The Cold Room
Winner of the 2010 ITW Thriller Award Best Paperback Original
He Can Only Truly Love Her Once Her Heart Stops
Homicide Detective Taylor Jackson thinks she's seen it all in Nashville—from the Southern Strangler to the Snow White Killer. But she's never seen anything as perverse as the Conductor. Once his victim is captured, he contains her in a glass coffin, slowly starving her to death. Only then does he give in to his attraction.
When he's finished, he creatively disposes of the body by reenacting scenes from famous paintings. And it seems similar macabre works are being displayed in Europe. Taylor teams up with her fiancé, FBI profiler Dr. John Baldwin, and a New Scotland Yard detective named James "Memphis" Highsmythe, a haunted man who only has eyes for Taylor, to put an end to the Conductor's art collection.
Has the killer gone international with his craft? Or are there dueling artists, competing to create the ultimate masterpiece?
"Flawlessly plotted, with well-defined characters and conflict, Ellison's latest is quite simply a gem."
Romantic Times (Top Pick)
"The Cold Room combines The Silence of the Lambs with The Wire."
January Magazine
"Morbidly elegant plot twists..."
Fiction Nation
"What Jeff Lindsay's Darkly Dreaming Dexter does for Miami, Ellison's Jackson novels do for Music City."
Nashville Scene
"Gritty and realistic and filled with intense action."
Midwest Book Review