When a prisoner is shot to death in 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.
The haunting takes on a more menacing cast several days later when
Tarpley's wife, Maureen, is discovered dead with a brightly coloured
scarf 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.
