Tuesday 15 April 2014

BOOK REVIEW - Cold Mourning - A Stonechild & Rouleau Mystery by Brenda Chapman - Murder mystery

ABOUT THE BOOK

Title - Cold Mourning - A Stonechild & Rouleau Mystery

Author - Brenda Chapman 

Publisher - Dundurn (01 March 2014)

Pages - 392

Buy Links - Amazon UK // Amazon US // Barnes & Noble

SynopsisIt's a week before Christmas when wealthy businessman Tom Underwood disappears into thin air with more than enough people wanting him dead.

New police recruit Kala Stonechild, who has left her northern Ontario detachment to join a specialized Ottawa crime unit, is tasked with returning Underwood home in time for the holidays. Stonechild, who is from a First Nations reserve, is a lone wolf who is used to surviving on her wits. Her new boss, Detective Jacques Rouleau, has his hands full controlling her, his team, and an investigation that keeps threatening to go off track.

Old betrayals and complicated family relationships brutally collide when love turns to hate and murder stalks a family."


MY REVIEW

I had never heard of this author before, but the synopsis drew me in.

The novel is mainly centred around Kaila Stonechild, who is from a "First Nations reserve" and leaves Ottawa where she was a Police Officer in Ontario, in a specialised Unit.

Some of her new colleagues treat her with a little scepticism. She needs to be in Ottawa and away from her home town. She's given the task of helping to solve a murder of a local businessman. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. There were so many suspects in this murder but not once did the author confuse you with the amount of characters. The book was very descriptive which helped immerse you into the story.

The author manages to include another story into the main story and initially it makes you wonder where the author is going with the inital story, but it eventually all falls into place. 

I was hooked. Just when I thought I'd solved the case, the author threw something else into the equation. The book is very well written and I'm looking forward to another installment of the detective duo, Stonechild and Rouseau.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR (Taken from Goodreads)

I'm an Ottawa author with nine published novels, including the Jennifer Bannon mysteries for ages 10+, a full length adult murder mystery In Winter's Grip (Dundurn 2010), and a Rapid Reads mystery The Second Wife (Orca 2011). 

Second Chances, a YA novel for ages 13+ was released by Dundurn in September 2012 and the first in an adult murder mystery series entitled Cold Mourning is coming spring 2014, also published by Dundurn. Two Anna Sweet mysteries in a new series for adult literacy from Grass Roots Press were released fall 2013 - My Sister's Keeper and The Hard Fall.

I grew up in a small pulp mill town on the north shore of Lake Superior and earned degrees in English literature and teaching. I spent fifteen years as a special education teacher before becoming a senior communications advisor in the federal government.

AUTHOR LINKS

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