Cold Cold Heart
Tami Hoag, 2015
Penguin Publishing Group
400 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780525954545
Summary
Dana Nolan was a promising young TV reporter until a notorious serial killer tried to add her to his list of victims. Nearly a year has passed since she survived her ordeal, but the physical, emotional, and psychological scars run deep.
Struggling with the torment of post-traumatic stress syndrome, plagued by flashbacks and nightmares, Dana returns to her hometown in an attempt to begin to put her life back together. But home doesn’t provide the comfort she expects.
Dana’s harrowing story and her return to small-town life have rekindled police and media interest in the unsolved case of her childhood best friend, Casey Grant, who disappeared without a trace the summer after their graduation from high school.
Terrified of truths long buried, Dana reluctantly begins to look back at her past. Viewed through the dark filter of PTSD, old friends and loved ones become suspects and enemies. Questioning everything she knows, refusing to be defined by the traumas of her past, Dana seeks out a truth that may prove too terrible to be believed. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—January 20, 1959
• Where—Cresco, Iowa, USA
• Raised—Harmony, Minnesota
• Education—N/A
• Currently—lives in Malibu, California, and Wellington, Florida
Tami Hoag is an American novelist, best known for her work in the romance and thriller genres. More than 22 million copies of her books are in print.
Early years
Hoag was born in Cresco, Iowa and raised in the small town of Harmony, Minnesota. Because her siblings were more than ten years older than she, and there were not a lot of other children nearby, Hoag developed an active imagination, making up stories to entertain herself.
In 1977 she married her high school sweetheart, Daniel Hoag, shortly before he finished college. However, she never had the opportunity to go to college herself, as they moved to a town without easy access to higher education. The couple were later divorced.
Before publishing her first novel, Hoag held varying jobs, including a stint as a photographer's assistant, training show horses, working at the circulation desk at a newspaper, and even selling designer bathroom accessories.
Writing career
She began her career as an author in 1988, writing category romances for the Bantam Books Loveswept Line. After several years of success in that field, Hoag switched her focus to single-title suspense novels. She has had fifteen consecutive New York Times bestsellers, including five in a 20-month span. Her novel Night Sins became a TV miniseries starring Valerie Bertinelli and Harry Hamlin. Hoag has been invited to do a reading at one of Barbara Bush's literacy functions, and then had lunch with former President George H.W. Bush and Mrs. Bush at their home.
Hoag and three other authors who made the leap from romance to thrillers at roughly the same time (Eileen Dreyer, Elizabeth Grayson and Kimberly Cates) have formed a group they call the Divas. The group provides support and encouragement for each other, and Hoag often thanks them in the acknowledgement section of her books.
Personal
Hoag currently lives in Malibu, California, and Wellington, Florida. She owns horses and often goes for a ride to combat writer's block. She has competed in dressage at a national level, but stopped competing after breaking five vertebrae in her back during a fall while trying out a horse for a friend. Hoag is fully recovered from her accident, and has returned to the competition arena. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 3/24/2015.)
Book Reviews
Ms. Hoag weaves the intensifying plot in Cold Cold Heart with the expertise of a master seamstress blind stitching the facts, moving through multiple characters' voices, taking readers on a journey into the inner depths of her characters' minds, and in Hoag style, deliveri
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Chilling and satisfying.
People
An unforgettable read.
RT Book Reviews
Dana Nolan, the heroine of this chilling psychological thriller from bestseller Hoag...was captured by the serial killer known as Doc Holiday, who tortured and raped her. Dana managed to escape her tormentor, but she suffers from PTSD as well as a traumatic brain injury.... Hoag fans will appreciate the cameo appearances of detectives Nikki Liska and Sam Kovac from earlier books.
Publishers Weekly
TV news reporter Dana Nolan, who escaped from a serial killer, still suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. Is that why everyone looks suspect when she reopens the investigation of her best friend's disappearance after high school graduation?
Library Journal
[T]alented young newscaster Dana Nolan is left to navigate a psychological maze after escaping a serial killer.... Tense, tightly woven, with every minor character...ratcheting up the tension, Hoag's narrative explodes with an unexpected but believable conclusion. A top-notch psychological thriller.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. The prologue of Cold Cold Heart opens with a chilling scene as Dana is poised to try and fight her captor for her life. Imagine yourself in that situation. Do you think you could summon the courage to do what she did? Do some people have more of a survivor’s instinct than others?
2. As the only surviving victim of a serial killer, Dana’s scars are both physical and emotional. Consider the differences between the two types of pain. Which would be the worst for you to live with? How would you cope with each?
3. In chapter 1 Dr. Rutten explains Dana’s brain injury to her mother, saying every brain is different but there’s one thing he does know to be true in every case: "the person you love will be changed from this, and that will be the hardest thing of all to accept." This indeed plays out throughout the novel. Discuss old Dana and new Dana.
4. Dana’s mom and stepdad deal with Dana’s ordeal and recovery in very different ways. Discuss their coping mechanisms, both healthy and unhealthy. Does one deal better than the other?
5. Tami Hoag never goes into too much detail about what happened to Dana during her captivity. Why do you think that is?
6. When Dana’s brain injury results in memory loss she must learn about her best friend’s disappearance all over again, essentially reliving it. Can you imagine having to relive a traumatic event all over again and experience it anew?
7. How does Dana’s perception of her teenage self differ from how others viewed her at that time? Are you the same person you were in high school? How would someone perceive you differently today from your teenage self?
8. If you were the victim of a horrific crime would you want to remember what happened?
9. Discuss John Villante. Do you find him to be a sympathetic character?
10. What about Tim Carver? Did your opinion of him evolve as the story went on?
11. Discuss post-traumatic stress disorder and the different ways Dana and John both experience it. Do any of the other characters exhibit signs of PTSD?
12. How is the stray dog an important figure in the story? What effect does the dog have on John and his life?
13. What were your thoughts about Dan Hardy when he was first introduced into the story? Did those thoughts evolve?
14. John Villante has a complex relationship and history with his father. Dana has difficulty in her present-day relationship with her stepfather. Discuss the father/child dynamics and how the parents’ lives impact their children’s lives in this story.
15. Through the tragedy of Dana’s experience, she gets an opportunity to reinvent her life. If you could reimagine your life, would you do things differently?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)