Chilled To the Bone by Quentin Bates, a Mysterious Review.

Review: A death by sexual misadventure would seem to be an open and shut case for the police, but the woman involved has disappeared, the hotel staff seems less than forthcoming about what they know, and why is the government so interested in a laptop that has gone missing, in Chilled To the Bone, the third mystery in this series by Quentin Bates.

Detective Sergeant Gunnhildur "Gunna" Gísladóttir is assigned to the case and has far more questions than answers. It seems the mysterious woman has been involved in several of these scams, luring older men into a hotel room, tying them up, and them making off with their cash and other valuables. A master of disguise, she is hardly recognizable as the same person in video surveillance of the hotels. Meanwhile, unbeknownst — at least initially — to Gunna and her staff, an ex-con is also tracking the woman, making enemies along the way and leaving a trail of bodies in his wake.

Chilled To the Bone is a little tricky to navigate at first, what with the large cast of characters and the rapidly changing points of view setting up the various subplots. But it does move along quickly, and while there are plenty of false leads and dead-end paths, the storylines do start to merge, resulting in a nicely complex, very satisfying mystery. Gunna is a delightful character, a bit brusque at times and not afraid to take on her superiors, even those in the national government, when they interfere with her investigation. But when a kind, gentle touch is needed, she is just the person to deliver it.

As with the previous books in this series, Iceland's financial crisis provides a backdrop to the action. It isn't quite as pervasive here, but this persistent running theme through now three books, and the author's barely disguised editorializing on it and those involved, may be getting a little tiresome for fans of the series as a whole.

Acknowledgment: Soho Press provided an ARC of Chilled To the Bone for this review.

Cold Comfort
Soho Crime (Hardcover), January 2012
ISBN-13: 9781616950545; ISBN-10: 1616950544

Chilled To the Bone

A Gunnhildur Gísladóttir Mystery by Quentin Bates