Black Ice by Linda Hall

Lenore Featherjohn is the owner of a local bread and breakfast in the town of Fog Point. It's the middle of winter and the town is experiencing a phenomenon that hasn't happened in a long, long time where the water is so frozen that it is breaking and forming statues. As such, she is busy in her B&B what with all the news people here to report on the event. Then one day she finds a young teenager whom no knows dead by her back door. The very back door that leads downstairs where her grown sons live. As she has done all their lives, in an effort to protect them from being accused, Lenore moves the body to a snowbank on the side of the driveway and put the hands in a prayer position. But now the "Snow Angel" is causing a whole slew of other problems as people come to pray and hope that the spot will heal them of their ills. May and Jake, the town's private detectives, get involved when May's name and phone number turn up in the dead girl's pocket. As tensions rise clues seem to point to the local minister's daughter knowing more than she is letting on.

 I picked this up in a used book store not realizing it was part of a series, even though it said series right on the cover. Oh well. But I recognized the name of the author and thought I had read some of her books before at some time. It is an older story story being published in 2007.  I thought I'd read it now because we were in the midst of our own winter, icy time and the mood just seemed perfect. It is a mystery that is filled with lots of suspense which is what kept the pages turning for me but not quite to the point where I was staying up late because I just couldn't put it down. There was a few story lines happening and sometimes it was just difficult to sort out and remember who everybody was. (I think maybe if I'd read the 1st book first that would have helped?) I found the aspect of people flooding to the spot the girl had died to get healed a little too far of a stretch for me. But the actual mystery and how it tied into the epilogue was very interesting. She also delved into the topic of loss of faith through the character of Amy. Amy grew up in a good Christian home, went to Christian schools and university, married a minister, did all the right things but somewhere along the way she had a loss of faith, or maybe she never really did have any but now in the midst of everything happening with her daughter, husband and the mystery girl she is coming face to face with her own crisis. Maybe because this is a series and will further be dealt with in another book, I thought this story line didn't wrap up for me. I'll have to check out the others in the series. I really thought the author did a wonderful job in exploring how some behaviors in people actually are hiding a deep hurt that they themselves don't even know how to define.  An interesting detail is that some of the story is set in a little town here in central Alberta called Barrhead.  I don't think I've come across a book that had an Albertan town as a setting.  Bonus for that!  All said it was an enjoyable read but not one that blew me away.

I gave it a solid 7.5/10

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