Publishers Weekly
05/20/2019
British author Frear’s engrossing follow-up to 2018’s Sweet Little Lies finds 26-year-old Det. Constable Cat Kinsella of the London Metropolitan Police’s Murder Investigation Team hunting 22-year-old Naomi Lockhart’s killer. The night she died, Naomi attended a party thrown by Kirstie Connor, her boss at the recruitment firm where she worked as a temp. The next day, Naomi’s roommate, ex-con and personal trainer Kieran Drake, discovered her in their living room with her head bashed in. All evidence points to Kirstie’s brother-in-law, philandering barista Joseph Madden, who also attended the gathering, but he insists that someone is framing him. As Cat and her colleagues dig into Joseph’s turbulent marriage, she struggles with her own thorny relationship issues. Exceptional characters elevate this otherwise unremarkable police procedural. Nuanced interactions combine with Cat’s inner monologue to imbue even the most mundane scenes with tension and subtext. Frear caps a satisfying mystery with a fraught cliffhanger. Fans will clamor for more. (July)
From the Publisher
Caz Frear has fashioned her second terrific crime thriller . . . a sumptuously unsettling mystery that lives up to all the hype. . . . This is the kind of mystery Agatha Christie would have penned these days if she were still alive, with the personal sharing equal billing with the professional. And Kinsella is the best female detective from across the pond since Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison of the brilliant ‘Prime Suspect’ series.” — Jon Land, Providence Journal
“Terrific writing and self-deprecating wit.” — Jersey’s Best, “The 10 Best Books of 2019”
“Cat Kinsella seals her status as fiction’s most irresistible cop.”
— Sunday Express (UK)
“Engrossing. . . .Exceptional characters. . . . Frear caps a satisfying mystery with a fraught cliffhanger. Fans will clamor for more.”
— Publishers Weekly
“How Frear brings all the complex plot points together makes the big reveal worth the journey. . . . [A] savvy novel.” — Shelf Awareness
“What drives STONE COLD HEART is precisely what made SWEET LITTLE LIES one of my favorite novels of 2018. That special something (or someone, I should say) is Cat Kinsella. . . . Frear has created one of the most engaging characters in the mystery/thriller genre, and this series is already drawing comparisons to the works of Tana French, who may very well be the best in the business.” — Book Reporter
“The plotting is excellent, and the twisty ending reveals a very surprising murderer. . . . And the ending promises another entry in this very fine series.” — Criminal Element
“Frear once again excels at creating memorable characters and realistic dialog. Cat’s snarky attitude and youthful brashness are nicely balanced with her passion for justice and investigative skills. VERDICT: Highly recommended for fans of police procedurals with compelling detectives.” — Library Journal
“The story, characters, and language here immerse readers in a twisty case that involves more than one dysfunctional family. Frear almost ties all these strands up neatly at the end, until Cat’s past comes back to bite her again, leaving things ripe for book three. Frear’s fans will enjoy the focus on grown-up Cat; Dervla McTiernan’s readers are another likely audience.” — Booklist
“The characters’ banter is a delight. Frear writes scenes of conversation between the detectives that make them all feel like familiar old friends—to each other but also to the reader.” — Kirkus Reviews
“I cannot think of a mystery protagonist who harbors more secrets or confronts more ethical challenges than Detective Catrina “Cat” Kinsella. . . . You will guess who did it, but you will be wrong.”
— BookPage
“Stone Cold Heart confirms Caz Frear as a crime fiction force to be reckoned with. A gripping, layered story—and a last line that left me desperate to read the next Cat Kinsella adventure!” — Erin Kelly, author of Broadchurch and Stone Mothers
“Kinsella is back, as complex, interesting and finely written as ever. A treat for all crime fans.” — Ann Cleeves, creator of the Vera and Shetland series
“An absolute knockout of a novel. Crime procedural at its best—tough, twisty, and uncompromising. Also, a brilliant tough female protagonist whom I loved.” — CJ Tudor, author of The Chalk Man and The Hiding Place
Sunday Express (UK)
Cat Kinsella seals her status as fiction’s most irresistible cop.”
Criminal Element
The plotting is excellent, and the twisty ending reveals a very surprising murderer. . . . And the ending promises another entry in this very fine series.
Jon Land
Caz Frear has fashioned her second terrific crime thriller . . . a sumptuously unsettling mystery that lives up to all the hype. . . . This is the kind of mystery Agatha Christie would have penned these days if she were still alive, with the personal sharing equal billing with the professional. And Kinsella is the best female detective from across the pond since Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison of the brilliant ‘Prime Suspect’ series.
Shelf Awareness
How Frear brings all the complex plot points together makes the big reveal worth the journey. . . . [A] savvy novel.
Book Reporter
What drives STONE COLD HEART is precisely what made SWEET LITTLE LIES one of my favorite novels of 2018. That special something (or someone, I should say) is Cat Kinsella. . . . Frear has created one of the most engaging characters in the mystery/thriller genre, and this series is already drawing comparisons to the works of Tana French, who may very well be the best in the business.
Booklist
The story, characters, and language here immerse readers in a twisty case that involves more than one dysfunctional family. Frear almost ties all these strands up neatly at the end, until Cat’s past comes back to bite her again, leaving things ripe for book three. Frear’s fans will enjoy the focus on grown-up Cat; Dervla McTiernan’s readers are another likely audience.
Erin Kelly
Stone Cold Heart confirms Caz Frear as a crime fiction force to be reckoned with. A gripping, layered story—and a last line that left me desperate to read the next Cat Kinsella adventure!
Ann Cleeves
Kinsella is back, as complex, interesting and finely written as ever. A treat for all crime fans.
BookPage
I cannot think of a mystery protagonist who harbors more secrets or confronts more ethical challenges than Detective Catrina “Cat” Kinsella. . . . You will guess who did it, but you will be wrong.”
CJ Tudor
An absolute knockout of a novel. Crime procedural at its best—tough, twisty, and uncompromising. Also, a brilliant tough female protagonist whom I loved.
Booklist
The story, characters, and language here immerse readers in a twisty case that involves more than one dysfunctional family. Frear almost ties all these strands up neatly at the end, until Cat’s past comes back to bite her again, leaving things ripe for book three. Frear’s fans will enjoy the focus on grown-up Cat; Dervla McTiernan’s readers are another likely audience.
Booklist
The story, characters, and language here immerse readers in a twisty case that involves more than one dysfunctional family. Frear almost ties all these strands up neatly at the end, until Cat’s past comes back to bite her again, leaving things ripe for book three. Frear’s fans will enjoy the focus on grown-up Cat; Dervla McTiernan’s readers are another likely audience.
Shelf Awareness
How Frear brings all the complex plot points together makes the big reveal worth the journey. . . . [A] savvy novel.
Criminal Element
The plotting is excellent, and the twisty ending reveals a very surprising murderer. . . . And the ending promises another entry in this very fine series.
BookPage
I cannot think of a mystery protagonist who harbors more secrets or confronts more ethical challenges than Detective Catrina “Cat” Kinsella. . . . You will guess who did it, but you will be wrong.”
Book Reporter
What drives STONE COLD HEART is precisely what made SWEET LITTLE LIES one of my favorite novels of 2018. That special something (or someone, I should say) is Cat Kinsella. . . . Frear has created one of the most engaging characters in the mystery/thriller genre, and this series is already drawing comparisons to the works of Tana French, who may very well be the best in the business.
Sunday Express (UK)
Cat Kinsella seals her status as fiction’s most irresistible cop.”
Kirkus Reviews
2019-04-14
Detective Cat Kinsella of London's Metropolitan Police returns to solve the murder of a young Australian woman in Frear's (Sweet Little Lies, 2018) latest procedural.
Cat's still spooked from the fallout of the Maryanne Doyle case; it brought her and Aiden Doyle together, sure, but she can't tell anyone about their romance. Still, she and her partner, DS Luigi Parnell, are on good working terms, and the rest of the team is holding their own, with beautiful, unpredictable DCI Kate Steele still making everyone's life hell but also keeping them to high standards. Called to a crime scene, they find the body of a young woman. Of course, the layers of lies and family tension quickly mount: Naomi Lockhart, the dead woman, was temping at a recruitment firm owned by Kirstie Connor, whose husband, Marcus, runs a charity for ex-felons, including Naomi's roommate. Marcus' sister, Rachel, is married to Joseph, who has made no secret of his numerous infidelities and actually had propositioned Cat several months before. And then there's Rachel and Joseph's daughter, an aspiring forensic investigator. As the detectives scramble to find evidence that proves the guilt of the prime suspect, they find more and more inconsistencies in all these stories. Throughout it all, Cat struggles to keep her mind clear and her personal relationships solid; Aiden resents the fact that she won't introduce him around, and her dad's old "colleague" Frank Hickey is making ominous suggestions of blackmail. He will expose what Cat has done to protect her father if she doesn't help him in return. The characters' banter is a delight. Frear writes scenes of conversation between the detectives that make them all feel like familiar old friends—to each other but also to the reader. The mystery, however, is less compelling in this second outing. Ultimately, the discovery of the perpetrator feels a bit obvious and anticlimactic, not so much careful police work as a story in need of better editing.
The emphasis on the minutiae of the investigation will be interesting, perhaps, to fans of CSI, but even they may chafe at the slow pace.
