Cold Breath by Quentin Bates

I am delighted to be today's stop on the blog tour for Cold Breath by Quentin Bates. Cold Breath was published by Constable on 11 October 2018.

Cold Breath 
By Quentin Bates
Published by Constable (11 October 2018)
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher

Publisher's description

Gunnhildur reluctantly allows herself to be taken off police duties to act as bodyguard to a man with a price on his head . . . 

Hidden away in a secure house outside Reykjavík, Gunna and the high-profile stranger, a guest of the interiors minister, are thrown together - too close for comfort. They soon find they are neither as safe nor as carefully hidden as Gunna and her boss had thought. Conflicting glimpses of the man's past start to emerge as the press begin to sniff him out, as does another group with their own reasons for locating him. Gunna struggles to come to terms with protecting the life of a man who may have the lives of many on his conscience - or indeed may be the philanthropist he claims to be.

Isolated together, the friction grows between Gunna and the foreign visitor, and she realises they are out of their depth as the trails lead from the house outside Reykjavík to Brussels, Russia and the Middle East.

My verdict
Cold Breath is a twisty mix of Icelandic police procedural and action thriller.

Gunna is acting as bodyguard to a guest of the interiors minister, but doesn't know why she's been asked to do this job. Her foreign charge is as cagey as everyone else who knows where he's in hiding, yet they're having to live in very close proximity - too close at times. Gradually Gunna begins to piece together his history, and his past, and doesn't like everything she finds, leading her to wonder who she's really protecting - and why. She's not the only one with questions, as there's a relentless journalist on their trail, and also some ruthless killers on the loose, determined to discover where this high-profile visitor is being hidden.

Cold Breath features several strands, all equally intriguing, following the various different characters, from police officers and journalists to the determined villains. Gradually, these individual strands weave together to reveal a complex well-planned plot. It soon became clear to me that nothing was clearcut, with the killers and the press closing in, culminating in an action-packed explosive ending.

Gunna is a tough cookie, yet also has plenty of heart, focusing as much on her family as on her job - and she definitely brings the story to life. I have read the previous book in this series, but haven't yet read any of the others, yet there's enough backstory here to be able to read Cold Breath as a standalone. The chilling Icelandic setting is a perfect backdrop, and the author's vivid evocative descriptions transported me there myself - feeling the freezing temperatures, experiencing suburban life just outside Reykjavik and seeing the starkness of more-remote areas. Quentin Bates lived in Iceland for a decade and still visits the country every year, and this personal knowledge of Icelandic culture shows in his writing.

Cold Breath is a gripping read and a great addition to any Nordic Noir crime shelf.

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Thin Ice by Quentin Bates - Blog Tour Review

Thin Ice
By Quentin Bates
Published by Constable (3 March 2016)
ISBN: 978-1472121493

Publisher's description
Snowed in with a couple of psychopaths for the winter...

When two small-time crooks rob Reykjavik's premier drugs dealer, hoping for a quick escape to the sun, their plans start to unravel after their getaway driver fails to show. Tensions mount between the pair and the two women they have grabbed as hostages when they find themselves holed upcountry in an isolated hotel that has been mothballed for the season.

Back in the capital, Gunnhildur, Eiríkur and Helgi find themselves at a dead end investigating what appear to be the unrelated disappearance of a mother, her daughter and their car during a day's shopping, and the death of a thief in a house fire.

Gunna and her team are faced with a set of riddles but as more people are quizzed it begins to emerge that all these unrelated incidents are in fact linked. And at the same time, two increasingly desperate lowlifes have no choice but to make some big decisions on how to get rid of their accidental hostages...

My verdict
This is the fifth in the Gunnhildur Gisladottir series, but the first Quentin Bates book I have read. So you can easily read this as a standalone. Although having read Thin Ice, I now want to start the series from the beginning.

Set in Iceland, the Thin Ice plot focuses on two small-time crooks who rob a drug dealer and take two women hostage when their getaway driver doesn't turn up. They end up in an isolated hotel that's been closed for the winter. Meanwhile the police are investigating two seemingly unconnected crimes - a house fire and the disappearance of a mother and her daughter.

In Thin Ice, Quentin Bates throws you in at the deep end, starting straight away with an action scene that introduces you to the main characters. Each chapter focuses on a different day in the story - the whole book takes place over eight days - and each chapter is split between the two subplots (the two crooks and the detectives trying to solve the case). The book flows at a fast pace, keeping the two subplots moving, as the tension between the crooks and their hostages builds up.

I liked all of the main characters (even if I wasn't supposed to) and loved the chilling atmospheric setting of the hotel. Quentin Bates' vivid descriptions enabled me to picture it as I read. Lots of twists and turns kept me intrigued all the way through, and I thought the book had a great ending (although it wasn't totally unexpected).

I received an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.

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Silenced by Anne Randall - BLOG TOUR

I am delighted to be today's stop on the BLOG TOUR for Anne Randall's Silenced, which was published on 3 September 2015 by Constable.

Silenced
By Anne Randall

Published by Constable/Little Brown (3 September 2015)

ISBN: 978-1472112330

Publisher's description
He buried his victim alive. And now he's escaped from prison and is on the run in the city.

Fiona Henderson, the daughter of the victim who'd descended into a world of silence following her mother's murder, has gone missing. Her sister Annabelle scours the city in a desperate attempt to find her. And then the body of a homeless person if found among the rubbish in a deserted alleyway.

As DIs Wheeler and Ross investigate, more suspicious deaths occur and a pattern emerges: the victims are all homeless. And so the police are pitched against a killer who is hellbent on a mission

to rid the streets of the vulnerable and dispossessed.

As Wheeler and Ross descend further into Glasgow's netherworld, their investigation reveals not only a flawed support system for the disaffected, but also a criminal class ruthlessly willing to exploit them. A city of double standards, where morality is bought and sold.

But it's when the killer begins stalking DI Wheeler, that she and Ross realise that the threat is now personal.

My verdict
Silenced is a gritty police procedural set in the Glasgow area.

The prologue sets the scene, with an unknown narrator communicating with a 'friend'. It's chilling and intriguing and left me tingling with anticipation. The rest of the book moves at a steady pace, covering interesting social issues, such as homelessness and mental illness, and (as expected) murder.

I have never been to Glasgow (or Scotland, even) and the author describes it vividly. She leaves no sense untouched, from 'scotch pies sat in pools of grease' to 'speakers that thundered heavy metal'. And then there's the weather, with Glasgow coping with a winter thunderstorm.

A gruesome killer is on the loose, having escaped from prison. His victim's eldest daughter has never recovered from her mother's tragic death and has now vanished, avoiding contact with her father and sister. Then there are series of suspicious deaths among the homeless community, which DIs Wheeler and Ross are sent to investigate.

These subplots don't seem related at first, but gradually come together by the end of the book. There are some good twists and turns to keep the reader guessing right up until the end.

I haven't read Riven, the first book in the series. I read this as a standalone and did feel I had missed some crucial information about some of the main characters' backgrounds. The author wrote her previous book under the name A.J. McCreanor. I would suggest that you read Riven first.

I received an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.

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