Walker & Company (Hardcover), ISBN 0-8027-3371-9
In a bleak November, with winter cold and Thanksgiving both approaching, widowed, single mother and police woman Claire Watkins finds herself embroiled in a case that begins with abuse and ends with murder.

Buck Owens' relationship with Stephanie Klaus, the abused woman, made him the chief suspect in her beating, but Buck drove out on the lake ice, broke through and drowned. Not exactly an unusual occurrence -- lots of guys in pickup trucks drive out on the ice before it freezes thick enough to support their vehicles. Over-indulgence in alcohol usually supplies the cause, but not in Buck's case. Someone tied Buck's body into the driver's seat in a way he couldn't have managed on his own. Claire knows someone murdered Buck, but she doesn't know whom to suspect when Stephanie receives another vicious beating, one that almost kills her.

Following the slightest clue, the tiniest misstatement, Claire goes on the hunt, but a number of things interfere with her sleuthing. For one, Claire planned a Thanksgiving dinner for three (Claire, her daughter and the new man in Claire's life), but circumstances add to the party. And Claire doesn't even know one of her soon-to-be guests. Add a monster storm, which delivers four feet of new snow and howling winds, stir in a power failure, and soon Claire finds herself battling the elements as well as a clever killer.

If you haven't met Claire Watkins, I urge you to rush to the bookstore and grab Logue's books. If incredible characterization, precise settings, and plots so twisted you can't imagine how the author will extricate her protagonist from her predicament -- let alone find the elusive villain -- then you will relish this book. I read it in one setting and didn't figure out the ending until Logue revealed who did what and why. It's a great read.

Patricia Lucas White

Patricia Lucas White's latest historical novel, To Last a Lifetime, was an Eppie finalist for 2003. To Last a Lifetime and two of her fantasy romances, the Sapphire Award-winning A Wizard Scorned and The Godmother Sanction, can be ordered through Hard Shell Word Factory. Her recent contemporary, PS, I've Taken a Lover, is available from Lionhearted Books.

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