I did not like this book. It was confusing to read and bounced back and forth. I did not think the main character was strong and the story line lacked a punch to it.

Wow! You can’t ask for better characters and a tighter wound thriller plot! Highly recommended! One of the best thrillers I’ve read this year.

Not a bad storyline and did enjoy the characters but the writing style of going back to the past then back to the present got rather confusing at times.

Stuart Johnstone’s Out in the Cold introduces Sergeant Don Colyear who based on this crime novel will be around for a while.

Out in the Cold sees Colyear transferred to a station in the middle of nowhere following an incident whilst a Constable but this turns out not to be a quiet dead end posting.

Colyear’s backstory is dropped into the book at various points as certain things occur and this was a good tool to get this information across without deluging the reader.

The main storyline was a good and enjoyable one although slightly confusing toward the end however this was a good debut crime novel and Out in the Cold is recommended

This was like a warm hug of a book. The scenery descriptions were wonderful, I really wanted to go there and holiday - if it wasn't for the crime wave.

The relationship between Don and Rowena was really good and real.

What I did struggle with was the time jumps and not really understanding the reasons for the move until nearly the middle of the book so I struggled a bit with who was who and how they impacted onto the story.

It definitely looked like it was setting up for a sequel which I will definitely read as, despite the above criticism I did enjoy the book. and want to explore these characters.

I am grateful to Netgalley and Allison & Busby for an advance copy for an honest and fair review which I have done.

Along the lines of Joy Ellis, this book takes us to a backwater town where a policeman escaping his past stumbles into more than he bargained for. Unlike Ellis, Johnstone brings a touch of the supernatural to the tale - I won’t say more but it’s a great twist to the standard police procedural. I loved the characters. From the bar manager to the hapless fellow cop, each one is as clear as if they were standing next to you. This is a fantastic book which will appeal to anyone looking for a great crime thriller.

Well when I registered this on Good reads, the reviews were not great . But I never let anything like that put me off so I started to read. At first, the story was confusing, with flashbacks, life at work and Don finding himself in a compromising position, but as the book progressed, I liked the way the story developed. The descriptions of the town /village involved were realistic and I could understand Don's feeling that something was not right.
For me, one criticism would be the story of Carly, there were several references to it, but beyond being an example of Don's intuition, it did not seem to add much to the story and as a reader I wanted to know more.
I hope to read more about Don and that he gets on OK. This book surpassed my expectations, thank you !
Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I liked the Scottish setting of this book and it had an interesting plot. Although it was a bit slow and jumped between the past and the present, which made it difficult for me to get into. I liked the main character of Don and his colleague Rowan. This has the promise of a good series, if there is a follow up, with just a bit more clarity with plot construction and editing. Overall, I enjoyed the read. Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Allison & Busby for an advance copy of Out in the Cold, a police procedural featuring Sergeant Don Colyear, set in the fictional Scottish town of Stratharder.

After a spot of trouble in Glasgow Don Colyear is promoted and transferred to Stratharder, a remote highland town. It’s not long before Don realises that something isn’t quite right underneath the quiet façade but with a spate of vandalism, a possible murder and the disappearance of a string of teenagers he’s not got much time for deep digging.

I thoroughly enjoyed Out in the Cold which is slow to start but soon accelerates to a high octane finish. Technically the format of the novel is something I complain about frequently, shifting timelines and unexplained circumstances with no apparent relevance but I found it all intriguing and very moreish, perhaps because it is told entirely from Don Colyear’s point view. I was fascinated by why he is in his current circumstances (not what I expected) and what caused his transfer to Stratharder. The answers and what’s wrong in the town are teased out over the course of the novel.

I am always drawn to Scottish crime fiction as there is comfort in the familiar. I must admit that I know little about the Highlands so I didn’t get much sense of familiarity from the location, in fact I don’t think there is much, apart from multiple references to Oban, to identify the location as Scottish and it could be any small town in the UK. There is more of a sense of Scottishness in some of the slang used. It’s not excessive or obscure enough to put readers off, just a taste of Scotland.

The author is a former police officer and this shines through in the character of Don Colyear and the band of brotherhood that seems to permeate the force. Don is a bit of a loner, not buying in to the brotherhood, who takes a common sense approach to policing. I like his voice and his story and would welcome hearing more from him.

Out in the Cold is a good read that I have no hesitation in recommending.

This book is the slowest of slow burns. I was starting chapter 4 when I finally had to check and make sure I was reading the right book. I was expecting a cracking Scottish-set mystery/thriller and that far into the book, all that had been established was that it was indeed taking place in Scotland. The central mystery turned out to be basically a big whatever and I didn’t really like any of the characters, including the protagonist. But still, there was something about it that I found charming. Perhaps it was just the world the author built.

i found this ARC perplexing. I enjoyed the storyline of Out In The Cold but then the plot did an about face and it was a bit baffling. Chapters went by and i felt Stuart Johnstone was stringing me along. I felt lost and confused as i kept reading. Were there chapters missing? It started out SO promising. I wish the author had kept that storyline going.

Police sergeant Don Colyear has a very powerful and strong sense of intuition that's helped him solve cases beyond anyone's imagination. Now posted to a town where even petty crimes are rare, he's quick to notice that things are not as they seem and something's off about this whole town.

I liked the plot of this one, and the light tone in which the whole story is told is very enjoyable. And it's gripping from the get-go, the first chapter made me want to read it double time. It's a slow burn, and sure took its time to get started. It's an interesting read, but nothing that kept me from putting it down. The exchange between characters and their dynamics with each other was very entertaining and perhaps the best part of the story imo.

I understand that this is an ARC but there's something not right about the formatting of the whole thing that puts off the entire reading experience, there's no distinction between the events of past and present, and I had to read everything twice to make sense of it. Half-way through I found myself struggling to continue, which is a shame since that's where the good part started. But I think this makes for a pretty fair read, albeit one that's in dire need of some thorough editing.

I received an eARC of this book via Netgalley, author, and publishers. All opinions are my own.

2-3 stars rounded up.

Sergeant Don Colyear is relocated to Stratharder, north of Oban, following problems in Glasgow. Alongside Constable Rowan Forbes, he investigates a variety of crimes from the minor to the death of a worker on a local estate which appears to be occult based as well as the disappearance of young girls.

There are things I like about this book, Colyear is an interesting and intuitive character and I like the relationship with Rowan who is very likeable. There are some lively exchanges that make you smile and are quite witty. The authors experience as a police officer gives authenticity to the varied life of crime that officers investigate.

However, the busy plot goes backwards and forwards from the past to the present and it’s confusing and disjointed and it’s hard to make sense of some of it. There are some sections that while they can be classed as light relief from the harder hitting parts of the plot, they also feel like page fillers as nothing substantial happens.

Overall, I think this could be a good series with more clarity in the way the plots are constructed. The author has created two good characters that I like and I would like to read about them in the future.

With thanks to NetGalley and Allison and Busby for the arc for an honest review.

A slightly different take on the crime novel and for the most part it works.
I wasn't keen on the intermingled before and after in the same chapter plus the now but it was different. There are plot holes you can drive a bus through but those are easily overlooked as the story is overall amusing. My main issue is the overall lack of Scottishness; only during the council meeting and family dinner is there really any Scottish dialect used, it's meant to be the highlands, nowhere near enough

I've been into a couple Scottish detective mysteries these days, this is a good one. Complex character development with inter-connecting story lines. The main character was a bit clueless and impulsive, which made him rather believable - I'm tired of books with perfect people in them, you questions some things he does which makes you root for him all the more. Good story, mystery flowed well with a solid resolution. Definitely worth the read.

Out in the Cold had an intriguing beginning to the story. I did like both the main character and his partner, John. But I struggled with the story. The scenes sometimes did not flow smoothly into the next, and I struggled in the middle of the book as it felt slow and taking too long to make a point or move the story forward in the action. I couldn't connect with the other characters except for John, really, and I wasn't invested in the outcome of the story. I had a difficult time even finishing the book.

I think another editing pass or a developmental editor would be helpful in fleshing out the story and making the scenes smoother and the characters more engaging and dimensional.

#OutintheCold #NetGalley

An excellent story that keeps you interested from the first page. The tension builds as you wonder what is going to happen next. Definitely recommended to those readers who enjoy reading this type of book.

This book was good. I really enjoyed it love crime dramas. Am so looking forward to the next one already
Will be recommending this to other authors

My very short review.
I'm not a fan. I should not begrudge the few pages I've read.
Not funny, nor even interesting.

I received this book via NetGalley and Allyson & Busby. The plot of the book was good but I found it extremely difficult to get into this book. I like the main character Donald and his associate Rowan but the rest of the characters weren’t developed enough for me to really care about them.

It was a slow building story and there was too many pages left on describing a drive in a van instead of building the suspense. Nothing seems to blend together with the main character going from one place to another with no lead in to where he was. Just a real jumble of chapters with no blending of time or events. I struggled to finish it.