Thank you to author Tannis Laidlaw and The Cozy Mystery Review Crew for the gifted copy of this book. All opinions expressed here are my own.
Synopsis
The first book in the new Madeleine Brooks Mystery series!
Madeleine Brooks, Senior Probation Officer, is having problems at work with a boss who is threatened by Maddie’s competence. And now one of her long-term probation clients has been returned to prison on suspicion of murdering a child, the details of which have strong similarities with his original crime. Maddie doesn’t believe it and worries the police are not looking for anyone else.
When Maddie is suspended by her revengeful boss, she finds herself with time and energies she can put to good use. What if her client was innocent of the crime for which he was convicted years ago, just as he has always maintained? This would have implications about the present murder. When Maddie’s teenaged daughter becomes involved, things spiral down.
Has Maddie compromised her own family?
Review
Tannis Laidlaw is another new to me author and I was excited to read the first book in her Madeline Brooks Mystery Series. Death in Cold Waters was a quick and easy read, that kept you guessing until the very end. Death in Cold Waters was full of twists and turns that I did not see coming, and each one of them left me questioning the “who done it” that I developed in my head. Each time I thought I had it all figured out, another twist would be added, and I had to go back to the beginning of the clues to put another guess together. I enjoyed each of the characters created by Tannis Laidlaw, especially Maddie. Maddie’s character of the smart, quick-thinking probation officer made the story what it was. As I read, I could picture this wonderful, charismatic character in each step she took, and each move she made to solve the mystery. Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I am looking forward to reading the second book in the series!
About the Author
Dr Tannis Laidlaw has worn many hats in her career as a psychologist: clinician in private practice, in psychiatric bins and in the prison service; researcher in schizophrenia, anxiety, psychopathy and other personality disorders, mind-body interactions, and the therapeutic use of hypnosis; research manager; writer and lecturer.
She has always been fascinated by the human condition, not only in those with crossed wiring but also when ordinary people are driven to behave in extraordinary ways. Her fiction reflects her psychological background; her non-fiction, her interests as a wife, mother and friend.
Tannis lives with her husband in Auckland, but spends half her time at a deserted beach in Northland, the semi-tropical northern part of New Zealand, and in a remote cabin in the woods on a Canadian lake – all places where she writes and writes and writes.
Lost in a Book after a Day of Social Work 