2019-10-28
The road to true love is both rocky and dangerous for a Colorado widow.
Cat Latimer is a successful author who unexpectedly inherited her ex-husband's Victorian house, which she uses as a writers' retreat with help from her former high school love, Seth Howard, and her friend Shauna. Cat and Seth are slowly working their way back to the love they once had before Cat dumped Seth and married the wrong man. Seth's a handyman, driver, and hiking guide; Shauna's a fabulous cook. This particular retreat starts out a bit unusual, for it includes two married couples and Brodie Capone, a student from the local college who may have a difficult time fitting in with the self-sufficient couples. But it really runs off the rails when the delightful hike Seth had planned turns into a murder investigation after Cat spots a body and calls her Uncle Pete. Head of the local police, he's never surprised when Cat finds a body (Sconed to Death, 2019, etc.). This time, though, he's unhappy about being distracted from a visit by his girlfriend, Shirley, a retired deputy from Alaska. When the body is identified as that of Chance McAllister, a member of Seth's former Army platoon reported to have died years before in Germany, Seth is flabbergasted. Seth, who hasn't said anything to Cat about an upcoming platoon reunion in town (she found out about it when she heard him talking to someone on the phone), is disturbed when she suggests that some of his buddies may know something about why Chance apparently staged his own death, returned to his hometown, and settled down in a remote mining camp. When Uncle Pete leaves Chance's journal for Cat to read in hopes that it might contain a clue, she can't resist sleuthing.
The best entry in this character-driven series mixes a well-plotted mystery with a romance that rings true to life.
