In the Shadow of the Glacier

Description

An American who came to Trafalgar as a Vietnam War draft dodger has left land and money to the town. The catch: it must be used to build a garden to honor draft dodgers. When a leading opponent to the garden is found dead in an alley, the close-knit, peaceful town is torn apart. Constable Molly Smith is assigned to assist veteran Detective Sergeant John Winters in the investigation. But Winters doesn't want help and suspects that Smith has been assigned to him for political reasons. Egged on by a muck-raking TV personality, outside agitators from both sides are soon streaming into Trafalgar. Meanwhile, Smith and Winters search for a killer. Retired from her job as a systems analyst in the high-pressure financial world, Vicki Delany now lives and writes in Prince Edward County, Ontario. In the Shadow of the Glacier was first in her Constable Molly Smith series set in British Columbia. www.vickidelany.com

Having taken early retirement from her job as a systems analyst in the high-pressure financial world, Vicki Delany is settling down to the rural life in bucolic Prince Edward County, Ontario, where she rarely wears a watch. Unreasonable Doubt is the eighth mystery in her Constable Molly Smith series. Vicki Delany won the 2019 Derrick Murdoch Award for contributions to the crime genre.

Delany's intriguing series opener introduces young constable Molly Smith, who almost literally stumbles across a rare murder victim in peaceful Trafalgar, British Columbia. The deceased, Reg Montgomery, was a widely distrusted newcomer planning to develop a luxury resort outside the town, making for a long list of suspects. The community is further divided by Smith's mother's plans for a public memorial to American draft resisters who fled to Canada during the Vietnam War. Struggling to recover from the death of her husband, build a career on the force and win the approval of her hippie parents and hard-edged Sgt. John Winters, newly arrived from Vancouver with his own set of personal problems, Smith throws herself into solving the case. Delany (Burden of Memory) carefully sets up the conflicts, resolving most but not all in anticipation of the next assignment, and begins what looks to be some extensive character development for the otherwise archetypal Winters and Smith. (Oct.) -- Publishers Weekly 7/30/2007