Brian Freeman reads from "The Cold Nowhere."

“Brian Freeman is a first-rate storyteller.”--Nelson DeMille

The Cold Nowhere, the eighth psychological suspense novel by international bestselling author Brian Freeman, brings the long-awaited return of Lieutenant Jonathan Stride to the bitter cold of Duluth, Minnesota.

As Jonathan Stride returns home to his cottage on the shore of Lake Superior after midnight, he finds a teenage girl hiding in his bedroom. She's pretty, scared, and soaked to the bone...and she says that someone is trying to kill her. The girl isn't a stranger to Stride. She's the daughter of a woman he tried--and failed--to protect from an abusive, murderous ex-husband years earlier.

With the guilt of that failure still hanging over his head, Stride is determined to protect this young girl, Cat Mateo, from a shadowy predator. However, Cat seems to have secrets of her own. She's led a tough life on the streets; she doesn't always tell the truth; and she has an unhealthy obsession with knives. Stride's partner Maggie is convinced that the girl can't be trusted, and she's afraid that Stride may be putting himself in danger by letting Cat inside his house.

Wherever Cat goes, death seems to follow. A journalist who interviewed the girl has disappeared. Two more women are found murdered. Stride feels as if he is always one step behind a brutal killer who has Cat in his sights, and as the investigation races ahead, he finds himself on a collision course with another detective--a woman who shared his bed for years: Serena Dial. With all of their fragile relationships hanging in the balance, Stride, Serena, and Maggie must find out why this young girl has been targeted for death--and why a decade-old crime is coming back to life.

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Brian Freeman was born in Chicago in 1963 and lived in the Bay Area of California for several years before going to college in Minnesota and settling here with his wife, Marcia. Prior to breaking through in the writing world, he was a communication strategist and business writer in the Twin Cities and served as director of marketing and public relations for an international law firm. His books have been sold in 46 countries and 20 languages.