Death in a Cold Climate

New York: Dell Publishing Co. Inc, 1986. One previous Dell edition [stated]. First printing thus [stated]. Mass market paperback. Good. 223, [1] pages. Cover has some wear. Signed by the author, with address, on the title page. Robert Barnard (23 November 1936 - 19 September 2013) was an English crime writer, critic and lecturer. His first crime novel, A Little Local Murder, was published in 1976. The novel was written while he was a lecturer at University of Tromsø in Norway. He went on to write more than 40 other books and numerous short stories. Barnard said that his favorite crime writer was Agatha Christie. In 1980 he published a critique of her work titled A Talent to Deceive: An Appreciation of Agatha Christie. Barnard was awarded the Cartier Diamond Dagger in 2003 by the Crime Writers Association for a lifetime of achievement. Under the pseudonym Bernard Bastable, Robert Barnard published two standalone novels and two alternate history books starring Wolfgang Mozart as a detective, he having survived to old age. Derived from a Kirkus review: In Norway's busy university town of Tromsf, the disappearance of Martin Forsyth (an English-speaking stranger) is scarcely noticed until the spring thaw uncovers his corpse. Inspector Fagermo must piece together the dead man's identity, background, and last known movements--a painstaking detection process which does conjure up the picture of a tough, calculating young man who had an eye for vulnerable women. It will be Forsyth's work as a crew hand in the Middle East that produces the unusually convincing who-and-why of the murder. It is Barnard's glorious gallery of supporting players which lifts the well-made mystery to a richer level: a self-involved clerical worker at the US Information Office; a professor with a nymphomaniac wife; and Forsyth's English parents. All the expected Barnard dividends, plus the engagingly unfamiliar Norwegian locale--a not-to-be-missed combination from the most appealing and reliable practitioner of the classic British mystery.