Cold Comfort [Paperback]

Officer Gunnhildur, recently promoted from her post in rural Iceland to Reykjavík’s Serious Crime Unit, is tasked with hunting down escaped convict Long Ommi, who has embarked on a spree of violent score-settling in and around the city. Meanwhile, she’s also investigating the murder of a fitness guru in her own city-center apartment. As Gunna delves into the cases, she unearths some unwelcome secrets and influential friends shared by both guru and convict. Set in an Iceland plagued by an ongoing financial crisis, Gunna has to take stock of the whirlwind changes that have swept through the country—and the fact that at the highest levels of power, the system’s endemic corruption still leads, inevitably, to murder. Required reading for anyone who wants a sense of how calamitious Iceland's meltdown was—and what just might be in store for American police procedurals next. —Kirkus Reviews

Cold Comfort introduces some very interesting characters and develops the setting and stories of Gunna's environment in positive ways, leading me to look forward to the next Gunnhildur book with anticipation.” —International Noir Fiction

Praise forFrozen Assets:

“Excellent debut.... Bates does a fine job with both Gunna and her town, her acerbic boss and an online blogger who keeps us abreast of events in Icelandic media and politics.”—Toronto Globe and Mail

“[A] crackling fiction debut ... palpable authenticity.”—Publishers Weekly

“In Gunna Gísladóttir, Quentin Bates has created a character who appeals both on professional and personal levels.”—Examiner.com

“The author has used the financial disarray of Iceland quite successfully in the plotting of this book. Money is power and power is so often the root of crime, and so it is in Cold Comfort…. Gunna is a tough as nails, take nlS