Customer Reviews

Winter of Secrets (Constable Molly Smith)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Winter of Secrets is the third in Vicki Delany's Constable Moonlight (Molly) Smith series. The story opens during the week between Christmas Eve and New Year's in the Kootenay Mountains and deep forests of Trafalgar, British Columbia, a peaceful resort town that is filled at the moment with vacationing skiers. It's also where Mother Nature has seemingly removed all colors from her palette except for black and white.

As a heavy snowstorm blankets Trafalgar into a Christmas fairyland, events turn ominous when two young men, visiting skiers and lifelong-friends, are found dead after their car plunges beneath the ice of the frozen Upper Kootenay River. It seems at first that a simple tragedy has occurred. Yet after the coroner discovers that one of the men had been dead at least a day prior to the fatal crash, Constable Molly Smith and Sergeant John Winters are summoned into the lives of the young vacationers whose privileged lifestyles include limitless wealth, drugs, predatory sexual encounters, and other dark secrets.

Delany's writing style is crisp and well-paced. I found it a definite pleasure to meet and spend time with her very human and memorable protagonist. She holds her reader to the page until the very end of this enjoyable mystery.

by Mary Jo Doig
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

WINTER OF SECRETS provides a satisfying constable Molly Smith novel as it tells of siblings and friends enjoying a two-week vacation of skiing, drinking, drugs and sex when tragedy strikes. Two constables summoned to the scene of a car accident find what seems simple turns into a murder case - and involves them in circumstances far beyond their usual small-town experiences. Fine intrigue evolves.

Sex permeates this latest Molly Smith mystery. Several young university students from eastern Canada visit a B&B in Trafalgar, BC, during the Christmas Holidays for a skiing vacation. One couple spends a lot of time in bed, while two men root around the small town in chase of local girls to bed. When a car carrying the two crashes into the ice cold Kootenay River, an interesting case arises.

The driver has obviously drowned, but the passenger apparently had been dead for up to 24 hours when the crash occurred. The question, of course, is how and when he died and under what circumstances. It befalls Sgt. John Winters, with the assistance of now Constable Molly Smith (her probationary period has concluded), to unravel the mystery.

As with the two predecessors in the series, Secrets is a charming tale of a small resort town, with interesting characters. The descriptions of skiing on the slopes are detailed and authentic. While not necesarily a detailed police procedural, the story line moves forward logically and with interest, written with clarity and an eye to keeping the reader involved, and is recommended.

With Winter of Secrets, Delany delivers the best book yet of her British Columbia series featuring Constable Molly Smith. In her third outing, Molly deals with a case that touches two very troubled families. As the book opens, Molly and Dave Evans have pulled Christmas Eve duty on a night when a major snow storm hits. While most of their calls are for cars off the road, the last call of the night is much worse. A car has gone off the road and landed in the river. By the time the car is pulled out, the two people inside are dead. Meanwhile across town, a group of college students from Ontario are waiting for two of their group, Jason and Ewan to return before starting their Christmas party. Instead of the missing boys, there are two unexpected visitors to the bed and breakfast. First, Lorraine LeBlanc, a local girl from a pathetic excuse for a family shows up saying she had been invited to the party by Jason. And then Molly comes to notify Wendy Wyatt-Yarmouth of her brother Jason's death.

What seems to be a tragic accident becomes a case for the police when the coroner discovers that Ewan was dead long before the car went into the river. Was it murder or an accident? Where was Jason taking Ewan's body?

The puzzle of Ewan's death is well done with many clues along the way for readers to ponder. An additional layer to this intriguing mystery, is that it entwines two families who are as different as they can be in nearly every way. While the wealthy Wyatt-Farmouths as well as the other students look down on the locals, and are out right mean to Lorraine, it soon becomes evident that they have at least as many problems in their lives as the poor and dysfunctional LeBlancs. This opens the door for Molly's mother Lucky, the left leaning former hippy turned social worker, to become involved in the case.

While Lucky does not play as large of a role in this book as she did in the previous one, her presence gives the story a human touch while adding a bit of humor. Lucky's ever presence helps define Molly. It seems that wherever Molly goes, Lucky turns up. That Lucky is not always on the same side of a situation as the law enforcement often creates problems for Molly while adding some humor for readers. Readers can't help but empathize with Molly when her ever interfering mother turns up in one of her cases.

There is a tendency for books set around the Christmas season to to be overly sweet with an abundance of Norman Rockwell-like moments. While they make for feel-good reads at a hectic time of year, they are, for the most part a far cry from reality-even in the best of families. And, if things aren't exactly perfect in stable families, the holidays are often nothing short of a disaster for the dysfunctional ones. Instead of the usual holiday sweet mush, author Delany has given readers an excellent entry in her series with Winter of Secrets.

Early on Christmas Day in Trafalgar, British Columbia, the SUV is found buried under ice in a river. Inside the vehicle are the corpses of best friends Jason Wyatt-Yarmouth and Ewan Williams, two wealthy males from Toronto who were on vacation with others.

Constable Molly Smith leads the inquiry of what looks like a tragic accident. However, the autopsy proves a shocker when the medical examiner insists the time of deaths for the lads is radically different and the means of death also different. In other words someone used the SUV as a coffin for two murders. The cops question the rest of the Toronto party as they backtrack what they can about the victims leading to a bed and breakfast and a ski trail, but struggles with motive and consequently a lack of viable suspects.

This is a great Canadian police procedural that will be on most short lists for sub-genre novel of the year. The investigation is top rate including a terrific logical final twist while the cast is strong. Fans will relish Vicki Delany's delightful whodunit and newcomers will seek Smith's back cases (see VALLEY OF THE LOST).

Harriet Klausner

This was my first outing with this author, but it won't be my last. I learned of Vicky Delaney through facebook and quickly followed up her links. I decided to read this particular novel though I should have started at the first novel however I was not disappointed, it was refreshing to have a female in such a prominent role and I loved it. Any novel that makes me work at solving the mystery rates with me and Winter of Secrets did this. The feeling of impatience to get back to the story is a definite sign of good reading matter. I can recommend this ti anyone who loves a good murder mystery. Vicky Delaney deserves more than she is getting, like a good few more authors, only readers and their promotion will get these authors noticed, and they deserve to be read.

I loved the setting of this mystery and liked the main character. The suspects, however, seemed to get away with doing whatever they felt like doing. At no time did it feel as if the police were in charge of an actual investigation. And, I found the solution unsatisfying in that it seemed too easy a way out for the author.