This is number 4 in the Roxanne Calloway series. I have to say that I didn't find it quite as good as the preceding three but I still love a book that is set right in my home province in a place that I know well.

It's a hot, dry summer in Manitoba. The level of Lake Winnipeg has gone down significantly and smoke from forest fires around the prairies is having a significant effect on air quality. Although the year isn't specified, from statements about people getting vaccinated against the COVID virus and small gatherings starting to take place, I assumed it was 2021. Anyone who could heads to cottage country and the tourism industry in Cullen Village (a thinly disguised Winnipeg Beach) is thankful. The 100 year old Borthwick cottage, Hazeldean, is now owned by the four Borthwick siblings: Fraser, Donna, Leslie and Jay. Their mother, Lois, is still alive but due to dementia lives in a personal care home in Fiskar Bay (which is Gimli in real life). Each sibling is entitled to a stay during the summer months at the cottage. Donna, a realtor in Winnipeg, arrives with gourmet foods and lots of liquor for her stay. She has dinner with her younger brother, Jay, who had been working to fix up the cottage and then he heads back to his wife and stepson in Winnipeg. Early the next morning, a neighbour out for a walk with her dog discovers her body hanging from the pier that juts out into the lake. Roxanne Calloway, head of the Fiskar Bay RCMP detachment, and other members of her team investigate the suspicious death but the coroner rules that it was a suicide. That ruling was called into question when Donna's daughter, Amelia, is found bludgeoned to death inside Hazeldean. Is someone out to get the Borthwick family? Izzy McBain, from the Major Crimes Unit but also a former resident of the area, is tasked to investigate. Roxanne was her mentor when she was a raw recruit but now Izzy is the same rank and a little touchy about Roxanne taking part in the investigation. But Roxanne is the person that the locals call with information and she just can't quite manage to stay uninvolved. Even if it means that her pregnancy might be in danger. There will be more victims before the case is finally solved and, as usual, it's not anyone that was under suspicion before.

There is a ring of truth to this book since there have been many disputes when family cottages devolve to the next generation. To the best of my knowledge, they usually get resolved without a resort to homicide. ( )