Professional organizer Maggie takes a trip to Lake Tahoe with her best friend Tess, to help clear out Tess’s holiday cabin prior to putting it up for sale. Arriving in the teeth of a blizzard, very nearly the first thing that happens is the pair stumble across a body in a snowdrift - the body of one of Tess’s neighbours, who’s been missing for a couple of weeks.
Trapped in place by the storm, Maggie and Tess can’t resist trying to figure out whodunnit. As an impartial outsider, Maggie doesn’t know who to trust. Everyone’s a suspect.
There’s quite a big cast of characters as the residents of the cul-de-sac where Tess lives, and a few more seemingly random friends of Maggie which turn up near the end and I suspect appear in earlier books in the series… I wish they’d been left out, to be honest, as I really don’t think they were necessary to the plot. There are some colourful characters who Maggie gets to know as she investigates the murder, but there’s a bit of an issue in that the reveal, when it comes, is a letdown and almost all of what Maggie’s done is revealed to be red herrings and a waste of time.
Much is made of there being dogs in the book and there are, indeed, lots of dogs. And really, none of them have any actual role to play other than being a reason for the characters to go outside into the bad weather occasionally. They’re just… present. Making up the numbers. Not really plot relevant, rather like Maggie’s friends who turn up late on.
Two hours after finishing this, I can hardly remember anything about it. I had to go check the blurb for the names of the main characters. I honestly found it extremely bland. It’s not bad, as such, just… forgettable. Three stars for an okay read which really didn’t inspire me to check out more in the series.
Disclaimer: I received a review copy of this title via NetGalley.
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