Australian paramedic crime thriller fiction writer
COLD JUSTICE
 |
 |
Australian edition Read excerpt |
Dutch edition, June 2010 |
 |
|
Synopsis.
A teenage girl stumbles across the body of her classmate, Tim Pieters, hidden amongst the bushes. His family is devastated, the killer is never found.
Eighteen years later, political pressure sees the murder investigation reopened. Detective Ella Marconi tracks down Georgie Riley, the student who found the body, and who is now a paramedic. Georgie seems to be telling the truth, so then why does Ella receive an anonymous phone call insisting that Georgie knows more? And is it mere coincidence that her ambulance partner, Freya, also went to the same high school?
Ella's confusion increases when Tim's mother, once so willing to get the police involved, suddenly turns her back on the investigation. Meanwhile, Tim's cousin, the MP whose influence reopened the case, can't seem to do enough to help.
The more Ella digs into the past, the more the buried secrets and lies are brought to light. Can she track down the killer before more people are hurt?
Critics' Comments
"Howell pays lovely attention to detail, and writes with a good deal of psychological insight, exploring the ongoing effects of the loss of a child through violent crime, and the way it can fracture a family ... The detective is a complex and appealing character whose passion for crime solving is both endearing and compelling and keeps the pace of the book racing."
Sunday Telegraph
"Howell crafts a powerful and high-adrenaline tale of murder and intrigue ... a captivating read for crime, action and mystery fans."
Australian Bookseller and Publisher
Author's Comments
Cold Justice is my third novel and in it Detective Ella Marconi finds herself dealing with a murder case almost twenty years old. When I started writing, I knew the age of the case could be a problem - after all, while the victim and his family certainly deserve justice, where's the threat, the danger, the suspense that will keep the story moving thrillingly forward? Then during my research I came across an interview with a US detective who works on similar cases. He said that the perpetrator of such an old case often now has more to lose, having a family, a job, social standing and so on, and because of this he might just be driven to commit more murder to protect himself. I saw immediately how I could use this to kick the story's pace into high gear - and keep it there.