When two bodies are recovered from a house fire, Detective Temeke is called into investigate what he believes is a routine case. The tragedy takes a moresinister turn when a postmortem reveals that one victim was beaten to death.
House owner Flynn McCann appears to have the perfect life,married to the woman he loves. His life is quiet - even ordinary. Until thefire reduces all he knows to ashes. Consumed with grief, and fleeing suspicion,he must unravel the events leading up to that terrible night to prove hisinnocence. But time is running out. As the dead prepare to reveal theirsecrets, he realizes his future is about to unfold in ways he could never haveimagined.
In a house with a history of betrayal and revenge, how manylines is Temeke willing to cross to uncover the truth and bring in an elusivekiller?
An absolutely gripping crimethriller! With taut and brooding prose, Dead Cold is a twisty new thriller from the author of The9th Hour and Night Eyes.
Watch out for more from Detective Temeke and Malin Santiago
Professional Reviews
I love how she creates and develops her characters and makes ...
Bravo! Ms Stibbe has done it again...a suspenseful tale of intrigue that engrosses the reader. I love how she creates and develops her characters and makes them seem like real people, some of whom I hope I never meet! Her depth of research in the subject matter is apparent in her stories. I hope she continues this series. Her books are a good read and I look forward to many more.
The thrillers in Claire Stibbe's Temeke series just get better and better and for four reasons
The thrillers in Claire Stibbe's Temeke series just get better and better and for four reasons.
First, she populates her stories with relatable PEOPLE. Temeke is superbly drawn. The fact that he's a Brit in NM brings some terrific points of cultural contrast and conflict.
Secondly, her PLOTS are always full of unanticipated twists and turns. These are never telegraphed, nor are they overly obfuscating or complex. In 'Dead Cold, I was left with both hot as well as cold flushes as the plot proceeded with the suspense and intensity of the very best fugitive narratives.
Thirdly, she always creates an enticing sense of PLACE. No one makes the landscapes of new Mexico as present to the reader's imagination as she does. Her delineation of settings makes for a constant reboot of the pathetic fallacy, without ever having the crassness to say 'this is so.'
Finally, PROCEDURALS. With Claire Stibbe we have an author who has researched the police procedures of the APD with unparalleled care, even to the point of joining the department in a voluntary capacity. Few authors I know show this level of commitment.
I guarantee that these four factors, among many others, will mean that the Temeke collection will one day be up there with the best, and companies like HBO will be lining up to sign up this emerging, brilliant talent.
Can't wait for the next challenge for the flawed Brit detective!
Suspenseful and full of twists
This is a detective series that blends all the great elements- suspense, tension, pace and rich characters to a perfect mix. Set in Albuquerque, it has a magnetic loner detective at its helm who is English in a modern wild west (a bit like Idris Elba if he showed up in Justified). His assistant, Malin has her own problems that make for a dynamic relationship of two detectives who can think outside the box. In this outing Temeke is faced with the crime of a woman who was found brutally murdered before she and her house was set on fire. As her past is peeled back like layers of an onion, it becomes clear that there are many candidates for her murder and the reader is kept guessing with until the very end. Great suspense and pacing and such clever twists and a real surprise that I couldn't help thinking of The Girl on the Train or Dead in the Water.
While I don't read crime novels… I don't read very much at all except from magazines because I can't hold a book in my hands and don't have the time, but I checked out new book listings and find that you are very accomplished and successful.
Congratulations and thanks for joining AD. I only looked at Dead Cold and found that the description, for some reason, had many words joined together. Your expert reviewers were not named and and there was no excerpt. If your books are like the Fargo series, I'm interested. But I'm more likely to watch them on TV rather than read them.
When I wrote ths book in 2000, I was concerned about children having access to the Internet and to chat rooms where "you can be anyone you want." Here we are many years later and the situation with children talking freely to stangers on the Internet
