I am unfamiliar with Canadian authors so this was a new mystery series for me. The action takes place in a small mountain ski town in British Columbia where a high school teacher is shot one morning while walking her dog through the woods. Various characters are introduced including Constable Molly Smith, Detective Sargent John Winters, Smith’s boyfriend and cop Adam Tocek and various townspeople. As the police work the case, it becomes clear that this is a woman with no enemies and there is no evident motive for the murder. A secondary plot concerns Molly’s ski dates with a new man and her uncertainty about continuing her relationship with Adam.
The mystery was a good one and I think it is probably pretty realistic for some murders to be random and motiveless. Although this book is called A Constable Molly Smith mystery, we really don’t get much of Molly in the book. I don’t know her much better now than when I started. This book struck me more as a “team” type of mystery – where a number of police professionals were involved in solving the murder. I did know early on who the murderer was from clues given but not why.
I liked it and will look forward to other titles in this series.
Booklist Review of the Day