A Faint Cold Fear is the third novel in the Grant County series by author Karin Slaughter.

Also on hand are Lena, who has quit the force and now works for campus security, and her new boss, steroidal creep Chuck Gaines.

Chuck identifies the victim as the son of two campus professors, a development sure to complicate the case exponentially for Jeffrey.

When Tessa doesn't come out of the woods, a search finds her stabbed repeatedly and barely alive; she is airlifted to Grady Hospital in Atlanta.

Another suicide occurs, more suspicious than the last, and as Lena spirals further out of control with alcohol and drugs, she makes a fateful and perhaps fatal connection with student Ethan Green, who is not what he appears to be.