Alina Adams, On Thin Ice

On Thin Ice

Alina Adams

Berkley, Oct 2004, $5.99, 256 pp.

ISBN: 0425198847

Skating Coach Antonia Wright calls 24/7 Sports Network researcher Rebecca "Bex" Levy to inform her that student is the best young skater in America. Bex sees a great story in the making, so she meets thirteen year old Jeremy Hunt. The teen asks her to talk to his father Craig, who does not want his son competing in the Nationals. After watching how magnificent Jeremy skates, she speaks with Craig; he blows her off. Later she learns father and son vanished.

Deciding on a documentary on past skating greats and where they are now, Bex interviews Robby Sharpton who failed to get a medal in the Olympics. Following the end of his career, Robby went to jail for spousal abuse. His skating partner Rachel Rose disappeared, leaving him to pursue a single's career. Bex ponders whether Robbie killed Rachel so she searches for his missing partner, whom she finds in the Pocono's. A few days later Rachel is murdered; Bex believes her story was a factor in the homicide. When she returns to Rachel's home, she shockingly finds Jeremy and Craig live there.

Alina Adams, an expert on figure skating, brings the behind-the-scenes support needed to compete or put on a competition without prettying up the rivalry and pressure; that helps readers to better understand the Harding-Kerrigan incident without excusing the criminality. The protagonist may not be a licensed sleuth, but her work has given her the experiences that enable her to act like she is a professional detective putting together various threads into a cohesive picture. Skating fans will enthusiastically give a 10 to ON THIN ICE, but so will amateur sleuth fans.

Harriet Klausner