Winter of Secrets

'Winter Of Secrets' was a pleasant surprise. I picked it up because it's a murder mystery set in a mountain village in British Columbia during a Christmas Eve snowstorm. I knew it was the third book in a series, but I wanted a Christmas-themed book, so I dove straight in.

It turned out to be an engaging police procedural with a strong portrayal of a small Canadian mountain town in winter. I’d expected a cosy mystery, similar to Vicki Delaney's Sherlock Holmes Bookshop mysteries, but this was quite different. It was much more firmly grounded in reality. It was a sensible police investigation rather than a fanciful story about an amateur sleuth.

The mystery around the deaths at the heart of the story was a good one, but what I liked show more most about it was that the people involved felt real.. I got a strong sense of the young police officer being part of the community that she’s policing. She grew up there, and she knows everyone. She was christened Moonshine by her hippie parents (her poor brother got landed with Samwise), but now calls herself Molly because Moonshine isn't a serious enough name for a police officer. That the older residents and some of the people she went to school with still call her Moonhine or Moon isn't something she can control.

Although this was the third book in the Constable Molly Smith series, I had no difficulty following the plot. There's clearly a core group of characters who appear in each novel, and much of the focus was on the events in their lives. I liked that the group wasn't limited to the police force and that it covered people of all ages. It evoked the sense of layered relationships that you get in small towns when some of the older adults have known the younger adults since they were children. I also liked that the detective in the story is from the big bad city, and so has to have some of the history and the more complicated relationships explained to him.

Part of the action takes place on the local ski slopes. It was interesting to see the mountain and the tourists through Molly's eyes. She's a local who knows the mountains well, and she's an expert skier who relishes the black runs and who knows the people who make all the tourist services work.

I think this series may become a comfort read for me. There are eight books in the series. I've decided to go forward rather than back.

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Carrington MacDuffie. I enjoyed listening to her. She's American but, as far as I can tell, she manages a reasonable range of Canadian accents. show less

Readers are faced with a story of wealthy, entitled people and how they can so easily and carelessly destroy lives. It didn't take long for me to see that Winter of Secrets isn't really a case of whodunit, but of why and how.

As usual, Delany's excellent cast made me forget that I don't particularly care for books that prominently feature the rich and shameless. Constable Molly Smith has good instincts, but she's still learning and still making mistakes. These blunders can infuriate her mentor, Sergeant John Winters, but for the most part he is able to bite his tongue and count to ten. Why? Because he sees her potential as a police officer. Does Molly know when he's extremely angry? Yes. Does she know when she's done something stupid? show more Yes. But Winters is smart enough to know when to take a step back and let Molly castigate herself. Of course he's using that time to cool off, but at least he knows to back off! Something else that makes Winters stand out from the crowd is that he is happily married to a highly regarded model. Those two occupations in one marriage just don't seem to belong, do they? But this marriage has been working for years. I find Winters every bit as fascinating as I do Molly.

Molly's mother Lucky always seems to find her way into each investigation as well. This time the outspoken woman is trying to help Lorraine, a teenage girl whose parents care more for booze than they do their own children. Lucky is a former hippie who hasn't lost one atom of her convictions. As a result, she doesn't care for the police, so Molly's choice of career does not set well with her-- and probably never will. But each time Lucky finds her way into these investigations and sees her daughter in action, she gains a bit more understanding. This is a relationship that I enjoy watching. Will mother and daughter ever see eye to eye? Only time will tell.

Delany's story and pacing flow so well, her characters are so interesting, that her books read much too quickly. I always look forward to the next book with a great deal of anticipation, but with a threat looming in Molly's future, I know it won't be long until I begin reading Negative Image. If you haven't read one of Vicki Delany's Smith and Winters mysteries, treat yourself. They read well as standalones, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it. I'm enjoying the character development way too much! show less

While working the Christmas Eve shift in the small town of Trafalgar, British Columbia, Constables Molly Smith and Dave Evans are summoned to the scene of a car accident. Two young men are dead after crashing their car into the river. At first, it appears to be an accident, but the autopsy reveals evidence that turns this into a possible murder investigation. Sergeant John Winters and new constable, Molly, start to interview the victims' family and friends and those townsfolk who interacted with them. Molly and John have to conduct their investigation while dealing with selfish and privileged kids whose holiday plans have to be put on hold.

The various characters of Trafalgar add interest and charm to these mysteries. There are the town show more drunks, their daughter, Lorraine, and her brother. Molly’s former best friend reappears, along with the abusive boyfriend who almost killed her. Molly’s mother, Lucky, is a real character, an idealist, ex-hippie, who thinks nothing of interfering in police investigations, including Molly’s. The author does a great job depicting the learning curve experienced by a newly hired constable. In this book Molly Smith has just finished her first year on probation, so she makes a few mistakes, but it seems very realistic.

Winter of Secrets is another outstanding police procedural from Vicki Delany. Anyone who enjoys small town police procedurals should try her one of her books. They are not quite cozy, but definitely not too gritty either. show less

On Christmas Eve in the small town of Trafalgar in British Columbia a car goes off the road into a frozen river. Despite the efforts of police and rescue workers the two men in the car, Ewan Williams and Jason Wyatt-Yarmouth who were in town with a group of friends on a skiing holiday, are pronounced dead. When he learns that there is something peculiar about one of the bodies Sergeant John Winters has to delve into events that led to the car ending up in the river. He and constable Molly Smith conduct a series of interviews with Jason’s family and friends and those townsfolk who interacted with them.

Winter of Secrets shares some of the same features as [b:Valley of the Lost|6262419|Valley of the Lost|Vicki show more Delany|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51NXGt3Y6oL._SL75_.jpg|6445656], the second book in this series. We see the same depiction of the intricacies and interconnectedness of small town life and most of the likable characters return. I do like the way John Winters approaches his investigations in a very logical fashion and much of what he digs up comes from 'old-fashioned' policing rather than forensic clues. At one point in the story he mentions that the only TV detective he ever liked was Columbo and there are similarities in the way that both approach cases by listening to what people say (and what they don't say). Delany does a great job depicting the learning curve experienced by a relative newcomer to police work. In this book Molly Smith has just finished her first year as a probationary constable and so she's still uncertain and makes a few mistakes and this has a very realistic air to it.

However I didn’t enjoy this book as much as the previous one and the one big difference was that I didn’t care a jot about the two victims or the annoying friends and family they left behind. It became clear quite early on that the two men who died were spoiled, rich young men who treated the women they knew pretty terribly. The group of friends they had travelled with were the kind of whingeing people I would go out of my way to avoid in real life and Jason's parents and sister are a textbook dysfunctional family. Of course I don't believe that anyone 'deserves' to die but in fiction I become much more engaged with a story if can identify with the victims in some way or empathise with the loss felt by those left behind and here I didn't experience either feelings.

The book is well-plotted (though I'm not a huge fan of cliffhanger endings) and, once again, I thoroughly enjoyed Carrington MacDuffie's excellent narration. Delany writes really solid small town police procedurals and this is no exception. In fact her depiction of the grudging dependence that small towns who rely on tourists for employment and income shone through really well here, but, for me, a more sympathetic victim would have rounded off this listening experience more satisfyingly. show less

I must have loaded this onto my Kindle a while ago - I happened upon it way down in the archives, and I don't remember, but I think I bumped into Vicki on Twitter, checked out the book, and bought it on the spot.

I"m so glad I did! I thoroughly enjoyed the story set in a mid-winter BC town, told primarily through the POVs of two local cops, Winter (male) and Smith (young newbie female cop). The characters were well-rounded and beautifully done. A GREAT winter mystery!

Top notch writing, solid suspense/plotting, excellent scene painting, and natural dialog. Ms. Delaney is a natural, a true talent. I'm off to buy more of her books and I do hope this is a series!

Now past her probationary period, Constable Molly Smith finds herself spending Christmas eve/Christmas morning with Constable Dave Evans overseeing the removal of a vehicle from the rushing shallow cold waters of the river. A few days later, she finds herself accompanying Sergeant John Winters to the morgue when the autopsy shows one of the drowned men died at least 24 hours before the accident. The two young men were part of a group staying at a local bed and breakfast while enjoying the powdery slopes of the local ski resort. Molly often finds her mom Lucky whose friend owns the bed and breakfast present when she arrives to question suspects. A local sixteen-year-old girl from an unfortunate family thought she would marry one of those show more men. Meanwhile a man who threatened Molly's friend and whom Molly arrested comes back to town, having been paroled for good behavior. I love this series in the audiobook format, narrated by Carrington MacDuffie. It provides pleasant escapism in the enjoyable setting of Trafalgar, a British Columbia resort community. show less

Molly is one of the constables who investigates a report of a car being partly submerged in freezing water. Two young men are dead when the car is pulled from water, a likely case of drowning or hyperthermia. But the autopsy reveals a secret that shocks all those involved. This quite the interesting mystery. Rich students mingle with a poor local girl, leading her on. Drugs and drinking are a factor in this equation, and Molly along with the rest of the police force will have to dig deep to figure out exactly what happened. This is the third installment in this series, and readers will be glad to see the way Molly continues to grow. Her character develops in exciting ways, and the author seems to be leaving room for another installment show more to follow. An enjoyable story with colorful characters, this tale is sure to delight fans of this series. show less