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Cold Grave by Craig Robertson
The Blurb On The Back:
A murder investigation frozen in time is beginning to melt …
November 1993. Scotland is in the grip of the coldest winter in living memory and the Lake of Monteith is frozen over. A young man and woman walk across the ice to the historic island of Inchmahome which lies in the middle of the lake. Only the man comes back.
In the spring, as staff prepare the abbey ruins for summer visitors, they discover the unidentifiable remains of the body of a girl, her skull violently crushed.
Present day. Retired detective Alan Narey is still haunted by the unsolved crime. Desperate to relieve her father’s conscience, DS Rachel Narey returns to the Lake of Monteith and unofficially reopens the cold case.
With the help of police photographer Tony Winter, Rachel discovers that the one man her father had always suspected was the killer has recently died. Risking her job and reputation, Narey prepares a dangerous gambit to uncover the killer’s identity – little knowing who that truly is. Despite the freezing temperatures, the ice-cold case begins to thaw, and with it a tide of secrets long frozen in time is suddenly and shockingly unleashed.
In November 1993 the Lake of Monteith froze over for the first time in years, allowing people to walk to the island of Inchamore. Several months later, the decomposed body of a young girl is found on the island, her head violently battered so that she’s unidentifiable. DS Rachel Narey’s father, Alan, was the in charge of the case but while he was sure a visitor to the area, trainee teacher Laurence Paton, was involved, he was never able to prove it.
Now Alan is suffering from Alzheimer’s and the case continues to haunt him. Determined to bring her father some kind of peace, Rachel ropes her boyfriend, police photographer Tony Winter and his uncle, retired detective, Danny Neilson, to help her re-open the cold case. But the deeper they go into the case, the more secrets they threaten to uncover – and someone will do anything to protect them …
The third in Craig Robertson’s Narey/Winter crime series gives a glimpse at Narey’s personal life through her relationship with her father and hinges on a cold case in both the literal and metaphorical sense. It’s let down by its ending (specifically the revelation of the killer because it’s never explained how s/he managed some of the crimes) and the Alzheimer’s storyline has been used in other crime series (notably Mark Billingham’s TOM THORNE series) but the relationship between Winter and Narey is fleshed out more and I welcomed the greater role played by Danny – an old school copper who doesn’t take any lip from the youngsters and the return of Addy. I also thought that the subplot (where Danny and Tony must find a young member of the traveller community in return for information) hung better with the main plotline. All in all, it was an enjoyable read that kept me turning the pages and I will definitely check out the next in this series.
I still find Winter’s obsession with death a little too creepy to be believable, especially given that everyone in the police station seems to know about it. However, there is more emotional intimacy between him and Narey in this book, making their relationship more believable. Uncle Danny and Addy provide some much needed comic relief and although the dialogue clunks in places (notably on police procedure and facial reconstruction segments), the novel held my interest until the end.
The Verdict:
The third in Craig Robertson’s Narey/Winter crime series gives a glimpse at Narey’s personal life through her relationship with her father and hinges on a cold case in both the literal and metaphorical sense. It’s let down by its ending (specifically the revelation of the killer because it’s never explained how s/he managed some of the crimes) and the Alzheimer’s storyline has been used in other crime series (notably Mark Billingham’s TOM THORNE series) but the relationship between Winter and Narey is fleshed out more and I welcomed the greater role played by Danny – an old school copper who doesn’t take any lip from the youngsters and the return of Addy. I also thought that the subplot (where Danny and Tony must find a young member of the traveller community in return for information) hung better with the main plotline. All in all, it was an enjoyable read that kept me turning the pages and I will definitely check out the next in this series.
Thanks to Simon & Schuster for the free copy of this book.
November 1993. Scotland is in the grip of the coldest winter in living memory and the Lake of Monteith is frozen over. A young man and woman walk across the ice to the historic island of Inchmahome which lies in the middle of the lake. Only the man comes back.
In the spring, as staff prepare the abbey ruins for summer visitors, they discover the unidentifiable remains of the body of a girl, her skull violently crushed.
Present day. Retired detective Alan Narey is still haunted by the unsolved crime. Desperate to relieve her father’s conscience, DS Rachel Narey returns to the Lake of Monteith and unofficially reopens the cold case.
With the help of police photographer Tony Winter, Rachel discovers that the one man her father had always suspected was the killer has recently died. Risking her job and reputation, Narey prepares a dangerous gambit to uncover the killer’s identity – little knowing who that truly is. Despite the freezing temperatures, the ice-cold case begins to thaw, and with it a tide of secrets long frozen in time is suddenly and shockingly unleashed.
In November 1993 the Lake of Monteith froze over for the first time in years, allowing people to walk to the island of Inchamore. Several months later, the decomposed body of a young girl is found on the island, her head violently battered so that she’s unidentifiable. DS Rachel Narey’s father, Alan, was the in charge of the case but while he was sure a visitor to the area, trainee teacher Laurence Paton, was involved, he was never able to prove it.
Now Alan is suffering from Alzheimer’s and the case continues to haunt him. Determined to bring her father some kind of peace, Rachel ropes her boyfriend, police photographer Tony Winter and his uncle, retired detective, Danny Neilson, to help her re-open the cold case. But the deeper they go into the case, the more secrets they threaten to uncover – and someone will do anything to protect them …
The third in Craig Robertson’s Narey/Winter crime series gives a glimpse at Narey’s personal life through her relationship with her father and hinges on a cold case in both the literal and metaphorical sense. It’s let down by its ending (specifically the revelation of the killer because it’s never explained how s/he managed some of the crimes) and the Alzheimer’s storyline has been used in other crime series (notably Mark Billingham’s TOM THORNE series) but the relationship between Winter and Narey is fleshed out more and I welcomed the greater role played by Danny – an old school copper who doesn’t take any lip from the youngsters and the return of Addy. I also thought that the subplot (where Danny and Tony must find a young member of the traveller community in return for information) hung better with the main plotline. All in all, it was an enjoyable read that kept me turning the pages and I will definitely check out the next in this series.
I still find Winter’s obsession with death a little too creepy to be believable, especially given that everyone in the police station seems to know about it. However, there is more emotional intimacy between him and Narey in this book, making their relationship more believable. Uncle Danny and Addy provide some much needed comic relief and although the dialogue clunks in places (notably on police procedure and facial reconstruction segments), the novel held my interest until the end.
The Verdict:
The third in Craig Robertson’s Narey/Winter crime series gives a glimpse at Narey’s personal life through her relationship with her father and hinges on a cold case in both the literal and metaphorical sense. It’s let down by its ending (specifically the revelation of the killer because it’s never explained how s/he managed some of the crimes) and the Alzheimer’s storyline has been used in other crime series (notably Mark Billingham’s TOM THORNE series) but the relationship between Winter and Narey is fleshed out more and I welcomed the greater role played by Danny – an old school copper who doesn’t take any lip from the youngsters and the return of Addy. I also thought that the subplot (where Danny and Tony must find a young member of the traveller community in return for information) hung better with the main plotline. All in all, it was an enjoyable read that kept me turning the pages and I will definitely check out the next in this series.
Thanks to Simon & Schuster for the free copy of this book.