Cold Comfort (Gunnhildur Mystery 2) [Kindle Edition]

Following on from Sergeant Gunnhildur's extraordinary and exciting debut in Frozen Out we find her promoted (but not getting her rightful salary) and working criminal investigations in Reykjavik, Iceland. Gone the easy life of small town and say hello to sleaze and murders in a city still in shock after the great financial shocks of the last three years.

Quentin Bates knows police procedural well and this is an exhausting, but riveting examination of the life of a cop and mother in a cash strapped police force - so poor they have to rent their cars and have no one available to knock on doors. Not even for a celebrity murder. Add an escapee extremely violent con who hasn't returned to his open prison, Gunnhildur is going to be kept busy.

There's little time for real life or love, which is difficult when there is a teen daughter in the house anyway. Gunnhildur is renowned for being tough and resilient, she isn't political and resents those who work the system to their own ends.

The dead celebrity is a former Fitness Star on TV who seems to have a rather tight knit quota of suitors with political connections. The escaped con is systematically going around wreaking havoc and putting almost anyone he ever knew in hospital. At first there doesn't seem to be any connection. How could there be? They are from opposite ends of the social scale. But Gunnhildur smokes out a scandal and higher ups want it sat on. She isn't the sort of woman to sit on anything (unless it's a chair for another coffee).

Quentin Bates writes with authority and feeling for his policewoman and location. You feel he knows Iceland well and the personalities. The plot is very tight, rich in atmosphere, rife with tension.

`If this is mishandled, it could be a disaster. I'm warning you Gunnhildur.'
`Warning me of what, precisely?' she asked with a shiver of trepidation and anger.
`I'm warning you that if this isn't handled sensitively, it could blight a lot of people's careers. Yours included.'

Cold Comfort is a welcome second outing for this Icelandic investigator and you can be absolutely sure you will want to share in the investigation.

© Sam North March 20th 2012
Author 'Diamonds - The Rush of `72'

This is the second in the series by Quentin Bates featuring Sergeant Gunnhildur, otherwise known as Gunna, and is set in Iceland. The first book; Frozen Out was published in January 2011, you can read my review of it here.

Cold Comfort was published by Constable Robinson in March of this year. Gunna has been promoted and is now working in the Serious Crime Unit in the capital city of Reykjavik, a big change from her previous posting in a small, slow-moving town.
Gunna finds herself heading up two separate crime investigations, at least they seem to be pretty separate at first, but deeper investigation soon turns up quite a few links between the cases. The first case seems pretty straight forward; a prison inmate has escaped and is dealing out his own form of punishment to his old acquaintances. The second case is a murder - a C list celebrity who has been discovered murdered in her flat.
As with Frozen Out, this is a well thought out story, with an intricate and well woven plot line. I enjoyed the twists and turns of the story, I enjoyed getting to know a little more about Gunna (although she's very close, and doesn't reveal much). Just one minor issue for me, as with the first novel, is the long Icelandic names of the characters. It's very easy to get them muddled up, many of them sound the same and look the same, and it was quite some time into the novel before I got to grips with just who is who.

This certainly does not spoil the book at all. Gunna is a great heroine and the tantalising glimpses into her past history and her current private life certainly set the reader up for more to come in this series.

I will certainly be following Gunna's next move and look forward to more in the series.

There is much to enjoy in this second novel featuring
the fascinating Sergeant Gunnhildur.She has been moved
from her rural post to head-up a new serious crime unit
in the capital,Reykjavik.
She and her small team are faced with both tracking down
a violent escaped prisoner,and dealing with the murder of
a female socialite TV personality.As the somewhat complex
plot develops ,figures in the political and business elite
become suspects.
Aside from an engaging plot, this novel touches on the many
ways in which the financial crash effected the whole rubric
of Iceland and its citizens,and also there is the marvellous
character of Gunnhildur-caring,sharp and witty.