Cold Courage
ABOUT
THE BOOK
When Lia witnesses a disturbing scene on her way to work, she, like the rest of the City of London, is captivated and horrified.
As details unfurl in the media, the brutal truth emerges – a Latvian prostitute has been killed, her body run over by a steamroller and then placed in the boot of a car to be found.
As the weeks pass and no leads are found, the news story dies but Lia finds herself unable to forget. When she meets Mari, another Finn living in London, she thinks it fortuitous, but Mari has engineered the meeting for her own advantage. There is much more to Mari than meets the eye: she possesses an unnatural ability to ‘read’ people, to see into their innermost thoughts and pre-empt their actions. Mari heads up a unit she calls the ‘Studio’ – a group she employs made up of four disparate people: a hacker, a set designer, a private detective and an actress. They are loyal to Mari, and she has bound them to her by granting them life-changing favours.
Mari and Lia strike up a firm friendship and when Lia shares the thoughts plaguing her about the murder, Mari thinks she and the members of the Studio can help where the police have failed. But Mari and Lia are about to set foot into extremely dangerous territory, especially as Mari is not above using the Studio to unscrupulous ends.
NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS
Hiltunen’s book is a psychological thriller with an intriguing plot and well drawn main characters, Lia and Mari, two Finnish expats living in London. Lia meets Mari, who claims to be able to read people’s thoughts, when she gets involved in solving the murder of a Latvian prostitute. Mari runs an undercover group called the Studio that try to right society’s wrongs, be it human trafficking or racism, even if doing so means breaking the law. But can Lia trust Mari?