This book was a birthday gift from my sister and brother-in-law. They were recently in York and they were recommended to read books by this author who is from York. They found one there and really enjoyed it.

Although I categorized this book as a mystery it isn't so much a mystery as a "will they catch the murderer before he/she kills again". As such it didn't have as much tenseness as a traditional murder mystery.

DI Geraldine Steel is successful in her career but not so much in her personal life. She works hard investigating murders and no man so far has been prepared to put up with her irregular hours. Returning from a short vacation to Dubrovnik (do people really go from Britain to Croatia for three nights?) with her current love interest she gets caught up in a murder investigation. A house exploded from leaking gas and killed the husband of the couple who owned it. The wife, an IT specialist, had been called in to work in the early morning and arrived back just after the explosion. Suspicion falls on the wife since she was the beneficiary of a large insurance policy and also stood to inherit quite an estate. However, the reader knows that the explosion was due to two burglars who had broken into the house just before the wife was called in to work. She surprised them and as they fled out the door they accidentally turned on the gas on the range top. Eventually the murder investigation ties in the explosion to a string of burglaries which were all committed by cutting a window with glass cutters. In one of the burglaries an elderly woman had died after being pushed down some stairs. So the team is now investigating two murders and a series of burglaries. DI Steel plugs along investigating clues and comes very close several times to solving them. The problem is that witnesses they interview tend to die or disappear soon after they talk to them. Meanwhile her personal life is going to pot as she learns she was adopted, her best friend has been left by her husband and the current beau seems less than attentive.

There were a few plot holes (would houses with security lighting really not have an alarm system that included a motion sensor?) and the investigation seemed to take longer than it needed to but it was a quick read and I might read another of this author's books in the future.

I have offered this book in the Mystery VBB so it will be reserved for a while to see if anyone requests it.

I will take this book to the Winnipeg BookCrossing meetup at 10:30 on Saturday, February 17, 2018 in the Second Cup cafe, corner of Edmonton and Graham. If there are no takers at the meeting it will be left on the OBCZ shelf there.

When you find a BookCrossing book it is yours to do with what you like. You can read it and keep it or pass it on or if you don't think it is your kind of book pass it on to someone who might like it or release it in a spot for someone else to find like you just did. Whatever you choose it would be great if you could write a short note letting us know what new adventures the book is on.

This book is currently sitting on the Winnipeg Official Bookcrossing Zone bookshelf in Second Cup, 254 Edmonton St., Winnipeg MB.

It is waiting there for a new reader to take home, read, and release back into the wild!

This book is no longer on the OBCZ shelf. Where did it go? What did it see? Whose life did it enrich? Let's hope some of these questions will be answered by the next journaller.

Taken home from the Dead of Winter bookcrossing meetup - Thanks!

On the seating area by the Balmoral Street entrance.