Cold Island
When the remains of a young murder victim on Nantucket Island are discovered after thirty-five years, a detective begins to unearth the dark secrets of a community gone silent.
Massachusetts State Police detective Tommy Kelly is called to Nantucket Island, where a boy’s skeletal remains have been discovered at a construction site—interred for thirty-five years. The crime is especially gutting for Tommy, the father of two boys. It’s also the beginning of a grim mystery. Because no child during that period was even reported missing.
Tommy is partnered with Nantucket PD’s best detective, Jo Harris, who first chafes at the idea of a mainlander encroaching on her territory. And their work together is only raising more troubling questions. Then a possible link is found to the decades-old case of a serial killer—a vigilantly hidden part of the past that this tight-knit community would prefer to forget and never speak of again.
The secrets in their silence are so shocking they soon pull Tommy into a very dark place. Suddenly, offseason on Nantucket has never felt so cold, so isolating, or so dangerous.
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Peter Colt
Peter Colt writes mysteries that feel lived-in because, in many ways, they are. Born in Boston in 1973 and raised on Nantucket, he grew up surrounded by New England landscapes that now provide the backdrop for his fiction. His novels are steeped in the atmosphere of Boston’s back alleys, island harbors, and small-town secrets, giving readers not just a puzzle to solve but a place they can step into.
Before turning to fiction, Colt spent twenty-four years in the Army Reserve, including deployments to Kosovo and Iraq. Later, he built a career in law enforcement in Rhode Island, where he also trained as an FBI-certified crisis negotiator. These experiences sharpened his understanding of conflict, trauma, and the gray areas of morality, elements that echo through his characters’ choices and the dangers they face.
Detective Tommy Kelly
The Detective Tommy Kelly series takes readers to the edges of New England where memory runs deep and silence can be deadly. When long-buried remains are uncovered on Nantucket, Kelly is pulled into a case that forces him to navigate not just the island’s windswept landscapes but also the secrets of a community that does not welcome outsiders.
Detective Tommy Kelly consists of two books and series is set to expand with the upcoming release of one more book. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
