Book Review: Cold Mourning by Brenda Chapman

     Kala Stonechild transferred to the Ottawa police force in a preventive crime unit to be able to search for her missing cousin. She has always trusted her intuition to get results and hopefully this will pay off in the case her team was just assigned. A few days before Christmas Tom Underwood goes missing. The entire family seems dysfunctional and everyone seems to be hiding something.  With the director breathing down their necks about potentially closing the task force they need results fast. Will the newest member of the team be able to find out what happened to this man?

    I impulse downloaded this book from the Libby app after finishing my last audiobook. I was in the mood for a good murder mystery and I cannot say that I was disappointed. I will say that I was a bit surprised. When the book begins it talks about 2 young girls being picked up as hitchhikers and attacked by the driver. Of course the girls retaliated and hid the results. I expected the book to be about this introduction. Who the girls were. The police investigation. Then the results. This wasn't the case, although the girls do play a part in this story. 

    I genuinely enjoyed this audiobook and don't have complaints to speak of. My favorite character in this book was Rouleau. He seemed kind and caring. That and the fact that he put his feelings on hold to honor his ex-wife's wishes made him my favorite. He also gave the new girl a chance to work on her own in a new town on a priority case. I don't feel like a lot of commanding officers would do that, but I don't know a lot about police work. 

    This book talks a lot about discrimination against Native Americans, which you don't hear about as frequently as you do against other nationalities. I have no doubt it exists as people are awful, it was just interesting that this was the highlighted denomination. The book doesn't shove the racism down your throat. It is just used to show how people's opinions of someone based on their heritage colors their opinions. In Stonechild's case individuals didn't believe she was up to the task or would be an asset. I was glad to see that she proved those with prejudices wrong. 

    This book is set in Canada so the fact that it was briefly mentioned that winters don't last long there confused me a bit. I live in Indiana in the US and definitely last longer than being over after Christmas. I would think the further North you went the colder it became. If not and they have warm fronts signaling an end to winter in late December/early January that is amazing, and completely unfair. 

    I hope that we are able to find out more details of what Rouleau's father uncovers in his investigation in future books by this author, as I will be looking up others in the future. For now, this is a book I suggest you pick up. I urge you to curl up in your favorite chair with a blanket and a warm drink to best enjoy this Cold Mourning. This book is available on Amazon for $2.99 by clicking here.