Killing a Cold One: A Woods Cop Mystery

This is the best in the series so far . Great cast of characters but a list of characters in the preface would be helpful. If you are a fan of Mike Bowditch and Cork O'Connor, you will be a fan of Grady Service. This is the best of this genre. Baamaapii miinwaq kaawaabmin!

As someone who spent her youth in the U.P, I gotta say: it IS another country, fer sure. The living is rough and the people are rough, and yet, you're constantly surprised by their friendly smiles and amazing work ethic. It seems to be a culture of throwbacks to an earlier era. The men love nothing more than to grab a rifle and head for their "camp" to shoot some hapless animal. The women like to stay behind and have hen parties where they swap their latest incredibly caloric culinary discovery. Staying thin in the U.P. is almost an impossibility, especially with the carb loading that goes hand in hand with long hard winters.KILLING A COLD ONE sets up an intriguing mystery, and I was glued to the book. However, there are a few issues which raised concerns.First, Limpy Allerdyce is back. He's a fascinating character, full of contradictions, but knows the U.P. like the back of his hand and can track anything anywhere. In this book, however, his dialect is so thick, it's intrusive to the reading experience. Sure, folks in the U.P. who live out in the woods often do not have the benefit of a good education, so they fracture big words. And yes, "deese, dem, and dose" are in popular use, along with "youse." But Limpy is actually speaking some form of pidgeon English I barely recognized. He's a Korean war vet, a former Marine, well past his prime, a known poacher, and blessed with an eidetic memory. Somehow this rough older man has a softer side that calls to young children, animals, and city women. It's amazing!Second, the book implies cannibalism and the hoarding of body parts, yet that is never actually resolved with a satisfactory explanation one way or the other. With the background of the murderer, how he came to cannibalize his victims, if indeed he did, is just never addressed.I love this entire series and it's always a gass to be swept up into the miriad of swamps, woods, and mountains along with Grady Service. No wonder he gave up his desk job to get back into the life of a woods cop.

I was very excited about Killing a Cold One coming out and then very disappointed in the first two reviews I read published on Amazon. Having read all the previous Woods Cop stories I could not believe I would be disappointed and I surely was not. Mr. Heywood's writing was as fresh and exciting demonstrated in Snowfly while I read waiting for Killing a Cold One to be released. His latest book is as exciting as the previous Woods Cop Mysteries. Mr. Heywood is a Master storyteller weaving his characters into such incredible adventures in what is such a beautiful landscape of this country, the upper peninsula of Michigan.

I can’t think of any author or series of storylines I enjoy more. When I read the first of the series I found the dialog difficult and the pace a little slow. Thankfully I stuck with it, 9 books later. Plots and subplots are twisty and clever and characters are richly developed. Can’t wait for the next one.

Very good story by a good author. I like the setting of the far north and the writer certainly knows the way of life there. The entire story, although fiction, could have been a real life adventure. People are different up in the long winter area of the country and this area is no exception. Some surprises near the end, as there should be in a good book. Worth the read, especially if you're familiar with northern Michigan.

While I liked the basic plot and the interplay with the two lead characters, there were just way too many other names thrown in to keep track. I felt like I needed to keep up, but I gave up about one-third of the ay into the story- and I was only slightly confused later when someone came back into the story. Much of the storyline was interesting, and the details were fun to read, but hey, not so many people,OK?

I have read all of the "Woods Cop" mysteries, and they just keep getting better and better. This latest book is the best of all. It is fun to watch a writer as he/she improves their craft and if you have been a fan of this series, A Cold One will not disappoint in any way, shape or form. Heywood's character development and attention to detail is, in a word, spell binding. I know, that is two words, but it is absolutely true. The only problem I have with this book is that it is almost impossible to put down and that is causing issues in the household.If you have not read Heywood before, I suggest you start at the first book in the series and get ready for a couple of months of solid entertainment.

I just finished this book on my Kindle. I don't know about the negative reviews - I thoroughly enjoyed it. I found the characters compelling, the back story research by Joe obviously well done, and I only wish the next story was immediately available. With idiosyncrasies of unique locale and characters comparable to Stabenow's Alaska Shugak mysteries, I was quite satisfied. My only complaint is that he wasn't able to bring back to life my favorite character who he had previously killed off - Maridly Nantz.