Dead Cold

Detective Temeke #4

by Claire Stibbe

The truth is dead and buried. Or is it? When two bodies are recovered from a house fire, Detective Temeke is called in to investigate what he believes is a routine case. The tragedy takes a more sinister turn when a post mortem reveals that one victim was beaten to death. House owner Flynn McCann appears to have the perfect life, married to the woman he loves. His life is quiet - even ordinary. Until the fire reduces all he knows to ashes. Consumed with grief, and fleeing suspicion, he must unravel the events leading up to that terrible night to prove his innocence. But time is running out. As the dead prepare to reveal their secrets, he realizes his future is about to unfold in ways he could never have imagined. In a house with a history of betrayal and revenge, how many lines is Temeke willing to cross to uncover the truth and bring in an elusive killer? With taut and brooding prose, Dead Cold is a twisty new thriller from the author of The 9th Hour and Night Eyes. “A crisp, confident and roundly satisfying novel, the characters simply sparkle with life. This is a meaty police procedural I couldn’t put down.” Jenny London, Ebony Press. “Claire Stibbe has written another corker of a crime thriller that takes hold and won’t let go. Slick and exciting with tons of twists and turns, it kept me riveted until the end. I sincerely hope this series keeps on coming.” Celia Markham, Booksage. “This is an addicting read. I rarely give a book a five star rating unless it consistently hits the bulls-eye. Dead Cold is all that and so much more.” Southwest Book Reviews

348 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 10, 2017

About the author

Claire Stibbe is the winner of the 2021 Page Turner Award for Fiction and a prolific novelist. Today, she writes dark, domestic suspense novels that draw on her experiences as a survivor of domestic abuse. Her aim is not just to tell gripping stories but to inspire other survivors to find freedom and independence.

Claire worked as an Executive Assistant for twenty years in both London and the Far East. She now devotes herself full-time to writing. Her novels owe much to her years as a member of the Albuquerque Police Citizen’s Academy where her main focus was the impact of violence towards women and their families.

Claire now lives in Utah with her husband and son, and her cat, Edward, who sleeps on her desk while she writes. She is addicted to reading and sharing the crime fiction love. To keep up-to-date with her new books and blogs, sign up for her newsletter at: https://linktr.ee/ClaireStibbe

Member: Albuquerque Police Citizen’s Academy, International Thriller Writers, CWA, Sisters in Crime, Alliance of Independent Authors and Mystery Writers, New Mexico Book Co-op, and Southwest Writers.

Awards: Winner of the Page Turner Writing Award and the New Mexico/Arizona Book Awards, Wishing Shelf Silver Medal Award, Award-Winning Finalist 2019 Best Book Awards sponsored by American Book Fest.

Reviews

[Linda Strong · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

It starts with a house fire. Two bodies are found in the rubble. A third is burned, but not badly.

Flynn McCann is the home owner. His wife and a neighbor were killed. He was very much in love with his wife, but doesn't seem to be grieving over her loss.

Detective Temeke is assigned to investigate when it is revealed that the fire was started by arson. Generally speaking, when arson is proven, it is usually a question of insurance. What the medical examiner finds changes everything.

McCann knows that he is going to be the prime suspect, so he runs. But is he running because he's guilty?

The encompassing suspense starts .. and ends... with the first chapter. What follows is more of a police procedural ... interviewing friends, neighbors, family .... trying to put together the pieces of a puzzle. While McCann is on the run, the reader is treated to flashes of things that happened to him prior to the fire.

There are so many elements to the story .... lies and secrets, affairs, love and hate, jealousy and envy.

This is fourth in a series and as always, I recommend starting at the very beginning. There are hints that Temeke has personal issues .. but not clearly defined here. He is tenacious and loves his job ... he is his job. He has two colleagues, one is new and rumored to be 'close' to their supervisor. A little competition between the women create a lot of tension among them all. All the characters are solid, some I really liked, some I really didn't.

Many thanks to the author / Noble Lizard Publishing / TBC Reviews / Netgalley for the digital copy of this addition to an interesting crime series. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

[Kajsa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite that I have not read the first three books in this series this was actually quite entertaining. But still I don't feel like I will rekindle my relationship with Detective Temeke anytime soon...

[Melanie Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dead Cold is Dead Good! I enjoyed the partnership between Temeke and Malin, and look forward to reading about this crime fighting duo again. But it was the murder mystery that really made this book an unputdownable read. Flynn McCann had my sympathy as the newly widowed fire victim. I was still guessing at 'Whodunnit?' right up until the big reveal when I was OMG!!! A well written, very clever story, which keeps you in suspense from beginning to end. 5 stars from me

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable crime novel. This is the first of the series I’ve read. I might have a greater affection for Detective Temeke if I had read the previous books. Instead I felt his partner (Malin) to be the more interesting and engaging character.

The story is enjoyable and well written. The tension through the last 20% built well and I didn’t want to put it down, however I was a tad disappointed there wasn’t more of a twist.

It’s provided enough enjoyment to entice me to read the rest on the series.

PS. The best line from the book - “her once defined thighs now resembled two packs of turkey sausage”.

[Kamini Mehta · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wondered, what exactly happened? Full of flawed humans, made all the more interesting because of them.

[Joanna Gibson · Rating 3 out of 5]

readable but I was disappointed at how slow this book built up, I found the characters a little boring and the writing a little drab. a decent ending which helped.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dead Calm by author Claire Stibbe is a detective story set in the region of Albuquerque, New Mexico. It is beautiful there, so I enjoyed the references to the surroundings. The story starts with a man, Flynn McCann trying to escape from his burning home. He knows Tarian, his wife is still in the house but will not be able to escape.
Detective Temeke and Detective Malin Santiago work this case and discover there could be several reasons for Tarian’s death before the fire and possibly more than one person wanted to kill her.
Flynn checks himself out of the hospital before being dismissed by the doctor, and after his statement to the detectives, he leaves town. He is afraid he will be held responsible for the fire or maybe for Tarians death. Flynn plans to go to an old house in Sedona his dad had owned and later he takes a motorcycle, trying to get to Jesky, his step-father. He admires Jesky and calls to talk with him along the route as he is trying to evade being apprehended by Detective Suzi Cornwell who has been sent by Temeke to watch Flynn and bring him back as a suspect.
The details are a bit vague in places and it seemed that after the first scene, the thrilling or suspense part was gone. It was like trying to piece a puzzle together as I read the story. The beatings Flynn took from Tarian and her discontent with Flynn was a factor to consider. Also, was it a murder for the inheritance? Did he do it, or did Rose do it and he decided to take the fall? It is a crime mystery where you need to consider who is telling the truth. On a side note, there is some contention between Detective Malin and Detective Cornwell, and Temeke seems to like the competition between the women.

[Jen Juenke · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was supposed to be a mystery/thriller book. However, 25% of the way into it, I wondered why I was still reading this book. The characters were wooden, the dialog was contrived, the plot was horrible. This book needs major editing to become passable. I even went on Goodreads and there was reviews that said it was shocking ending. So I kept with it...spoiler alert...it wasn't shocking. The most shocking thing was that I stuck with this book!

[B.A. Morton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is fast becoming my favourite US detective series. Imagine Idris Elba’s ‘Luther’ thrown headlong into ‘Breaking Bad’s’, Albuquerque and you get some idea of how this series rolls. Topical, twisty, and edgy with story lines that pull no punches, and characters, both good and bad, who are multi-layered and real - warts and all.
On the ball procedural accuracy, intelligent plotting and the bonus of almost lyrical prose, this author just gets better and better. The location of New Mexico is depicted vividly and it’s plain to see that the author knows her setting and her subject matter well.
It was great catching up with Detectives Temeke and Malin again and seeing how their characters and relationships are developing. Temeke, with his gruff British humour is definitely the star of the show as far as I’m concerned but his partner Malin is such an interesting and mysterious character and I think this book allows her a more meaningful role and reveals a side to her that I look forward to discovering more of in any future books.
As always, author Claire Stibbe waves her magic wand and allows us into the head of her main suspect, Flynn, who flees from police after his wife is killed in a house fire. Straight forward – not so, as the plot twists and turns it becomes apparent that all was not right in Flynn’s household and it’s up to Temeke and Malin to discover the truth from the ashes that remain.
Dead Cold is a fabulous addition to the Temeke series which I wholly recommend to crime fiction/police procedural fans.

[Jean Gill · Rating 5 out of 5]

REALLY gripping psychological thriller /detective page-turner!

Great continuation in a series that reminds me of Camilla Lackberg in its twisty psychological thriller aspect but with the flavour of its New Mexico setting. Nicely balances the locker-room talk and relationships among the police, with the murder story. The author's bio shows that she's attached to the PD and this shows in her knowledge of police procedure.

The start had me guessing straight away, trying to figure out what is behind the memory loss of a husband whose wife has been murdered. As we see his viewpoint, we know the memory loss is real but what is harder to figure out is his relationship with his wife. This book made me look at married couples and wonder exactly what goes on behind closed doors. We never do know!

As to the key detectives: Malin has grown more confident, fighting her corner and more of an equal to Temeke, whose marital problems ratchet up a notch the ‘Will they, won’t they’ element in the partnership. I’m happy for them to within a good working partnership, especially when there’s so much sexism and bullying in their workplace! I can’t complain that it’s not realistic but there are some characters whom I’d love to see get their comeuppance. Unfortunately, as in real life, desserts are not always just.

As always, I love the way the author brings the landscape and (to me) foreign culture to life. New Mexico (and, this time Arizona, too) create their own difficulties both for the villains on the run and the cops trying to catch them. And it's a heart-thumping chase!

[Sally Stackhouse · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is book #4 in the series but says it reads well as a stand-alone. Unfortunately I found myself a bit lost with the characters. It started well and I was in high hopes of it continuing well but I found there were too many discrepancies, jumping of time lines, wrong times quoted and characters that were difficult to keep in mind. It says it is a Detective Temeke mystery series but there was little or nothing of this character with the main focus on the ‘fugitive’ or the accused running from the police and his story.

The typos and spelling mistakes were quite numerous as well lessening the enjoyment of reading.

Maybe I needed to have read Books 1, 2 and 3.

[Jeannine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting police procedural involving a house fire that leaves a wife dead, the husband injured and a neighbor dead trying to rescue them. Shortly after, the wife's death is ruled a murder, the fire an arson and the husband on the run. Detective Temeke and his partner Malin Santiago are trying to make sense of the clues and track down the husband while dealing with personal issues and office politics in their New Mexico police department. Almost too much character development at times but a good twist in the end.

[Dasha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having lived in NM and loved the culture, the landscape, the specialness of the place, I was hoping to enjoy this novel. I found it okay, but lacking in having the small references to what make NM so special. Yes, green chile came up, and tumbleweed. But that was about it, just as the habit of calling women "love" was about all that indicated Temeke is British. I also found some of the prose confusing, not normally a problem for me. The story was okay, but I doubt I'll read more by this author. For NM ambiance, I'll stick with Orenduff's Pot Thief series.

[Archana Aggarwal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you Net Galley. This was a pleasant surprise. I discovered a very enjoyable new author and a new series. A very interesting thriller with psychological underpinnings. I liked the characters and the background that the author has developed. Definitely going to be reading the previous books and any future ones.

[Steph Elise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better than the last one. Ready for the last book.

[Elizabeth Horton-Newton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was excited to see author Claire Stibbe had added a new crime thriller with Detectives Temeke and Malin Santiago to her impressive series. The title, Dead Cold, and the cover of the book assured me this would be another gripping story.
Stibbe is skilled at making the reader feel like he is right there, at the scene of the crime, in the office as the detectives pour over the details of the crimes, or struggling with the killer’s guilt or innocence in the head of the suspect. Stibbe holds nothing back in her descriptions of crime scenes and the procedures used to investigate them.
Dead Cold begins with Flynn McCann trapped in a house on fire. This first chapter sets the tone for the story, getting into McCann’s head and how he struggles to survive the blaze that engulfs his home. Stibbe’s descriptions of the fire are harrowing. With the arrival of Temeke, it becomes apparent there is more to this fire than just an accident. Tarian McCann and her neighbor, Quinn, who attempted to save her, are dead. Only Flynn was able to escape the blaze. As Temeke is led through the crime scene he quickly deduces from the odor of gasoline, the fire was deliberately set. Soon he and his partner Malin are investigating the fire, putting together clues from both the scene and the interviews they hold with Flynn and others who know the couple.
Stibbe’s ability to accurately follow the investigative techniques of police detectives is her forte. She sets out the clues and pursues the evidence skillfully. Temeke is an experienced investigator and Malin is quickly following his lead. Along with the respect they have for one another, there is an intimacy of friendship. In fact, at times it appears Malin has a crush on the lead detective. Meanwhile, Temeke wants to reunite with his wife Serena. He seems almost obsessed with the hope they can save their marriage.
Malin has had a mysterious texter stalking her throughout the series. Known by the handle, Wingman, he taunts her with clues and information about this investigation as he has in previous books. His observations often cause the young woman to see evidence from a new point of view.
The prime suspect in the fire and death of Tarian McCann is her husband Flynn. He is more than aware of this and reaches out to various people to help him; his ex-lover Rosie and his step-father “Jesky”. Taking off on an interstate search for his biological father, McCann has several unusual encounters with strangers; some good others, questionable.
Meanwhile, Malin Santiago is in a silent battle for recognition with Detective Suzi Cornwell. Malin develops rapport with Flynn McCann and the fugitive feels comfortable enough to communicate with the detective. This works in her favor with the Chief.
There are some interesting twists in this story. Some of the tale seems a little extraneous. McCann’s search for his father is almost an aside. The character that is most fascinating is the late Tarian McCann. As more of her personality was revealed I almost felt as though she deserved what she got. The question was, who was responsible for her death? Was Flynn the killer who finished her off or were one of the other actors guilty? Was Rosie jealous of the woman who lured Flynn away? Was Cliff, the dead woman’s lover/drug dealer the culprit? Could her father have had enough of her to end her life? As Stibbe leads us to the resolution the tension grows.
I would have liked less of Temeke’s desire to reunite with his wife, Serena, and more of the non-sexual intimacies between him and Malin. He seems completely oblivious to her “crush” and she seems to waver in her feelings. Sometimes the inner thoughts of protagonist Flynn seem to drag. However, the writing is mostly crisp. I hope this series continues. This book is my least favorite of the four, but I would still recommend it as a crime mystery worth reading.