Georgie is a paramedic sent to the city for review following some problems with her supervisor in the country. Many years ago when she was just a teenager she found the murdered body of Tim Pieters when out walking her dog. The case was never solved and has just been re-opened as a cold case with detective Ella Marconi assigned to investigate it.

By coincidence Georgie has been teamed up to work with Freya, who was her best friend at school but disappeared suddenly after Tim Pieters was killed. Freya has been assigned to carry out Georgie's assessment so the two must work together but Freya has some secrets surrounding Tim's death that she has never told anyone so the situation becomes quite difficult, particularly once detective Marconi starts to uncover what really happened to Tim.

Katherine Howell's experience as a paramedic and with dealing with police gives this novel an authentic ring and the many twists and turns make it an enjoyable, fast paced read. ( )

Paramedic Georgie Riley and Detective Ella Marconi are travelling similar paths, returning to work after traumatic incidents that resulted in hospitalisation and being off work for some months. As a result both are under scrutiny. Georgie has been transferred from the country to the ambulance station at The Rocks in Sydney. She will undergo assessment to see if she can manage the job. She is staggered to see that her assessing partner is Freya, her best friend from high school. Georgie hopes she has left some of the problems she had at the country station behind her, and it seems she has, until she sees a familiar face in the crowd.

Ella Marconi is returning to work after a gunshot wound, and has been assigned to the Unsolved Cases unit. Technology has advanced since Tim Pieters was murdered in 1990 and items from his file have been sent off for DNA testing. Ella too is hoping that some of the demons of her past don't surface, but both her parents and her boyfriend Wayne are anxious that she may have returned to work too soo. Ella is determined to prove she has what it takes.

In COLD JUSTICE Australian author Katherine Howell has used a formula similar to the one she used successfully in both THE DARKEST HOUR, and her debut novel FRANTIC (see mini-review below): parallel plots that advance in tandem, each generating their own sense of suspense. The link between the two plots is Detective Ella Marconi. Again the paramedic characters are new, while Marconi provides the common thread from one novel to the next. ( )

Opening Sentence: ‘…”There’s not much to it,” Station Officer Ken Butterworth said…’

Paramedic, Georgie Daniels, and Detective Ella Marconi are both starting new jobs in Sydney on the same day, and their paths are about to cross. You see, Ella has been assigned a cold case – investigate the recently reopened unsolved murder of Tim Pieters. Nineteen years earlier it was Georgie who found the body and raised the alarm. Georgie also has other problems. After a death, and a series of problems, at her previous paramedic station in the country – she has been assigned to the Sydney station for an assessment to see if she is fit to continue, trouble is, it looks as though the problem has followed her to the city. On top of this it turns out that the person who is to assess her is her old best school friend, Freya, and Freya seems none to pleased to see Georgie. Especially when Georgie starts to act strangely.

So Ella begins her investigation, Georgie begins her new job, and the book takes off faster than a speeding…well…ambulance. Author, Katherine Howell, has got right into the lives of her characters. A family torn apart by grief, couples struggling to survive against adversity, collegues struggling to work together when they are totally different personalities. She does this against the multiple threads of the main investigation and a couple of sub-plots. Gradually the threads and gathered together, complete with red herrings to keep you flicking the pages unable to put the book down until you know who is doing what and why. ( )

It's nearly impossible for a reader to understand what it must be like to write a series of books, based around the same characters. All we can do is be extremely grateful that writers like Katherine Howell can do it, book after book, maintaining the same high standard, giving us new stories, and new situations for the characters to appear in, keeping the series fresh and interesting all the time.

Following on from FRANTIC and THE DARKEST HOUR, the third book COLD JUSTICE again simply does not miss a beat. Part of the reason that these books are so good is the shifting viewpoint. Not only does the author use her paramedic / ambulance officer background to great effect, writing characters from within that world, she combines them with a good, solid, interesting police cast, concentrating on a central character - Detective Ella Marconi. This switching perspective gives the stories some real depth, although, in COLD JUSTICE, the formula is twisted slightly again. Georgie Daniels is a paramedic with current day work problems, and a teenage connection back to the murder of a classmate. Nineteen years ago she discovered the body of Tim Pieters hidden amongst bushes. His family was devastated and Georgie's own friendship with Freya destroyed overnight. All these years later, having problems with an out of control boss, she's transferred to a new ambulance station and finds herself working with (and being assessed by) her old school friend Freya. At the same time the investigation into the death of Tim Pieters is reopened and Ella Marconi has nowhere else to start but with the person who discovered his body, his friends at school and his family members.

There's some really good balancing of all of the elements in this story - Marconi has a work life, and a personal life, and they coincide and collide realistically. Whilst everything in her life isn't perfect, it's also not so imperfect that it's unbelievable (although I'd kill any boyfriend who taught my mother how to send text messages like that!). Georgie and Freya have their own lives as well - Georgie and her husband, away from their beloved country home and animals, Freya with kids and a husband she loves no matter what sort of a twit he can make of herself. Both women have a demanding work life, and a not straight-forward private life and the complications of their teenage friendship, the murder of Tim and how they went their separate ways creates a prickliness between them which really works. On the victim's side the damage that was done to Tim's family as a result of his murder is carefully displayed - the pain and struggle of his mother Tamara in particular is graphic.

The final balancing act, however, is to give a good cast of characters a great plot to work within. Resolving a cold case from so long ago isn't an easy task for Marconi, but persistence, focus, good sixth sense, and a willingness to put reluctance aside and work with the less than ideal partner that is assigned to her, and eventually the truth is revealed.

COLD JUSTICE is a terrific book. It would work as a standalone, or it works as part of the continuing story of Ella Marconi. It works as a character study, or as a plot driven police procedural. Basically it just works. Really really really well. ( )

“Write what you know” aspiring writers are often told. Katherine Howell has done that to good effect. She worked as a paramedic for many years and her detailed knowledge of both the job and the physical and emotional toll it takes are vividly portrayed.

COLD JUSTICE is Katherine’s third book (the previous two are Frantic and The Darkest Hour) and her writing seems to get better and better . COLD JUSTICE not only has the fast pace of a thriller, it also has multiple threads which are gradually pulled together. Katherine is also a dab hand at knowing exactly when to change threads in the plot to leave the reader in suspense.
I was lucky to receive a copy of the book in advance of its publication. COLD JUSTICE is due in book shops on 1st February 2010. I recommend you be in line on that date to get a copy. You won’t regret it. ( )