The Thriller Award–winning series continues as Detective Jude Fontaine finds a decades-old connection to missing children that will freeze her blood.A boy’s frozen body is found trapped in the ice of a Minneapolis lake. The horrifying discovery leads Detective Jude Fontaine and her partner, Uriah Ashby, to more bodies in the ice, all of twelve-year-old boys missing for twenty years.Then, in one … years.
Then, in one of the worst blizzards the city has ever seen, a four-year-old is abandoned on Jude’s doorstep. The child can’t tell them where he’s from, who his parents are, or how he got there. He doesn’t even know his name.
But in his unspoken language, Jude reads something horrifying—a connection to the dead boys. Now a four-year-old with no name may be the only key to a twenty-year-old, very cold case.
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“The Body Keeper” by Anne Frasier continues her Jude Fontaine series, the police detective with a brutal personal survival story. The high quality of this series is sustained with excellent writing, strong character development and various plot threads neatly (and surprisingly) woven together.
Gripping and well worth the read. Good characters with a strong and steady storyline. Would highly recommend reading this series to anyone interested in this genre.
I so recommend this mystery. It is book three but can be read as a standalone. It involves a female detective that has been through mental and physical trauma and is still recovering..she is prickly, stand offish, a loner, nonemotional, and a very good judge of people. You have Uriah, her homicide partner, and Elliot, a man living in her building that she is working on trusting as a friend, her cat and her reason for being…her job.
It is extremely hot here but I felt cool to the point of chilled as I read about the storms, snow, wind, and temperatures in Minnesota. The Loring Park location, the art, roads, scenery took me right back there. And to be skating at Loring Park and fall and see a body under the ice… well, that’s so not Minnesota nice! One body is weird but two bodies means a major crime scene.
The plot deals with kidnapping of children as sex trade victims…so be aware…there are no gratuitous sex scenes at all. This is more about the dead victims found and tracking down down the people involved. This involves a four year old found by her apartment called boy and finding out who he is and why he was left for her to find. Uriah is dealing with a cancer diagnosis, Elliot is dealing with secrets, and boy is missing his nana. And Jude is still dealing with issues of trust with everyone but boy….if she can care for a cat, can she care for a boy?
A solid and very satisfying plot with good police procedural information and all roads lead to tying up this book with a great ending and no loose ends. I read this in two sittings and I loved Jude and she became an inspiration of what can happen when bad things do strike good people….what does it take to survive and grow?
The Body Keeper is book three in the Detective Jude Fontaine Mysteries and the first two are not to be missed because Jude’s story is an original. Her years in captivity leave Jude with the ability alot of people are calling body reader, she seems to be able to get into the head of some people and know what they are feeling. The people closest to her are keeping secrets, her partner Uriah and her downstairs neighbor, Elliot, leaving Jude feeling exposed. Then a new case is exposed at the local skating rink., two teenage boys frozen in ice with clothing dating to the past. When she returns home, a nearly hypothermic child is covered in snow on the front of her buildings stoop. Getting into feelings she has long tried to suppress, Jude becomes emotionally involved in a case that twists and turns between the here and now and the past. Jude’s story and cases are a breath of fresh air in a world of recycled plots and characters. As always, Jude’s story leaves the reader emotionally involved and rooting for Jude. My voluntary, unbiased review is based upon a review copy from Netgalley.
The Body of a Child Missing for 20 Years Frozen in a Lake
The novel opens up with a woman transporting bodies in her rickety truck on a cold winter Minnesota night. The truck dies on a bridge, and a police car stops to see if the driver needs any assistance. She tells the officer that a tow truck is on the way, but the officer says that he will be back in ten to fifteen minutes. Frightened, she drops the bodies off the bridge into the river. The truck finally starts and off she drives. Then, the main story line starts with the heroine, Detective Jude Fontaine with her friends and coworkers trying to live in a very cold Minneapolis winter. She receives a text from a downstairs neighbor stating that he thinks that he has found a body in a local lake. Then, on returning to Det. Fontaine’s apartment building, she discovers a young boy alive but covered by a snow drift next to the building’s door. The twists, turns and surprises quickly grabbed my attention and started to read at every opportunity. The story takes off from here.
As this novel is the third novel is listed as a three novel set, the B-storyline is focused on the current actions and interactions of the main characters. Det. Fontaine behavior was explained as he was an abduction victim of her own father, killed her own father, and lives in an apartment that a young woman not long ago died. Maybe, if I had read the first two novels, I would have been more comfortable with a level of background that tied her current actions with what happened in earlier novels.
As for language, there is only one F-bomb, and a few lesser vulgar language. There are not any sex scenes. Only some violence is described as it occurs but was not really graphic in nature. That is not to say that evil acts were and are occurring. I believe that most readers will not fine this novel objectionable on these grounds.
I liked that at the end of the novel that there were not any loose ends. All the threads came together with some decent twists at the end. As stated above, the novel did capture my attention.
Overall, there were many pluses and only a few minor minuses with this novel. I did like reading this novel, but not to the degree that I have enjoyed reading novels that I rated with five stars. Therefore, I am rating this novel with four stars. I must note that I did like reading it enough that I have purchased the first two novels in this series. I do recommend reading this novel; just maybe after reading the previous novels in the series.
I have received a free kindle version of this novel through NetGalley from Thomas & Mercer with a request for an honest, unbiased review. I wish to thank Thomas & Mercer for the opportunity to read this novel early.
The Body Keeper
Detective Jude Fontaine Mysteries, Book 3
By: Anne Frasier
Narrated by: Emily Sutton-Smith
This was pretty good except it was about child traffic ring. A rough subject. The author is great about setting the scene and making the reader/listener feel like you are there. Lots of suspense, and great world building. Terrific narration.
The Body Counter (Detective Jude Fontaine Mysteries, #2), my eighth read from author Anne Frasier and the third & concluding(?) book in the Detective Jude Fontaine Mysteries. Outstanding police fiction. 9-hours 10-minute/300-pages. I’m voluntarily reading & reviewing it because every great book needs reviews. Narrator Emily Sutton-Smith’s outstanding narration adds to the book’s enjoyment. I look forward to reading more in this series & from this author. RIP Marley January 20, 2014 – July 24, 2018).
Excellent! Great story. Lots of surprises. Not all of them bad. Loved the ending!
A haunting look at the abduction of child sex slaves. If this doesn’t leave the reader with nightmares, I don’t know what would!
When I bought the book, I didn’t realize it was fantasy, a genre for which I do not care. And if it isn’t fantasy, then it is especially poorly plotted.
Made me go on and read the other books in this series by the author. They were also very good. Could not put book down.
Anne Frasier is a recent, new to me author and I feel like I won the lottery.
The Body Keeper is the third and final book in the Jude Fontaine series and although they should be read in order, to fully appreciate the growth of these characters, there are no cliff hangers.
The series is a lesson in choosing life and learning to live it. I was truly fascinated by these damaged and broken characters and their journey toward one another and becoming whole again. Don’t be misled, this is not a romance, but a journey toward trust, acceptance and healing, perfectly blended with the spine-tingling homicide cases Jude and her partner, Uriah Ashby, work together to solve.
I was delighted that the author never felt the need to rush our recovering MCs. Each story revealed a little more of their believable suffering and healing…it made Jude and Uriah very real.
I will say I was truly sad to discover this would be the final book in the series, I would love it if she somehow had a change of heart and decided to write more…I can’t recommend it highly enough.
This book was full of questions that made me want to answer.
Love this character and have read the first three books. Highly recommend!
If you like a surprising plot twist then this is the book for you…I didn’t see it coming lol
Heart wrenching cases!
Jude and company are up against some despicable criminals this time. The twists and turns were mind boggling! Loved it!
I hate that the series seems to have ended, from the start the character of Det.Jude Fontaine grabs you from the page and it just continues with The Body Keeper. Ms. Fraser crafted such a believable character and plot that it’s both marvelous and scary to read this book!
What an intriguing story. From frozen bodies of young boys being discovered in a lake, to a young abused child being left on Police detective Jude Fontaine doorstep in the middle of a blizzard. The author leads you along on a quite a journey as to what the connection is between them and the shocking yet not so shocking connection it has to Jude’s past.
Jude is still broken in certain ways but has certainly come along way from the kidnapped, abused and tortured woman who managed to survive and escape her captor in the first book of the series. She has always been a kickass woman determined to not let the horror of her past define her but still closed off emotionally from almost everyone but her partner.
So many things/people in this book come full circle. I loved the ending that just made you exhale a deep breath and go yes that is how it should be. Great series..
A fitting end to the series and I’m sad to see these characters go. The plot is both terrifying and compelling. The mystery has surprising twists that kept me from guessing the villain. There were a few things I was able to guess ahead of the reveals but it in no way took away from the enjoyment of reading. We get all our questions answered in a satisfying manner. I look forward to what this author comes up with next.
This series by Anne Frasier is a must read for those who are interested in a unique and absorbing mystery and female detective (I would suggest you begin with the first book, “The Body Reader” as the back story of Detective Jude Fontaine is important to her current status and it is an amazing read). A boy’s frozen body is found under the ice at Loring Pond. The investigation proves that the boy has been missing for the past twenty years…then another body is discovered in the pond. Arriving home during one of the worst storms in Minnesota, Detective Jude Fontaine discovers a young boy outside her apartment door. He is lucky to be alive, but can only tell Jude that his name is boy and he lives with Nana. The frozen boy’s investigation takes Jude and her partner Detective Uriah Ashby in to possible child trafficking and nothing is as it seems. A marvelous, twisted mystery with a lead detective who is still recovering from her own tragic past. I loved it and look forward to the next book in the series. I received an advance review copy at no cost and without obligation for an honest review. (by paytonpuppy)