Cold Mourning by Brenda Chapman ** (of 4)

 The newbie in the Ottawa police force for investigating cold case is Kala Stonechild, a First Nations policewoman recently transferred from the far north of Canada. Learning more about her troubled background, and by extension, Canada's injustices toward its indigenous people, is the draw for the mystery, but it fails to deliver. The mystery of who killed an unlikeable business tycoon includes only ordinary suspects: shady office partners homing in on big payoffs and spurned family members. 

Stonechild is smart and brooding, but not much deeper than that and you know from the beginning she is the one person likely to break open the case. To an American reader the one (unintentionally) funny part of the book is the supposed hazing Stonechild receives from the boys club of detectives she is forced to join. Because they are all Canadian, to my ears, they are all incredibly pleasant. The worst offenses directed at her  consist of failing to apologize if they are interrupted by a phone call or neglecting to ask a third time if she might need some assistance finding a permanent place to live in the big city of Ottawa.