Book 2 - Stone Cold Heart is a must-read.

In this story, Detective Constable Cat Kinsella, after a brief stint in the Mayor’s Office is back at the London Metropolitan Police, wisecracking with her partner Luigi Parnell and trying to avoid the wrath of the boss, DI Kate Steele.

But for Cat and Parnell, it’s serious business when a young Australian woman turns up dead after a party thrown by her new boss. The initial investigation of Naomi Lockhart's murder points to Joseph Madden, the owner of a coffee shop around the corner from police headquarters. Madden insists he’s innocent, that he was home with his wife Rachel at the time of the murder. When the police question her, Rachel contradicts his alibi, swearing that she was home alone.

Stone Cold Heart is the second of this author’s three novels, sandwiched between Sweet Little Lies and Shed No Tears. I will definitely go back to read the first book and do think that the events of that novel are critical in defining protagonist, Cat. That said readers receive enough backstory to be able to read the titles out of order.

One thing that I very much enjoyed in this book was Kat’s voice as she tells the story. There are also all of the elements that make police procedurals good reading including the cast of characters in the police station.

The story’s victim is a young Australian girl who came to London to escape a suffocating relationship. Who killed her? Was it someone in the company where she was a temp? Her male roommate? Was it the man who owns a very upscale coffee place? How do the characters stories intersect? Read this well paced book to find out.

This title will be enjoyed by readers who like stories by Tana French, Susie Steiner and Dervla McTiernan. I recommend it!

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this title. All opinions are my own.

Read. This. Series.

This is the second in the Cat Kinsella series. While this could be read as a stand alone, I highly advise starting with the first in the series, as that is where the character is really outlined in all her complexities--and those complexities follow her into this novel and, I'm sure, into the ones to come.

Frear does a great job of balancing a mystery that Cat and her colleagues have to solve with the difficulties she's facing in her personal life as a result of a past she has no control over. As they say, the past comes back to haunt you and, in this case, Cat is often paying for the sins of her father.

I can't wait for the next installment in this series!

STONE COLD HEART is the second outing for protagonist Cat Kinsella, a fascinating character created by author Caz Frear. Cat is compelling, curious, duplicitous, hardworking and insightful. She’s a detective in London with a father who dabbles on the wrong side of the law, a boyfriend she hides from everyone and ambivalent feelings about both. What she doesn’t have is any confusion about finding killers and that’s her career choice. A profession we meet again in this book, with mild references to the previous book. There are plenty of red herrings in this tale and it’s a joy to watch everything unfold. I found the beginning just a tad slow but then the book really takes off. I was unable to stop reading and the ending was just great. Looks like there’ll be a third book as well. Plenty of time to begin this series. It’s a winner. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

The brilliant Caz Frear, Sweet Little Lies, is back with Stone Cold Heart on sale since July 2nd. Cat Kinsella whom we met in Sweet Little Lies, is back too working on a new case still balancing her complicated professional and personal life.

Cat is investigating the murder of an Australian woman Naomi Lockhart, whose murder is full of gaps and inconsistencies. And while Cat and her team are scrambling to build a case against a suspect, they discover that nothing adds up. To make things worse, Cat’s boyfriend, Aiden Doyle, whom she’s keeping a secret from her friends, is not too pleased. Cat, off course, has her reasons. And then there is her dad’s old college friend, Frank Hickley, who is threatening to reveal her father’s secrets if Cat doesn’t help him in exchange for his silence.

The book is packed with characters, but I found it easy to follow the plot and not get confused in who did what and where? Another bonus was the engaging dialog scenes, something of a signature of Cat.

Overall, Stone Cold Heart was a gratifying book and a strong follow up after Sweet Little Lies.

Caz Frear’s follow-up to Sweet Little Lies was everything I was hoping for and more.

Detective Cat Kinsella, our immensely likable and fascinatingly complex protagonist, takes on another confounding murder case, one that ultimately proves to be just as compelling and far, far more complex than the murder being investigated in the first book of the series.

This time around the case has no direct link to Cat’s own family, though there’s a side plot regarding her personal life developing that stems from the events of the first book and looks like it will ultimately become something much bigger as the series progresses.

The solve is not the greatest (this doesn’t seem to be Frear’s specialty...the meat of these books is in the characters and the procedural processes), but it does make sense and won’t make readers angry. And there’s plenty of complex strings attached to it and ancillary fallout from it that mitigates the meh of the whodunit a bit.

Eagerly awaiting the next installment.

This one, Boys and Girls, has teeth.

Sharp, jagged incisors that sink to the bone and leave quite the gaping wound in its aftermath.

Caz Frear brings her quick-witted character of DC Cat Kinsella to the forefront once again in this second offering in the Cat Kinsella Series. Admittedly, I have not read the first one, Sweet Little Lies. Within seconds of finishing Stone Cold Heart, I ordered it with the knee jerk response of a kid with a bag of Halloween candy. Gotta have.

Cat and her partner, DS Luigi Parnell, are assigned to the London Metropolitan Police. They've been called out to the scene of a murder in the old Coronation Gardens section of London.......cheap apartments with cheap rents. Kiernan Drake walked in and found his housemate, Naomi Lockhart, bleeding from a headwound on the floor of her bedroom. The young twenty-two year old Aussie with lilac hair won't be taking to the streets of London any time soon.

As Cat and Parnell begin their investigation, we're gonna have a string of could-be's and maybe not's to sort through. Caz Frear winds this one up and chases suspects around many corners. While being new in town, Naomi has gravitated toward a bevy of new friends. Not solid friends, but those who drift in and out of one's life. Could she have crossed someone at work? Or could she have been involved with the local Casanova, Joseph, who manages the local coffeehouse, The Grindhouse? A lot of footwork in this one.

Frear also adds a twisty thread involving Caz' new love interest, Aiden, from the west coast of Ireland. Be assured: Caz Frear does not inundate her mystery/thriller with a sappy off-key love story here. (I can't tolerate those.) They both have backstories that haven't fully come to the surface yet. And Caz has issues with her father who seems to be involved in some shady dealings himself.

Stone Cold Heart reads as a standalone. I loved the snarky dialogue between Cat and Luigi along with the deeply interesting layers of this storyline. Caz Frear writes with intelligence. She knows her craft and keeps it humming along a quick pace. No dead zones here. Can't wait to snuggle up with Numero Uno, Sweet Little Lies.

I received a copy of Stone Cold Heart through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to Harper Collins Publishing and to Caz Frear for the opportunity.

This is the second book I have read in this series and I can’t help feeling that it is ok and could be really good. I start out interested and then lose interest in the second half as it drags on. It turns out to be predictable without me being invested in the characters. Other May love the series but it is just ok for me.

Another riveting police procedural by Frear, one of my new favorite authors. Great characters, interesting family dynamics and coworkers too.

My only complaint was that the plot turned overly complex at about 62%, so that it became a frustrating slow read for about a dozen chapters. I can see why there was so much speculation but hitting a tall wall of it sort of ruined the book for me, at least for a while.

Ohhhhhh my!!! Caz Frear has really knocked my socks off with Stone Cold Heart!!! This thriller has so many moving parts and several mysteries within a larger mystery that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the last page! I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up throughout this book which is always a sure-fire sign of a great thriller! I really enjoy Caz Frear’s writing style—so flipping entertaining!!! Stone Cold Heart is a solid 5 star book that I recommend to all mystery/thriller fans! This addictive read is Caz Frear’s second novel and Caz has now officially become an automatic 1-click author for me!

D.C. Cat Kinsella is nonplussed when Joseph Madden tells her he needs her help with his wife, Rachel, a woman who Madden claims is unbalanced and out to do him harm. Cat takes little notice until Naomi Lockheart is killed at a party both Joseph and Rachel attended. Joseph is arrested for the murder, but insists his wife set him up. While the case against Joseph build up, Cat finds herself looking into the details of the Madden family. Could there be any truth to Joseph’s accusation? While the Maddens are thoroughly unlikable, Cat is a heroine readers will cheer for. Told in her voice, readers will like this strong, intelligent woman