She’s stonewalled by Duffy’s family and friends at every turn, which irritates her and stunts the investigation. Nikki presses Duffy’s family for information, but they are reluctant to relive the horrifying event. The first file Nikki comes across is a twenty-five-year-old cold case involving the murder of Ted Duffy, a family man, community leader, and decorated sex crimes detective who was shot in his backyard. But Nikki is restless in her new job she finds the paperwork boring and misses the adrenaline rush of tracking down murderers. She’s parted from her longtime partner, Detective Sam Kovac, in order to work a desk job at a cold-case unit. Diminutive detective Nikki Liska wants to spend more time with her two teenage sons, Kyle and RJ, so she’s decided to stop working as a homicide detective. Bitter cold has descended on Minneapolis. The Bitter Season has been called “a dark, gritty thriller” by Booklist, a “tense psychological thriller” by Kirkus Reviews, and “riveting, enthralling, suspenseful, and fast-paced” by Manhattan Book Review. As Nikki relocates to join a cold-case unit, she becomes embroiled in a twenty-five-year-old murder mystery that ends up connected to Kovac’s own investigation. When a college professor is brutally murdered by a home invader, Kovac investigates the crime with his new partner, Michael Taylor. Set in Minneapolis during wintertime, the story follows homicide detective Sam Kovac and his longtime partner Nikki Liska, who have finally gone separate professional ways. The fifth novel in the Kovac & Liska series, The Bitter Season (2016) is a mystery crime thriller written by New York Times best-selling author Tami Hoag.

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