Cold Kill

DS Stella Mooney #3

by David Lawrence

Detective Sergeant Stella Mooney is back, in a chilling thriller of a cold, calculating evil...Winter. Crime a London park at dusk. DS Stella Mooney stares down at the brutalized body of a young woman. From the shelter of nearby trees Robert Kimber is watching events...watching Stella. Next morning he walks into a Notting Hill police station and confesses to the murder. It's a fast clear-up - just what the AMIP 5 squad wants this close to Christmas. But Stella has her doubts about Kimber's guilt. So if Kimber didn't commit the murder, who did? Someone without conscience or pity. Someone who will tap into Kimber's disturbed mind. Someone who needs an apprentice for the dark business he has planned...

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Fiction

448 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Pseudonym for author David Harsent.

Reviews

[Two Envelopes And A Phone · Rating 5 out of 5]

A spectacular serial killer/police procedural novel, with a champion lead character - my favourite of her type since Malin Fors.

This Crime novel acts like it may not be so clever - just riveting regardless. Then it seems as if it is clever, but all the cleverness is on display. One wonders how there could be any whodunnit aspect - maybe a shrug, like "it's okay, it's all so great anyway.". I dismissed the idea of a final twist, some big reveal of something epic, perhaps relating to a character hiding in shadows. "The shadows aren't there...but it will be a 4 star book anyway...".

4.5 stars.

[Eclectic Review · Rating 5 out of 5]

Third in the DS Stella Mooney series, this is a refreshing police procedural with fully developed characters, a lot of action and the plot takes some shocking twists that will totally surprise the reader who will have a hard time waiting to see what happens next. Fans who appreciate a complex murder mystery will want to read David Lawrence’s tense thriller.

[Keli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Took me a very long time to get thru this book. I couldn't quite get into the story line.

[Francis Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read!!! My first time reading about David Lawrence's Stella Mooney & cast of characters!!
Two huge thumbs up!!! And I'll soon be reading the other books in this series.

[Kathy Davie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Third in the DS Stella Mooney mystery series set in modern-day London, Cold Kill demonstrates a sick mind! How Lawrence comes up with such nasty characters??! Oh, wait, they’re everywhere aren’t they? Still, coming up with Kimber’s physical display of his obsessions…ick…Lawrence has got one imagination!

Mooney is investigating what appears to be a serial killer targeting young women but there are enough similarities AND differences that it just doesn’t make sense. Then Robert Kimber walks into the station house to confess but his confession doesn’t quite make sense either.

Lots of dramas between Kimber’s fantasy/reality and his obsession with Mooney; Mooney’s dithering between Delaney, George, and the flat in Vigo---and doesn't that just catch her on the hop!; Delaney’s investigation of the plight of the homeless at Christmas; Tom Davison and the silky, black thong; the developing relationship between Mooney and Anne Beaumont…and Maxine and Jan; Pete Harriman’s womanizing; and, all the red herrings which Lawrence drags across our path.

The revelations just keep coming the further we read as subplot after subplot untwists its nasty selves.

Down into Darkness is next in the series.

[Toni Chanakas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love thrillers and this keep me interested but the ending faltered for me. I was expecting a really big twist. As I read thrillers, I am always trying to figure out "what is really going on." There wasn't a big surprise ending. Perhaps that is more of an English way of writing.

Also, the characters weren't compelling or complex. The lead, Stella, didn't have a back bone or spunk. She is suppose to be this crime/profiler. I was thinking about "The Closer" in Brenda Leigh Johnson and she didn't measure up.

Average book. Not my favorite but it was entertaining - a book I bought at a book sale.

[Frangipani · Rating 4 out of 5]

I couldn't help but like this one because it combined London with crime fiction. I could smell the city every time he described the sky. Good twisting plot to this one.

[Jenn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. Not going to give much of a review. I wasted enough time reading it. It was ok. Not overly memorable. I much prefer other Brit police procedurals.

[Ayila Bokhari · Rating 4 out of 5]

WOW!!..................loved it :D