Cold Mourning by Brenda Chapman
2014, Dundurn Press, 400 Pages, $19.54
Detective/Police, Nominated for the 2015 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel
This is the first book in what would become (at the time of writing) a seven book series, centred on Kala Stonechild, an indigenous police officer from a rez in Northern Ontario), and Jacques Rouleau, her supervising officer on their specialised team in the Ottawa Police Services.
The team is investigating two cases, a man assaulting women around the East End, and Stonechild’s pursuit of her long-lost cousin, when a wealthy businessman goes missing and they’re told to prioritize that case. The cops do so while also pursuing their original cases. The trope of “cops solve crimes in their spare time” is present, but it doesn’t feel artificial as they have a significant workload.
What I really liked about the characters, is that while their backstory is present (particularly in the case of Stonechild), their characters are not overplayed. You don’t know everything there is to know about them, which makes them seem more life-like than one whose full psyche is presented in descriptive paragraphs. This gives the characters a grounded-in-reality feel, and gives them more room to develop and grow, which I appreciated.
Genre-wise, this is very much inspired by police procedurals and Nordic mysteries. These are not my favourite genres, so my rating on this is higher than my personal enjoyment of it, because I’m trying to assess it on what it is, rather than what I’d like it to be. As a work produced towards certain attributes and expectations, this delivers. I can recognize its quality, it’s just not for me. I have friends who’ll love it.
While it took place in Ottawa, the city wasn’t terribly central to the story. It took place in multiple neighbourhoods, none of which were characterised in depth. As far as setting went, this could have been any medium-sized North American city.
The setting of winter (even mentioned in the title) wasn’t terribly important to the story, which I found a little odd. Winter in Ottawa isn’t just cold. Homeless people and drunks walking home die. Most schoolchildren are taught the difference between frostbite and frostburn and how they are both treated as an important life skill. In this story, the winter is a gentle metaphor for isolation and loneliness, but it really doesn’t convey the brutal nature of winter in Ottawa.
Overall, it was fine, but not my cup of tea.
★★★★☆
