Spend Christmas Trapped on an Isolated Island with a Killer Alice Fitzpatrick’s New Mystery Delivers Classic Christie Tension
This book is available worldwide in eBook and paperback formats.
Family Secrets, Holiday Lies, and a Killer on the Loose — A Cruel Cold Arrives
An intriguing mystery which explores how childhood lies can compel someone to seek revenge for a lifetime of deception and betrayal.
Christmas is only a few days away, and Kate Galway has been looking forward to spending some mother-daughter time with her barrister daughter, Alex, on the isolated Welsh island where Kate grew up. But Kate is forced to adjust her plans when Alex arrives accompanied by her father, Detective Chief Inspector James Hewitt, Kate’s ex-husband. The island’s matriarch, Sophie Sutherland, is eager to reunite with her old beau, Teddy Bartell, who shows up with an entourage of relations, including his son, the son’s abrasive second wife, and her twin brother. Everyone joins in the Christmas celebrations at the pub, but the party comes to an abrupt end when someone ingests a lethal dose of cyanide. A winter storm has shut down access to the mainland, trapping the killer on the island. With no forensics and minimal support from the mainland police, Kate, James, and Alex must rely on old-fashioned detective work to track down the murderer before they strike again.
For fans of Agatha Christie’s isolated settings mysteries, A Cruel Cold and a hot cup of tea is the perfect way to spend an evening.
A Cruel Cold (The Meredith Island Mysteries): Fitzpatrick, Alice: 9781067865702: Amazon.com: Books
Intriguing plot, interesting characters, and a location I’d like to visit. I look forward to more exploits of the Meredith Island gang.
MORE FROM ALICE’S MEREDITH ISLAND MYSTERY SERIES
Book Number 1
Back on the island to lay her grandmother to rest, Kate can’t avoid reflecting on the death of her aunt. Learning that her late mother had believed Emma was murdered and had conducted her own investigation, she decides to track down her aunt’s killer. With the help of her neighbour, impetuous and hedonistic sculptor Siobhan Fitzgerald, Kate picks up where her mother had left off. When the two women become the subject of threatening notes and violent incidents, it’s clear that one of their fellow islanders is warning them off. As they begin to look into Emma’s connection to the Sutherlands, a prominent Meredith Island family, another islander dies under suspicious circumstances, forcing Kate and Siobhan to confront the likelihood that Emma’s killer is still on the island.
Book Number 2
Kate Galway is looking forward to a quiet summer working on her latest novel at her home on Meredith Island. For a place hardly anyone has heard of, her sleepy Welsh island is attracting a lot of visitors, including a conman posing as a psychic and group of archaeology students who believe they’ve unearthed evidence of a Roman temple. Part-way through the dig, however, the students make an even more startling discovery: a body ritualistically laid out in their trench. While Intrigued by the murder, amateur sleuth Kate decides to leave this investigation to the professionals. However, when she learns that both the island mechanic and her university friend’s son are prime suspects, she and hedonistic artist Siobhan Fitzgerald feel they have no choice but to get involved.
ABOUT ALICE FITZPATRICK
Alice Fitzpatrick has contributed short stories to literary magazines and anthologies, including the Crime Writers of Canada 40th anniversary anthology, Cold Canadian Crime. She is a fearless champion of singing, cats, all things Welsh, and the Oxford comma. Her summers spent with her Welsh family in Pembrokeshire inspired the creation of the Meredith Island Mysteries which include Secrets in the Water and A Dark Death (finalist for the 2026 Crime Writers of Canada award for Best Traditional Mystery). Alice’s latest book, A Cruel Cold, is an homage to Agatha Christie. The traditional mystery appeals to her fascination with what makes seemingly ordinary people commit murder. Alice lives in Toronto but dreams of a cottage on the Welsh coast.
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