Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Under Cold Stone, A Constable Molly Smith Mystery by Vicki Delany

Molly's mother, Lucky and her boyfriend, Paul, take a week's vacation and go to Banff.  Their only plan to relax and have fun until they run into Paul's estranged son.  When the son gets involved with murder, it gets even more complicated.  Especially since Paul is Molly's boss and a chief constable...

Poisoned Pen Press and Net Galley allowed me to download and read this story for review (thank you).  It will be published April 1st, so watch for it then at your local bookstore.

Lucky and Paul are testing the strength of their relationship.  Lucky is an old-time hippy and environmentalist.  Paul is a cop and enjoys outdoor activities.  They are not a likely couple, but they get along well and might be leaning towards marriage.  They just don't realize how a big a test this murder is going to be on their relationship and the relationships with their children.

Matt, Paul's son tries to bully Lucky when she's getting coffee, but she doesn't back down.  Then he and his friend find her in the restaurant and they come over to resume their nastiness.  When Paul returns from the restroom, he shuts that down immediately.  Then he's shocked to find out one of them is his son!  Needless to say, this wasn't a pleasant encounter and not much progress is made in resolving their problems.  Then Matt calls in the middle of the night to say his roommate is dead.  His father immediately responds but his son has split.

Lucky never leaves his side while he worries about his son and the murder.  His son said he didn't kill him, but why did he run?  Lucky then calls Molly and asks her to come and help.  Molly has no jurisdiction but she can do some investigating on her own.

This is well paced story with complex characters.  The author makes her characters human and makes you care for them.  I enjoyed the plot, too.  Several relationships got resolved in this story.

Happy reading.

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