Red, Red Snow

by Caro Ramsay

Overview

"An attention-grabbing procedural with unsettling surprises inside every snowbank" - Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

Called to investigate the bloodstained aftermath of an eventful Christmas party, detectives Anderson & Costello discover that the holiday season can be anything but merry.

A family man is stabbed to death at a crowded Christmas Ice Show. Murdered in plain sight. No clues, no witnesses, no known motive.

A week later, two bodies are discovered at a holiday cottage in a remote highland glen: one in the kitchen; the other sprawled outside on the icy lawn. The killer would appear to have arrived and left without leaving a trace, not even a footprint in the snow.

What secrets are lurking within this isolated, superstitious community? As the snow piles higher, detectives Anderson and Costello put their wits to solving a seemingly impossible crime, and gradually uncover a twisted tale of greed, obsession – and cold-blooded murder.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781780296920
Publisher:	Severn House
Publication date:	02/23/2021
Series:	An Anderson & Costello Mystery , #11
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.55(w) x 8.74(h) x (d)

About the Author

Caro Ramsay was born and brought up in Glasgow, and now lives in a village on the west coast of Scotland. She is an osteopath, acupuncturist and former marathon runner, who devotes much of her time to the complementary treatment of injured wildlife at a local rescue centre. She is the author of ten previous Anderson & Costello mysteries and one standalone psychological thriller.

Editorial Reviews

"Solid writing, a multifaceted plot, complex characters, and plenty of suspense make this a good pick for fans of British procedurals"

Booklist

"An attention-grabbing procedural with unsettling surprises inside every snowbank"

Kirkus Reviews Starred Review

'Gripping... Pithy dialogue, plenty of wintery Highland atmosphere, and villains that readers will love to hate make this a perfect accompaniment for a wee dram by the fireside"'

Publishers Weekly

"Solid writing, a multifaceted plot, complex characters, and plenty of suspense make this a good pick for fans of British procedurals"

Booklist

★ 2020-03-15
Several odd murders test the skills of a pair of seasoned detectives.

A family man is stabbed in a burger joint for no apparent reason, and a body is found in an isolated holiday cottage. DI Costello, who’s returned to her duties with Police Scotland following a leave of absence, reunites with her longtime partner, DCI Colin Anderson, with whom she has a complicated relationship, to investigate the crimes. Anderson is happy to escape his own tense family situation and is forced by the weather to assemble an unorthodox crime-scene team which includes DC Morna Taverner, who never noticed that her husband was a drug-dealing rapist. While part of Costello’s team follows up on the burger joint murder in Glasgow, he and the rest of the team battle a road-closing blizzard to reach the remote and starkly beautiful Highland town of Glen Riske, where Charlie Priestly, a police officer’s son, has been a murder suspect ever since he returned home incoherent and covered in blood. When enigmatic PC James McIver takes Costello and company to the rental cottage in Riske Wood where Charlie found a body, they see that it's on the far side of the River Riske from the town and that the bridge has a gate that can be unlocked by the owner by remote control. When the gate is locked, the only way across the river is by the "coffin bridge": "It's a suspended coffin that you lie in and then propel yourself across the river by a pulley and a rope," McIver explains. With only Charlie's tracks visible in the snow, the detectives find a dead German man who was renting the house for the Christmas holiday, and then they find his wife, equally dead, in the garden. The cottage was supposed to have been occupied by a much disliked family, but the occupants were switched at the last minute: Could it have been a case of mistaken identity? Dogged police work, computer skills, and an ability to mine both the past and present for clues to complex relationships help the isolated team as they struggle to make sense of widely separated crimes that may be related.

An attention-grabbing procedural with unsettling surprises inside every snowbank.

Kirkus Reviews