Blue Deer Thaw - Softcover

Harrison, Jamie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312978855 ISBN 13: 9780312978853

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 2001

Synopsis

The small town of Blue Deer, Montana, is most famous for its breathtaking landscape and numbingly cold winters. But unless something changes, soon the small town will be known as the murder capital of the American West. Bodies have begun to pop up in the oddest places--a head is found poking out of a snowbank, a naked body floats by in the river, and a woman freezes to death just steps from her own front door.

Reluctant Sheriff Jules Clement doesn't mind the arctic winters, but he'd rather be doing anything other than hunting for clues to the multiple murders. And clues are surprisingly difficult to come by in a town as cozy as Blue Deer, where everyone knows way too much about everyone else. More difficult yet, the investigation means he must work closely with Deputy Caroline Fair, whose charms tend to interfere with his concentration. As the list of suspects grows, so does their mutual attraction, a desire that just must generate enough heat to defrost this most chilling of Blue Deer winters.

About this title

Review

Jules Clement, erstwhile archaeologist and currently sheriff of Montana's Absaroka County, has just the right touch of irony to guide readers through the social, criminal, redneck, and alternative subcultures of Blue Deer. When the snow melt reveals the frozen body of Anna Baden a few feet from her front door, Jules suspects more than alcohol was to blame; he's sure her husband, Leon, manager of the Bachelor bar and proprietor of the adjoining second-hand store, had something to do with it. And there's something strange about Leon's connection with the niece of Halsey Merriwether, the rich old eccentric whose collection of treasures Jules has been inventorying. Halsey also owns the Hotel Sacajawea, which is being renovated for the long-awaited nuptials of Alice and Peter, Jules's best friends in Blue Deer.

In not-so-short order a naked floater surfaces in a river, the head of an unidentified John Doe pokes up out of a snow bank, and a carpenter working on the renovation seemingly commits suicide by jumping into a swimming pool at the hotel. In his fourth outing (An Unfortunate Prairie Occurrence), this laid-back lawman connects the dots between the murders, gets Peter to the wedding on time, and finds himself falling in love with sweet Caroline, his deputy. More of a leisurely jaunt with a witty companion than a police procedural, Blue Deer Thaw will please Harrison's many fans, who appreciate her deft hand at characterization and her love/hate relationship with the southwestern corner of Montana she calls home. --Jane Adams

About the Author

JAMIE HARRISON has worked as a gardener, a caterer, at various magazines and as a script reader. She was most recently the editor at Clark City Press in Livingston, Montana, where she lives with her husband and two sons.

About this edition

• Publisher: St Martins Pr
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0312978855
• ISBN 13: 9780312978853
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288