Cold Comfort

Scott Mackay

Apr 2015 · Diversion Publishing Corp.

About this ebook

Arthur Ellis Award finalist: A Toronto cop investigates the death of a politician’s stepdaughter in this novel “as crisp and snappy as a Canadian winter” (Kirkus Reviews).
 
In the midst of a record-setting spell of frigid weather, the stepdaughter of a government official is found dead on a snow-swept harbor pier, and overworked and underpaid Det. Barry Gilbert is called to investigate. The Metropolitan Toronto Police Force is beset by threats of staff cuts, so their work is challenging enough. But this case involves some additional enigmas—like the question of why the victim’s pet parrot was also killed, or why the autopsy indicates that she froze to death before she was shot.
 
So begins a treacherous trail of evidence that leads Gilbert to the coldest zones of the human heart, in this “excellent procedural” (Library Journal).

Ratings and reviews

This is the first Scott Mackay I've read and I'm surprised I didn't hear of this Canadian writer of detective fiction set in Toronto, previously. I enjoyed this book including his many local references and his main characters, Detective Barry Gilbert and his younger partner, Lombardo. My only quibble with this book is the theme I've read in so many police procedurals, depicting the bosses as being wrong-headedly incompetent, obsessed with almost ridiculously quick solutions and charges for murders, regardless of whether the right person is charged or not. This is so commonly part of the action in police procedurals I've begun to rebel a little. Surely not all supervisors and managers in the police are self-centred idiots focussed primarily on looking good. It seems just too easy a thing to rely on, and we've seen it so often.

About the author

Award-winning author Scott Mackay has over thirty-five published short stories to his credit and four novels: Outpost, The Meek, A Friend in Barcelona, and Cold Comfort, which was nominated for the 1999 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel. He lives in Toronto.