Free (Kindle/iTunes) Cold Comfort [Award-Nom Toronto Political Police Procedural]

[ATDrake]

Cold Comfort by Canadian mystery & sfnal author Scott Mackay (SYKM, ISFDB, Wikipedia) is the 1st in his Detective Barry Gilbert Mystery series of hard-boiled police procedurals set in contemporary Toronto, this installment involving a murder case with political infighting in the bleak midwinter, free courtesy of publisher Diversion Books, who are e-printing it from the 1998 Caroll & Graf hardcover edition.

This was a 1999 finalist in the Best Novel category for the Arthur Ellis Award, which is our top national crime-writing prize.

Currently free @ Amazon (available to Canadians & in the UK) & iTunes (available to Canadians and many places worldwide, as Diversion freebise often are).

And this has been the (late!) selected 3rd (non-repeat) free ebook thread of the day.

Because award-nominated Canadiana.

Enjoy!

Description
In the midst of a record-cold winter, the stepdaughter of a government official is found dead on a snow-swept pier at the harbor. Overworked and underpaid Detective Barry Gilbert is called to investigate. The Metropolitan Toronto Police Force is already beset by political maneuverings that threaten their jobs, and the sensitive nature of this case may increase that risk to the point where detectives from Gilbert’s own squad are chopped. All of this is before the victim’s autopsy reveals a seemingly unsolvable enigma: the victim froze to death first and was shot later, after she was already dead.

So begins a treacherous trail of evidence that leads Gilbert to the coldest zones of the human heart.

As the investigation takes unexpected and baffling turns, he at last suspects an outside manipulator, and must use all his skill to untangle clues that at first defy explanation. Probing deeper in the victim’s dark past, he discovers the terrible secret she's hidden all her life. He's forced to confront his own values, and learns that even the most superlative detectives can lose their judgment at the most critical moments—often with the deadliest of consequences.