If I think of my life in terms of combustion, it's this kind of lightning fire that comes to mind. Not a flash immolation but a slow kindling, a red ember smoking for hours, even days, until it explodes in the dry underbrush and the forest burns into fiery tongues.

One year out of prison and haunted by a family scandal, Meg Gardner is working her first legitimate job repossessing cars for GMAC. When Meg hears about Clay Bennett's death, she thinks her job just got easier. After all, how hard can it be to repossess a dead man's car? Getting the Jeep is easy; living to turn it over is another.

The Missoula police believe Bennett's death is an open and shut case. Meg quickly finds out differently when the Jeep is broken into while parked outside her home the first night she has it --- and it doesn't stop there.

A large, tattooed, knife-wielding woman orders Meg to find "it" or lose what Meg has worked so hard to have --- her lover, her home, and her life. Meg has no choice; a clean and simple life isn't in the cards for her. Two factions want what Clay Bennett had. Meg has to find out what it is, where it is...and to stay at least one step ahead of both sides.

ICED is edgy, fast-paced suspense, laced with stark violence, hard-bitten insights, and bone-chilling descriptions of the bitter Montana winter cold. Time slips by as you become engrossed in the story, driven to turn page after page, following Meg until the end of the trail.

Meg's an enigma, a combination of a typical and atypical heroine: typical in that she wants and tries to rise above her past; atypical in how she goes about it. She wants a simple life --- a home, cigarettes, coffee, beer, and when she needs it, a good gun. I couldn't feel wholly sympathetic or unsympathetic toward her, and I get the feeling that's the way it's supposed to be. Meg doesn't go out of her way to win people over, nor does she want to win over everyone; she's just allowing this one glimpse.

ICED is the second novel from Jenny Siler, who made her debut with the acclaimed EASY MONEY. Darwin, the cross-dressing Diva from EASY MONEY, makes an all-too brief appearance in this tale. Siler further develops her distinctive voice in ICED, combining harsh reality, beautiful prose, hard-edged protagonists, and an eclectic cast of secondary characters. Gritty and gripping, I found ICED hard to put down and look forward to more from this talented author.