any thriller fans who enjoy digging into the details of a fascinating story. ( )

This episode of the Nicole Cobain mysteries sees Sheriff Nicole Cobain dealing with dead bodies, corrupt cops, and missing evidence. She's called by the Border Patrol because of a found body encased in ice on a lake where the ice is breaking up. When she arrives the Border Patrol officers are missing.

As she and her medical examiner and boyfriend MacAulay investigate the body, they discover another crime scene. This one has an execution style killing and a missing pregnant girl. She's an undocumented alien in an area known for them because of its near proximity to the Canadian border.

Nicole doesn't know who she can trust when she knows the local Border Patrol is filled with corruption. She can't trust any of the evidence they discovered relating to the body on the lake or the young man killed execution style.

This was a tension-filled and fast-paced thriller. I also liked that Nicole was working on her relationship with MacAulay and growing to trust him more. I liked her relationship with her young son as she tries to fit in motherhood while holding a much-more-than-full-time job. ( )