Julie, a former Olympian biathlete from Canada, is working as a physical therapist in California and is haunted by past trauma as she tries to make her marriage successful. Her wealthy tech entrepreneur husband's (Jeff) death, apparently by suicide, rocks her world. She flees to the Banff Springs Hotel in Banff, Alberta, where she first met Jeff and where she spent good times while training. Once there, she tries to unravel the mystery of Jeff's death and the secrets he kept from her. But the Banff Springs Hotel, where she starts working, is filled with its own intriguing characters and people from her past, and she soon finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation. Luckily, Julie is armed with superior toughness (she was an Olympic biathlete after all), she has the support of her group of girlfriends, and an intrepid (and funny) Detective Monique Montpelier is on the case. But will she be able to solve the mysteries before it's too late?

Running Cold was a compelling mix of mystery and thriller that never took itself too seriously. Some of the characters, such as Julie's friend, Izzy, and Detective Monique Montpelier revealed their quirky, down-to-earth personalities as a counterpoint to Julie's perfectionism, and I found them to be funny and relatable. The setting of Banff was rendered deftly; now I must visit the Banff Springs Hotel (Fairmont Banff Springs), and I want to learn more about the the Olympic biathlon.

The strengths of Running Cold were its setting, its pacing, and it's ultimate homage to friendship. The weaknesses were that some of the characters were thinly rendered, and I found their motives scattered and slightly unbelievable. Also, there were some overdone descriptive metaphors, and the foreshadowing was too blunt in places.

I really enjoyed reading Running Cold, and I recommend it to anyone looking for a thriller that is actually funny in places, that has a terrific setting, and that resolves nicely.

I feel like this started out really strong for me!! The murder mystery had me guessing and I was blowing through the first half. I also felt like the setting was so atmospheric, it was giving Stanley Hotel vibes from The Shining and I loved it. However, I feel like the killer was revealed WAY early without giving the reader a true opportunity to start really piecing things together themself, which in turn made the last ~40% of the book kind of anticlimactic for me.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC!

Running Cold by new to me author S. Walter is a full length, stand alone, published by Lake Union Publishing.
Julie's perfect life changes in the blink of an eye when her husband dies - revealing they were living in a house of cards on borrowed time and money. She has to start over, but karma/drama follows her and soon she's accused of murder and has to find the truth in a race against time.
Fast paced, complex and full of unexpected twists and turns that kept me in suspense til the last chapter.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC copy of Running Cold. Great mystery of a young former Olympic biathlete whose green tech husband commits suicide leaving her penniless. Unsure what to do, she returns to her Candian home to restart, and the mystery deepens.

Running cold. I read this book in less than 24 hours, I couldn’t put it down. The suspense was real! I was not expecting the ending at all, but I loved it. I did figure it out before the story revealed itself, but I was still on the edge of my seat till the end. I loved the main character, she’s a strong woman. I love seeing strong women characters. The book was perfectly descriptive. It was easy to picture the scenes in my head, as if I was there watching. I absolutely loved this one.

Julie Adler is devastated when she finds her husband dead. As if that isn’t enough for her to handle, she is alsoleft penniless. She flees California and returns to the place that was once home, when she was an Olympichopeful. Her old friend Remy is now the manager of the Banff Hotel, and he gives her a job as a housekeeper. While she hopes to overcome her grief and figure out what to do, life has other plans.
A guest is murdered, and all signs point to Julie. Seems to be quite a coincidence, the death of her husband, and now a guest. Could they possibly be related? She will have to be strong to clear her name and maybe even start a new life.
The weather was brutal, but the authors descriptions of the scenery made me feel the below freezing temperatures along with the beauty of this gorgeous place. I won’t dip my toes into a frozen spoiler filled lake, but I will say that everything came together nicely. I loved the background and kept my fingers crossed as I fiercely flipped pages that Julie would emerge a winner.

Thank you Lake Union Publishing and Susan Walter for the gifted digital ARC!

The Pulse Pals are once again super excited about a buzzy upcoming thriller, and this one DELIVERED. I absolutely could not put it down, and the twists and turns were nonstop and excellent. I didn't predict anything!

As a North Dakotan I could definitely resonate with the blizzard/squall/subzero temperature portions of the book. I could almost feel the cold while I was reading.

Suffice to say this was another winner for Susan Walter! Running Cold pub date is October 8.

The fast paced thriller, Running Cold, by Susan Walter is fabulous. The book is set in Banff Canada, a magical and beautiful town in Alberta. The setting is like a character itself. The mystery is good too! Former Olympic biathlon gold medalist Julie Adler escapes from California to the Banff Springs hotel after her husband’s suicide. As she tries to pick up the pieces after her husband’s death, she starts a job at the hotel and is soon embroiled in a murder mystery. I finished this in just a couple days.

Such an enjoyable read! I've enjoyed all of Susan Walter's thrillers, and this one is no exception. I particularly loved the setting, a beautiful hotel in Banff, and I also loved the descriptions of the world of Olympic-class skiing. The heroine, Julie, is brave, clever and kind, so you'll be rooting for her the whole way. I also thought the descriptions of the dynamics of her friendships felt very real. This book is fast-paced and exciting--a great beach (or ski resort) read.

In this heart-pounding story of deception, murder, and survival, a former Olympian retreats to the Canadian wilderness for a fresh start, only to find out that the past will always catch up to her.! Great read!! This book went a few different directions at first I wasn’t to sure about it but it ended up being a fantastic book! It had suspense, intrigue, action, murder, mystery, double crossing, a great who done it and some crazy twists and turns! The storyline was very interesting and had me glued to my kindle! I highly recommend reading this one! Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for sharing this book with me!

Julie is a retired Olympic skier who is struggling to find purpose in her life. When she finds her husband dead by suicide, her grief is compounded by the guilt she feels of not being a good wife. She flees the home they shared to live and work in Banff, a picturesque mountain town in the Canadian Rockies.
Julie just wants to disappear, and working as a chambermaid seems the perfect opportunity to be invisible. Except to Ceci Rousseau, the prickly guest who is determined to make Julie feel small and insignificant. After they have an altercation in the lobby, Ceci is found dead, and Julie is arrested for her murder.
Despite the high-concept plot, the novel's strength is the characters. Julie is richly drawn and super sympathetic, as are the other POV characters (best friend, former flame, detective) who take an interest in her. I found myself deeply invested in all of them, but rooting for Julie above all else.
The plot takes some fantastic turns that kept me flipping pages deep into the night. The final showdown is supremely satisfying, which earns it five full stars.

What a wild ride of murder, mountains, and a bit of solving the mystery.

Super easy read, not heavy, but keeps you wanting to read more.

From the start this book grabbed my attention, and then it just kept getting more intense. In a good way.

This would be perfect for a rainy day, or a snow day.

Thank you NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for my E-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I finished this book in a single day and loved every minute of it! It was exciting and engrossing with a couple of good plot twists, but I also loved that the characters were imperfect, but in a way that still had me cheering for them.

There was so much detail about the specifics of different types of skiing that could have easily been boring to someone not interested in that subject, but it wasn’t boring at all and added to story in a necessary way. It made what the main character was able to do and survive much more believable.

I’m not familiar with this author but would definitely read her again.

𝑰 𝒅𝒊𝒅𝒏'𝒕 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍 𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒅. 𝑰 𝒇𝒆𝒍𝒕 𝒃𝒆𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒚𝒆𝒅. 𝑰 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝑰 𝒌𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒅...𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒆𝒙𝒕𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒔𝒐 𝒄𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒔𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒄𝒉 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒔, 𝒎𝒚 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒎𝒚 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒔𝒕 𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒎𝒚.

I've lived in the Deep South all of my life. The weather is pleasant for me about four days of the year, and the rest of the time, it's unbearably hot and humid. When I read Dante's 𝑰𝒏𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒏𝒐 in college, I was so intrigued to discover that the closer Virgil and Dante get to the Ninth Circle, the colder it became. Where was the hellfire I had heard about all of my life? The poem says that Satan beats his wings, creating an icy wind that continues to freeze the ice surrounding him and the other sinners in the Ninth Circle. I never thought of Hell being cold until I read that poem, and Susan Walters solidified that idea with RUNNING COLD.

When you read the synopsis, the plot sounds like a standard thriller, but I'm here to tell you there is NOTHING standard about this book. Julie Adler is reeling from her husband's suicide, and even worse, she founds out that her husband has left her penniless. Confused and uncertain of her future, Julie returns to the place where she felt most like herself; Banff, Canada, which is a world away from the big cities of Toronto or Vancouver. A charming, idyllic ski town where she once trained for the Olympics, now, thanks to an old friend at the Banff Hotel, provides her work as a housekeeper.

The inciting incident in the plot is the murder of a difficult hotel guest who had a recent run-in with Julie. And when she's seen on hotel security entering and leaving the victim's room at the time of the murder, Julie is the prime suspect. She can't risk being detained while she's trying to figure out what happened to her husband, so she goes on the run.

The landscape, terrain, and below-freezing temperatures are all completely foreign to me, but the author paints such a vivid picture for the reader with her contradictory descriptions; inhospitable yet welcoming; stark yet magical, that I could see the little puffs of breath escaping from Julie's mouth, and the frost on her eyelashes weighed down my own.

If you haven't read this author yet, you are missing some incredible plots, devious characters, and mind-blowing twists. I'm so proud to promote Thriller Book Lovers: The Pulse and this author! Her book will release October 8, 2024.