Full Cold Moon

by Lissa Marie Redmond

Overview

A murder of an Icelandic man during a Full Cold Moon reminds Lauren Riley of a previous case she failed to solve. She is determined not to let it happen again.

Since her partner on the Cold Case team has been out of action after being shot in the line of duty, Lauren Riley has been working Homicide. Her latest case involves an Icelandic man murdered on the streets of Buffalo mere feet from his hotel.

The brutality of the case hits Lauren hard. When she realizes the murder was committed on the night of a Full Cold Moon, it triggers memories of the first cold case she investigated that she’s been unable to solve.

Lauren is determined not to fail again but when she is involved in a shooting with a suspect, she finds the case may be taken out of her hands . . . especially when it gains attention from the Icelandic government.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780727889874
Publisher:	Severn House
Publication date:	05/05/2020
Series:	A Cold Case Investigation , #4
Edition description:	First World Publication
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Lissa Marie Redmond is a former cold case homicide detective for the Buffalo Police Department. After twenty-two years on the force she retired to pursue a “normal” life and used her experience to write the Cold Case Investigation mystery series starring Lauren Riley. She is also a member of Sister of Crime, a network with the aim of promoting the development of women crime writers.

Editorial Reviews

03/02/2020

In Redmond’s workmanlike fourth police procedural featuring Det. Lauren Riley of the Buffalo (N.Y.) PD (after 2019’s A Means to an End), Lauren, on temporary leave from the cold case unit, looks into the murder of Gunnar Jonsson, a young Icelandic man found bludgeoned to death in an alley near his hotel. Due to the victim’s nationality, the FBI steps in and provides Lauren with a new partner, special agent Matthew Lawton. Lauren discovers that Gunnar came to Buffalo to meet his multimillionaire father, John Hudson, whose identity he recently discovered by taking a DNA test. Mr. Hudson was overjoyed at meeting Gunnar, but his other two children weren’t. Just as Lauren identifies a local suspect, the Icelandic authorities request that she and Matthew come to Reykjavík to interview Gunnar’s employer. Once in Iceland, Lauren starts to develop theories, as well as potential suspects (of which there are only two), and then lets them drop while she sees the sights of Reykjavík. Armchair travelers will have fun, but those expecting more than a cursory investigation will be disappointed. Agent: Bob Mecoy, Creative Book Services. (May)

Publishers Weekly

'On the mark as police procedural, humanized by Riley's enigmatic relationship with former partner Shane Reese, and enhanced by its Icelandic setting'

Booklist

★ 04/01/2020

Buffalo police detective Lauren Riley is temporarily working homicide while her partner on the cold case squad is laid up with a work-related injury. Her shift should have been over when she catches a new case. Gunnar Jonsson, a visitor from Iceland, was brutally killed just steps from his hotel. Lauren fights for this case, one that reminds her of an earlier unsolved one that took place under a full cold moon. Was Gunnar killed because a DNA test led him to the States and a father he never knew? Before she has time to delve into the specifics, the top brass send her and an FBI agent to Iceland to investigate an influential businessman who was in the United States at the time. The trip throws them into a culture and case in which they're dependent on their Icelandic police connection. The investigation turns violent when a hit-and-run driver targets the trio. There are surprises at every step of this careful police procedural. VERDICT Redmond brings her 20 years experience as a cold-case homicide detective to this follow-up to A Means to an End. Fans of police procedurals will want to read all in the series after this compelling, twisted story. [See Prepub Alert, 10/21/19.]—Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN

Library Journal

2020-02-10
A Buffalo cop adds yet another bizarre case to her string of bad-luck investigations.

Police detective Lauren Riley’s badly injured partner, Shane Reese (The Murder Book, 2019, etc.), is recovering in Lauren’s home while she’s transferred from working cold cases to Homicide till he returns. Lauren’s stuck working with a detective soon to retire in what looks to become the tricky case of Gunnar Jonsson, from Reykjavik, found beaten to death with a brick near his upscale hotel. Although Buffalo has its share of murders, few of the victims are foreign citizens, so the FBI quickly becomes involved. A search of Jonsson’s room reveals DNA test results that explain his reason for visiting Buffalo: his discovery of the father he never knew. The product of a one-night stand, Gunnar has a half brother in Iceland and two newly discovered American half siblings, Brooklyn and Ryan, whose seriously ill father, John Hudson, had recently won a multimillion-dollar settlement that gives all his relatives a very good motive for murder. Lauren’s FBI partner, Special Agent Matthew Lawton, a computer expert with no real crime-solving experience, pitches in, and they turn up a new lead when the hotel’s daytime desk manager reveals that Gunnar was sharing a room with a Mr. Steinarsson, whom she assumed was his husband and who checked out the day of Gunnar’s murder. Pressed by the Icelandic government and the wealthy Mr. Hudson, the police and FBI send Lauren and Matt to Iceland looking for more clues while their colleagues keep after Brooklyn, a drug addict, and Ryan and his wife, who still seem like the best bet. In Iceland they partner with Berg Arnason as they seek out Steinarsson, a wealthy, well-connected businessman so determined to evade them that they begin to wonder what he’s hiding.

A prime character-driven procedural with the added allure of Iceland.

Kirkus Reviews

On the mark as a police procedural, humanized by Riley’s enigmatic relationship with former partner Shane Reese, and enhanced by its Icelandic setting Booklist

Fans of police procedurals will want to read all in the series after this compelling, twisted story Library Journal Starred Review

From the Publisher

'On the mark as police procedural, humanized by Riley's enigmatic relationship with former partner Shane Reese, and enhanced by its Icelandic setting'

Booklist