Laura has lost it all. In one strange and tragic night her husband and daughters were brutally murdered as she worked late at the office. The news sent her into a downward spiral of depression and regret. It became all the more intense when she knelt in the blood of her husband’s last struggle. Unable to cry, unable to release the pain or share it with others she folds herself into a coiled rage ready to explode as soon as the time is right. Tugged by wisps of memories, her feet move her in whatever direction the pull dictates so long as it leads her closer to understanding what happened and who was responsible.

All the while her inner torment grows, until its grip is unbearable. The only thing keeping her from unloading a pistol in her mouth or diving off the top of a building is the belief that she will be guided to find and destroy the people who did this, but she’d better hurry. Two detectives assigned to the case get swept up in the same spell of happenstance. Fate finds these three individuals crisscrossing the most dangerous parts of the city as well as the darkest parts of the own lives in search of each other and the truth.

One of the curious talents developed by some writers is the ability to take the reader into a place that cannot be reached by other means. In Cold Streak,  Lewis Aleman takes us deep into the mind of a woman who has been pushed over the edge. We get to hear her rambling, nightmare driven rationalizations, we get to feel her torment in vivid detail and share in her quest for vengeance.

What starts as a straightforward murder mystery changes form as Laura’s vigilance turns one unsightly crime scene into a spree of gruesome killings that would more appropriately belong in a horror novel. Then just as her job is about to be completed a supernatural element seeps its way into the plot making you question everything that once appeared so clear.

If you are fan of multi-layered metaphors then Lewis’s hold-your-breath style of descriptive writing will keep you swimming in his creative vocabulary for hours. His elaborate prose is topped off with a hint of philosophy about the everyday kinks inherent in each character as well as useful insights into facets of modern culture.

My only criticism is that this 268-page story is an involved read. It carries the weight of a book twice its size. For those who love to get lost in the depths of a consuming tale, Cold Streak is a frigid dive into the deepest abyss of psycho-maniacal madness.