Cover of A Colder Kind of Death

A Colder Kind of Death

A Joanne Kilbourn Mystery seriesbook 4 of 13Next:A Killing Spring(1996) →

When a prisoner is shot to death in the exercise yard of a Saskatchewan penitentiary, Joanne Kilbourn finds herself haunted by a part of her past she wished had never happened. The dead prisoner is Kevin Tarpley, the man who six years earlier had brutally killed her politician husband, Ian, in a seemingly senseless act alongside the TransCanada Highway.

Read more

The haunting takes on a more menacing cast several days later when Tarpley's sinister wife, Maureen, is discovered dead in a snow-swept Regina parking lot. A brightly coloured scarf is found wound tightly around her neck, a scarf that belongs to none other than Joanne Kilbourn. Soon this single mother, author, university professor, and TV-show panelist is deemed the "number one" suspect in Maureen Tarpley's demise.

Joanne knows there has to be a connection between these two murders. But what is it? A cryptic letter sent to Joanne by Kevin Tarpley just days before his death intimates that Ian Kilbourn's killing may not have been as senseless as first assumed. In fact, there are hints that some of Ian's political colleagues may have been involved. But how deeply and in what way?

Then there's the faded photograph of a pretty young woman and her baby that Joanne finds tucked in the wallet of her dead husband. Does it offer any clue to Ian's murder, or to the deaths of the Tarpleys? Warily, Joanne Kilbourn is forced to follow a tangled trail deep into a heartbreaking past she never knew existed.

A Colder Kind of Death is the fourth novel featuring Gail Bowen's "reluctant sleuth," Joanne Kilbourn. With its deft mix of wry humour and mayhem, closely observed family scenes and gripping suspense, warm characterization and betrayal, it confirms Gail Bowen's stature as one of the greats of mystery fiction.

From the Hardcover edition.

Audience
adult
Length
medium · 224 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked A Colder Kind of Death? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked A Colder Kind of Death. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. Until the Night Shares mystery, canadian, Canada
  2. The Wild Beasts of Wuhan Shares mystery, canadian, canadian authors
  3. A Touch of Panic Shares mystery, canadian, Canada
  4. Crime Machine Shares mystery, canadian, Canada

“People who read A Colder Kind of Death tend to reach for these next.”

  1. Sisters In The Wilderness: The Lives Of Susanna Moodie And Catharine Parr Traill
  2. The Ravine
  3. The Edge of Doom
  4. The Tomorrow-Tamer

“If you want more of the same (mystery), start with these.”

  1. A Quiet Kill
  2. Umbrella Man
  3. Hungry Ghosts
  4. This Thing of Darkness

“If it was the canadian that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. Blackfly Season
  2. Cold Girl
  3. Buffalo Jump
  4. Do or Die

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. The Case of The Hated Body
  2. Blood Work
  3. Wound Up in Murder
  4. The Snowman