Author: Holly Danvers
Genre: Mystery
Hardcover; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781643858906
Crooked Lane Books
304 Pages
$12.99; $26.99 Amazon
February 8, 2022
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A glowing wood stove, a cozy log cabin, and shelves full of books are all Rain Wilmot needs to ride out the Wisconsin winter, now that she's made her family's Lofty Pines library her year-round home. But the warm-hearted librarian's blood runs cold when local man, Wallace Benson, is found dead during the annual Ice Fishing Jamboree.
After Benson's body is found in his ice shanty, Rain recalls that she recently saw the victim in her library, borrowing a few cookbooks to prepare for the fishing tournament's communal "chili dump." She later finds these same books returns to the library's drop box, with an enigmatic note from Benson to Rain.
As Rain seeks to understand the message, the prime suspect becomes Rain's friend Nick, who was the last person to see Wallace alive and who returned to the Jamboree with a nasty cut on his hand. the knife found in his tackle box only makes Nick's troubles worse, But Rain keeps fishing for other suspects. Was the killer Danner, who lost his arm to a logging accident involving Wallace? Or Danny's bitter father, whose dreams of retirement were dashed by his son's accident?
With the help of her friends Julia and Jace, Rain sets out to hook the real culprit and clear Nick's name. But can her sleuthing skills protect her from a killer who'd like to take her out of circulation?
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Rain Wilmot is a young widow who lives year round in a cabin in Lofty Pines, Wisconsin and runs the local library. She's visited by a man who's looking for a cookbook so he can enter the annual "chili dump" along with the Ice Fishing Jamboree. He's happy he's got the prime spot, right in front of the library's view, and is determined to win. But Rain's friend Nick is upset that the man, Wallace Benson 'stole' his spot and complains about it to anyone who will listen. Then Benson is found murdered in his ice shanty, and since Nick is the last one to see him alive, he's the main suspect. Because of this, his police officer brother-in-law Jace can't investigate, so the two need to sit on the sidelines.
But Nick's wife Julia insists that Rain investigate, since she's solved one murder before, and the two women find themselves knee-deep in both snow and looking for a killer who might just be looking for them...
This is the second book in the series and I have to say that I haven't read the first, although I have read Ms. Danvers's other series and thoroughly enjoyed it. However, it didn't make any difference as it was easy to follow the storyline and the characters.
What bothered me was all the talk of snow and snowstorms. It was constant. Never-ending. Right there on the page in nearly every paragraph. We get the fact that Wisconsin gets a lot of snow and a lot of snowstorms. But we have the weather channel if we want to know about it. It was completely distracting to me, and made me lose interest in the story quickly. I also started to lose interest at the first hint of a possible love triangle. I abhor them. Put it this way: if a man were stringing along two women, you'd think him a dog, or worse. So why is it okay when a woman is stringing along two men? Now, there wasn't any of that in this story, thank you very much. But there was a very strong hint of it just the same, and one that we're bound to see in the next book. Please no. Just no.
Other than that, I guessed who the murderer was, but the story line kept it well hidden, which is a good thing. In the end, the climax scene was done very well, with no unbelievable scenarios, so I did enjoy that. All in all, this was a nice cozy that can be read in one evening.
More on Holly Danvers's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/d/holly-danvers/
