The Barnes & Noble Review
Adventure writer Clinton McKinzie returns to the fore with his third novel featuring cop and extreme mountain climber Antonio Burns, whose latest action-packed thriller takes readers to the dangerous peaks of Jackson, Wyoming. The author delivers a remarkably forward-moving plotline that never backtracks or slows its breakneck pace.

This time out, Burns must protect prosecutor Cali Morrow from a stalker who may be a dirty cop. As he's drawn into Cali's world of celebrities and movie stars, Burns learns that his own beloved fugitive brother may soon be arrested. Before long Burns is up in the mountains again, climbing his way to some fleeting sense of freedom even while a psychotic moves in for the attack.

McKinzie (The Edge of Justice, Point of Law) has discovered his own niche in the suspense genre with a style that is a perfect balance of mystery, police procedural, and high-altitude tension. The characters in Trial by Ice and Fire are either compromised by enormous sums of cash or are willing to throw themselves into a deadly fray for loyalty's sake. Despite the story's overt violence and occasional brutality, at its heart lies the rugged bond between brothers. McKinzie's writing style is vivid, energetic, and thoughtful enough to be wholly engaging on several levels. This winning, all-out thriller shows the Young Turk's golden touch in the arena of suspense fiction. Tom Piccirilli