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Winter of Secrets    by Vicki Delany Amazon.com order for
Winter of Secrets
by Vicki Delany
Order:  USA  Can
Poisoned Pen, 2009 (2009)
Hardcover, CD
* *   Reviewed by Mary Ann Smyth

Molly Smith is back on the job. With my approbation. With Winter of Secrets, author Vicki Delany has picked up Constable Molly (real name Moonlight) Smith's life where she left off in the first novel in this series, In the Shadow of the Glacier. Molly, having grown up in Trafalgar, feels she has a handicap in her job as most of the locals knew her as a child and think of her as young Moonlight and not Constable Smith. She is a rookie who has more or less been taken under the wing of John Winters, her superior in the Trafalgar police force.

Winter of Secrets opens on Christmas Eve in Trafalgar, British Columbia. A young man skids on the snowy road and he and his friend plunge into a frozen river. Tragic. But there are unforeseen problems when the car is pulled from the water. The passenger was already dead when he entered the river! What was the driver doing with the body in his car? The two young men were in a party staying for the holiday in the Glacier B&B. It's a group who are sure of their entitlements, being rich and very self-centered. The driver's parents exacerbate the resentment of townspeople who hate the airs of out-of-towners though they welcome the revenue they generate. Action soon takes over, doesn't stop for breath, and ends with a crescendo of shock.

Molly is a great character. She has to deal with her aging hippie mother Lucky, which isn't easy. Although Lucky is very likable, she presents Molly with dilemmas she could do without. Molly's fiancé died and she is fighting any new attachment (though there seems a chance she might be able to move on in her romantic life). A man who appeared in the first of this series surfaces once again, threat and intimidation emanating from him. I expect he will feature in the next Molly Smith story. I hope so. Winter of Secrets is a very good and exciting read, and I look forward to number three of the series.

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