Among the Departed (Constable Molly Smith Series #5)

by Vicki Delany Narrated by Carrington MacDuffie

Overview

Fifteen years ago, a young girl by the name of Moonlight Smith went to the house of her best friend, Nicky Nowak, for a sleepover. Moonlight joined the family for breakfast the following morning and was then picked up by her mother. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Nowak went for a walk.

He was never seen again.

Autumn has arrived on the mountains above Trafalgar, British Columbia, Canada, and the promise of winter is in the air. Constable Molly Smith is cuddled by the fireplace with Adam Tocek of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police when Tocek and his dog, Norman, are called to a wilderness camping ground to join the search for a little boy who sneaked away from his family looking for bears. The child is found, dirty, terrified, and weeping but unharmed. Then the inquisitive Norman digs up something else: human bones.

The ID isn't positive, but it is enough to have Sergeant John Winters of the Trafalgar City Police pulling old boxes from the basement to reopen the Brian Nowak investigation. He finds a family shattered beyond recognition by Brian's disappearance. Mrs. Nowak is an empty shell of a woman, dressed in pajamas, never leaving the house. Her son, Kyle, haunts the streets of Trafalgar at night and spends his days creating beautiful but highly troubling art. Nicky Nowak lives in Vancouver and has grown up to be gorgeous, charming, elegant. Yet behind that façade lies a woman whose heart has closed so tightly against human relationships that she comes to Trafalgar trailing in her wake a terrifying threat to another innocent family.

As the investigation into the life and disappearance of Brian Nowak grows, old secrets are brought to light and new ones struggle to remain hidden.

Among the Departed is more than a mystery novel: it is also a story of love-love new and old, long-concealed, life-affirming, and fatal.

Editorial Reviews

Library Journal

The successful search for a missing boy in the woods near the British Columbian town of Trafalgar also uncovers a human bone that may belong to a man who disappeared years earlier. It's almost too much to handle as Constable Molly Smith (Negative Image; In the Shadow of the Glacier), one of the last people ever to see the missing man, tries to come to terms with her own father's death and deal with her relationship with Adam Tocek of the Royal Canadian Mountain Police. VERDICT By using western Canada as her setting, Delany gives us a breathtaking vista, in which she places her deceptively minimalist plots. Her exceptional ability to create characters, both realistic and sometimes creepy, makes this another terrific addition to her outstanding body of work.

Kirkus Reviews

A long-ago disappearance casts a long shadow.

For 15 years, the Nowaks of Trafalgar, British Columbia, have not dealt well with the fact that Brian walked out to buy a pack of cigarettes and didn't return. His wife Marjorie, a prissy, God-fearing woman, never leaves the house. His son Kyle, a reclusive artist, specializes in violently charged paintings. His daughter Nicky has moved to Vancouver and become an escort with a sideline in blackmailing her clientele. When some of Brian's bones are accidentally uncovered in Koola Provincial Park, Sergeant Winters reopens the case, leaning on Nicky's childhood friend Molly, now a constable, for insights, and setting up a possible conflict with his wife Eliza, who's mounting a gallery showing of Kyle's work. Did Brian leave his family for another woman and get waylaid on his way out of town? Not likely, say the villagers. But what happened to the $10,000 he withdrew just before his disappearance? What of Kyle's insistence that Brian was a womanizer (something that can't be proved), or of the realtor who keeps popping around asking for details about the case, or of the way Nicky and her sleazy partner/pimp Joey are eyeing as possible marks all the men in town, even Molly's boyfriend Adam of the RCMP? Secrets and assumptions must come crashing down to settle the Nowak case and explain the tragedy of 1996.

Delany (Negative Image,2010, etc.) invigorates the cozy genre with an unsparing look at love in all its variations, including coming to terms with it the second time around.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169659993
Publisher:	Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Publication date:	05/03/2011
Series:	Constable Molly Smith Series , #5
Edition description:	Unabridged

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