Good entry in a very entertaining series. Excellent and interesting peripheral as well as main characters. Sheriff does get damaged frequently but rebounds well. Well managed locale development of the rural but quite scenic home territory for the series. ( )

Reading one of Aaron Stander's Ray Elkins murder mysteries is like drinking a fine Leelanau peninsula wine - or maybe like slurping a good chocolate malt from Jones's Ice Cream Parlor in Baldwin. ('Cause I'm not really much for wine.) You don't want to hurry it; you want to savor it. But sometimes it's just so damn good you can't help yourself. You rush through it just to see what happens next. And while there's no hangover or ice cream headache when you finish, there is just a slight sense of disappointment that it's gone, knowing you'll probably have to wait another year or two for the next one. The next northern Michigan thriller with the fictitious Cedar County sheriff we've grown to know and appreciate, I mean. Because Ray Elkins is pretty unique to regional mysteries - a sheriff who once taught at a university, who appreciates fine food and wine, who looks forward to his New Yorker and likes a good memoir or book of poems in his spare time, of which he seems to have precious little. I greatly enjoyed Stander's first two books, and this newest one, SHELF ICE, is no different. A case that at first unfurls itself at a leisurely pace and then begins to pick up speed and keeps you turning the pages 'til you've slurped that final scene. And yes, I know there's a third book, DEER SEASON. And I've got it around here somewhere. When I got SHELF ICE in the mail last week, I opened it up to just glance at it. The next evening I finished it. Couldn't help myself. This is classy stuff, first-rate writing. Here's a minor footnote to the story. It seems Elkins' comfort drink of choice after a tough, battering day of crime solving is often chamomile tea. I mean, shades of poor Peter Rabbit! Remember? After Peter's harrowing misadventures in Mr MacGregor's garden, his mom gave him some chamomile tea and put him to bed. Not only classy stuff, but with its roots deep in the classics. There's a little Bobby Frost tucked into the story too, I think. Fitting in a chilling tale filled with fire and ice. Bravo, Mr Stander. ( )