Genres
Collection
Publication
Poisoned Pen Press (2009), 452 pages
Description
Fiction. Mystery. HTML: 2019 recipient of the Derrick Murdoch award from the Crime Writers of Canada In the mountain town of Trafalgar, British Columbia, a young woman is found dead of a heroin overdose, her baby lying at her side. While this should be an open-and-shut drug case, restraint marks on the victim suggest that the death might not have been accidental. As the investigation into the young woman's death and life grows, the case becomes increasingly personal for Probationary Constable Molly Smith and Sergeant John Winters. Only two things are known about the dead woman: her first name is Ashley, and she has a three-month-old baby boy. Who was she? Was this is just a drug deal gone wrong, or is there something more sinister at play? Smith's mother, Lucky, has taken in the lost baby: does he hold the key to solving his mother's murder? In the meantime, Winters' wife, Eliza, is considering a modeling contract with the same planned resort that seems to be ripping the close-knit community apart. Has the controversial resort development pushed one of the members of this quiet community to murder?.… (more)
Media reviews
Quill & Quire
The small town of Trafalgar, B.C., seems far more suited to quiet vacations than murder, but the detective duo of Constable Molly Smith and Sergeant John Winters know better. Their debut, In the Shadow of the Glacier (2007), unearthed deadly tensions surrounding the town’s ceremonial garden for
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Vietnam War draft dodgers, and Valley of the Lost allows them to dig up even darker doings.
At first, Ashley’s death looks to be a routine heroin overdose, the baby lying near her the only jarring note. But it turns out that Ashley isn’t really Ashley – and the baby isn’t really hers. Smith and Winters try to figure out who the baby really belongs to, and what prompted someone to kill a girl who “had no past, almost no present ... and certainly no future. Except for this tiny, screaming thing.” In the process, other conflicts bubble up to Trafalgar’s surface.
A new resort development promises greater tourism (and career opportunities for Winters’ wife, Eliza) but also greater strife for townsfolk worried about newcomers. The three-month-old baby, without any family members to take her, ends up in the care of Smith’s mother, Lucky, bringing with it visions of grandchildren yet to be born. And a burgeoning romance with RCMP Constable Adam Tkocek adds further complications to Smith’s life.
Delany has a lot of plot and atmospheric elements to balance, but she does so with relative ease. The focus doesn’t waver from the main investigation, and the built-in suspense of Ashley’s true identity increases the story’s momentum. In this second novel, the dynamic between Smith and Winters has the appeal of shoes that have just been broken in. The fun will be to experience the growing comfort level in future volumes. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member smik
After a long and hectic day at the Trafalgar Women's Support Center Lucky Smith is savouring the peace of the quiet valley town. That's when she hears the soft cry and discovers baby Miller in the bushes alongside his dead mother. The call to police emergency goes to Lucky's daughter Moonlight,
The police autopsy concludes that the dead woman Ashley has died from a heroin overdose, that at some stage, not recently, she had been a regular user, but the restraint marks on her wrists and ankles cast suspicion on the manner of her death.
Lucky Smith decides to take the baby home with her until his family can be located. This act in itself causes tension in the Smith household. And then Lucky resists attempts by the representative of the Child and Youth Services, a recent arrival in the town, to take him into care.
VALLEY OF THE LOST suprised me with the complexity of its well teased out plot and interesting characters. It is the second in what the blurb calls "a traditional mystery series" featuring Molly Smith, her boss Sergeant Winters, and the town in the shadow of the glacier, Trafalgar, British Columbia. I actually feel very priveleged to have read this in ARC format.
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Probationary Constable Molly Smith.The police autopsy concludes that the dead woman Ashley has died from a heroin overdose, that at some stage, not recently, she had been a regular user, but the restraint marks on her wrists and ankles cast suspicion on the manner of her death.
Lucky Smith decides to take the baby home with her until his family can be located. This act in itself causes tension in the Smith household. And then Lucky resists attempts by the representative of the Child and Youth Services, a recent arrival in the town, to take him into care.
VALLEY OF THE LOST suprised me with the complexity of its well teased out plot and interesting characters. It is the second in what the blurb calls "a traditional mystery series" featuring Molly Smith, her boss Sergeant Winters, and the town in the shadow of the glacier, Trafalgar, British Columbia. I actually feel very priveleged to have read this in ARC format.
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LibraryThing member readinggeek451
A baby boy is found next to a young woman who has died of a heroin overdose. But who is he, and who was she? Probationary Constable Molly Smith and her aging hippie parents are caught up in the expanding mystery.
LibraryThing member cathyskye
First Line: The setting sun had slipped behind the mountains, and in the bottom of the valley, long ago carved out of ancient rock by the swift-moving river, the summer's night was hot and close.
When Lucky Smith hears a baby cry off in the trees, she goes to see what's wrong. She finds a scared and
It had been over a year since I'd read the first book in Vicki Delany's Molly Smith series, and I wondered how quickly I would fall back into the setting and how well I would remember the characters and their backgrounds. I should not have wondered. From the first page, I fell back into Trafalgar as if I'd never left. Never once did I furrow my brow in an attempt to remember a character. As anyone knows who reads a lot of mystery series, this can be a rather rare occurrence. For me to have such excellent recall after a long period of time means one thing: Vicki Delany is an excellent writer who knows how to create memorable characters and settings. (Actually it means two things, the second being that I shouldn't allow so much time to elapse between books in such a good series!)
I like the fact that John Winters has a good feeling about Molly and takes the time to work with her and to be a mentor. His experience is going to help her make the right choices in the future. Another (very) refreshing fact about Winters is that he can work with Molly and not lust after her which often seems to be obligatory on both page and screen. Actually, he's even more remarkable because he's happily married to a beautiful woman who's been at the very top of the modeling profession. John and Eliza have been able to have such disparate careers and a very close and loving relationship for years.
Molly is still learning as a police officer, and still grieving for her dead fiance. She doesn't have a car, and she still lives with her parents-- two hippies who came to Canada in the 1970s to evade the draft. (However, I think Molly's living arrangements will be changing soon after reading this book!) Her parents built a successful business and raised two children, but their once close relationship is changing. Molly's dad seems to have mellowed a bit over the years while Molly's mother, Lucky, is every bit the protesting firebrand she was as a teenager. One of the many things that will keep me reading this series is the relationship between Molly's parents.
I've talked a lot about the characters in this book, and that's because they're so well drawn that I feel as if I know them all. But a mystery cannot be a good mystery unless it has a plot to match the setting and the characters, and Valley of the Lost does. With the reveal of a few early clues, I thought I had figured out the background of the dead girl. I was nowhere close-- and I like that. The plot line involving the resort and its owners had its own surprises, and I love how it ties in with other aspects of the plot.
If you're a fan of memorable settings, fascinating characters, plots that keep you guessing, and you tell me that you've never read one of Vicki Delany's Molly Smith books, I have only one question for you...
What are you waiting for? Track these books down and start reading them. You're in for a treat!
When Lucky Smith hears a baby cry off in the trees, she goes to see what's wrong. She finds a scared and
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hungry infant-- and the body of his mother lying close by. Sergeant John Winters of the Trafalgar, British Columbia, police force begins his investigation with the help of Lucky's daughter, Probationary Constable Molly Smith. When the two start checking with the people who knew the dead girl, they learn that this isn't a simple case of drug overdose. Something else is going on, but until they discover the girl's true identity, it's going to be very difficult indeed to find out just what that something is. While they're knocking on doors and asking questions, Lucky Smith has appointed herself the child's foster mother, and Winters' wife Eliza is being courted by a controversial new resort's owners to become the face of the place.It had been over a year since I'd read the first book in Vicki Delany's Molly Smith series, and I wondered how quickly I would fall back into the setting and how well I would remember the characters and their backgrounds. I should not have wondered. From the first page, I fell back into Trafalgar as if I'd never left. Never once did I furrow my brow in an attempt to remember a character. As anyone knows who reads a lot of mystery series, this can be a rather rare occurrence. For me to have such excellent recall after a long period of time means one thing: Vicki Delany is an excellent writer who knows how to create memorable characters and settings. (Actually it means two things, the second being that I shouldn't allow so much time to elapse between books in such a good series!)
I like the fact that John Winters has a good feeling about Molly and takes the time to work with her and to be a mentor. His experience is going to help her make the right choices in the future. Another (very) refreshing fact about Winters is that he can work with Molly and not lust after her which often seems to be obligatory on both page and screen. Actually, he's even more remarkable because he's happily married to a beautiful woman who's been at the very top of the modeling profession. John and Eliza have been able to have such disparate careers and a very close and loving relationship for years.
Molly is still learning as a police officer, and still grieving for her dead fiance. She doesn't have a car, and she still lives with her parents-- two hippies who came to Canada in the 1970s to evade the draft. (However, I think Molly's living arrangements will be changing soon after reading this book!) Her parents built a successful business and raised two children, but their once close relationship is changing. Molly's dad seems to have mellowed a bit over the years while Molly's mother, Lucky, is every bit the protesting firebrand she was as a teenager. One of the many things that will keep me reading this series is the relationship between Molly's parents.
I've talked a lot about the characters in this book, and that's because they're so well drawn that I feel as if I know them all. But a mystery cannot be a good mystery unless it has a plot to match the setting and the characters, and Valley of the Lost does. With the reveal of a few early clues, I thought I had figured out the background of the dead girl. I was nowhere close-- and I like that. The plot line involving the resort and its owners had its own surprises, and I love how it ties in with other aspects of the plot.
If you're a fan of memorable settings, fascinating characters, plots that keep you guessing, and you tell me that you've never read one of Vicki Delany's Molly Smith books, I have only one question for you...
What are you waiting for? Track these books down and start reading them. You're in for a treat!
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LibraryThing member bsquaredinoz
In the small town of Trafalgar in the hinterland of British Columbia, Canada, ageing hippie Lucky Smith finds the body of a young woman in the woods near the women's support centre where she works. Lying by the body is a crying baby boy. The police, including Lucky's daughter Molly who is a
Although the mystery itself unfurls relatively slowly it doesn't matter as there's lots going on and I was quickly drawn into the world the author had created here. As is the way with small towns, many of the people know each other and the author does a great job of introducing the various characters and making the reader care about them by showing snippets of their day-to-day lives. Alongside the Smith family and the engaging lead investigator there are a host of other people who play roles that may not have anything to do with the mystery but are still people you want to know more about. If you'd suggested to me before I read this book that someone could make me even vaguely interested in a character who was an ex-super model I'd have laughed at you but Eliza, John Winters' wife, is a delight as she wrestles with her own career crisis while supporting her husband in his demanding job.
The book is a combination whodunit and police procedural and offers the best of both. Winters doggedly interviews and re-interviews people who he thinks might know something about the dead girl's past. In this way the various potential suspects are slowly fleshed-out and the pool narrowed down. The resolution is ultimately quite complex but credible within the context of the story and very easy to follow.
I'm also thrilled to point out that Delany has succeeded in incorporating the political/social commentary into the story via character traits or story threads as authors are supposed to do. Unlike this book and this one, both recent reads, I didn't feel like I was being lectured to like a naughty (or stupid) schoolgirl and so was far more willing to contemplate the important themes being raised in the story.
This was a thoroughly entertaining book with a whole host of great characters and a multi-faceted plot and I'll be looking for more books by Vicky Delany.
Audio-book specific comments: The narration is excellent with MacDuffie managing to make it clear which of the many characters is speaking with only minor differences in her tone or inflection. Normally I listen to audio books while doing something else but with this one I sat in my reading chair and listened to the last hour or so just to enjoy being read to.
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probationary constable, soon realise that the dead woman has hidden her past well and they struggle to piece together what might have happened to the young mother. Some are quick to write the death off to the relapse of a heroin junkie but Sergeant John Winters wonders if there's more to it. As the investigation proceeds Lucky looks after the baby, fighting off a determined social services officer in the process.Although the mystery itself unfurls relatively slowly it doesn't matter as there's lots going on and I was quickly drawn into the world the author had created here. As is the way with small towns, many of the people know each other and the author does a great job of introducing the various characters and making the reader care about them by showing snippets of their day-to-day lives. Alongside the Smith family and the engaging lead investigator there are a host of other people who play roles that may not have anything to do with the mystery but are still people you want to know more about. If you'd suggested to me before I read this book that someone could make me even vaguely interested in a character who was an ex-super model I'd have laughed at you but Eliza, John Winters' wife, is a delight as she wrestles with her own career crisis while supporting her husband in his demanding job.
The book is a combination whodunit and police procedural and offers the best of both. Winters doggedly interviews and re-interviews people who he thinks might know something about the dead girl's past. In this way the various potential suspects are slowly fleshed-out and the pool narrowed down. The resolution is ultimately quite complex but credible within the context of the story and very easy to follow.
I'm also thrilled to point out that Delany has succeeded in incorporating the political/social commentary into the story via character traits or story threads as authors are supposed to do. Unlike this book and this one, both recent reads, I didn't feel like I was being lectured to like a naughty (or stupid) schoolgirl and so was far more willing to contemplate the important themes being raised in the story.
This was a thoroughly entertaining book with a whole host of great characters and a multi-faceted plot and I'll be looking for more books by Vicky Delany.
Audio-book specific comments: The narration is excellent with MacDuffie managing to make it clear which of the many characters is speaking with only minor differences in her tone or inflection. Normally I listen to audio books while doing something else but with this one I sat in my reading chair and listened to the last hour or so just to enjoy being read to.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Olivermagnus
This is the second book in the Constable Molly Smith series, set in Trafalgar, British Columbia. In this one, Molly's mother finds a baby lying next to a dead woman. She is surprised to discover the baby is still alive. She calls the police and her constable daughter, Molly, along with Detective
At the same time, the tension in Trafalgar is high over a resort that has been proposed by a group of developers. Many in Trafalgar's population are ex-hippies who moved to Trafalgar during the Vietnam war and they oppose any kind of development for the town. We also meet a lot of different characters which helps give the book some real twists and turns. The contrast between the peaceful community of Trafalgar and big money land development, drug trade, and murder make this an intriguing mystery.
I read the first book of this series last month and liked it enough to buy the second one. It can definitely be read as a stand-alone mystery. I feel like the characters are developing nicely. The strong secondary characters, especially Molly's mother, Lucky, are exceptionally well done. I think this neither a cozy mystery nor a gritty mystery, but a traditional mystery combined with an interesting police procedural. I love the setting of British Columbia and definitely plan to follow up with the next book in the series.
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Sergeant John Winters start their investigation. Initially it looks like the young mother overdosed on heroin, but all evidence points to the fact that she's been off drugs for over a year. When the autopsy reveals she has never given birth, the investigation expands to try and find out who the baby is and who his real parents are.At the same time, the tension in Trafalgar is high over a resort that has been proposed by a group of developers. Many in Trafalgar's population are ex-hippies who moved to Trafalgar during the Vietnam war and they oppose any kind of development for the town. We also meet a lot of different characters which helps give the book some real twists and turns. The contrast between the peaceful community of Trafalgar and big money land development, drug trade, and murder make this an intriguing mystery.
I read the first book of this series last month and liked it enough to buy the second one. It can definitely be read as a stand-alone mystery. I feel like the characters are developing nicely. The strong secondary characters, especially Molly's mother, Lucky, are exceptionally well done. I think this neither a cozy mystery nor a gritty mystery, but a traditional mystery combined with an interesting police procedural. I love the setting of British Columbia and definitely plan to follow up with the next book in the series.
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LibraryThing member thornton37814
Probationary Constable Molly Smith of Trafalgar, a small town in the Kootenays in British Columbia, finds herself accompanying Detective Sergeant John Winters to the center where her Mom volunteers when her mother discovers an abandoned baby and his "mother" murdered nearby. It appears to be a case
A controversial development courts Sergeant Winters' wife Eliza to star in an advertisement for the planned resort. Officials launch an investigation into Trafalgar's role in illegal trafficking. The ending provides some hints of what might be to come in the series. This is a solid police procedural on the cozier rather than noir side. I listened to the audio version.
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of a heroin overdose, but those closest to her know she gave up drugs and was unlikely to return to them. The woman used a fake name, making it difficult to notify next of kin, and the two people most likely to know about her past--her roommate and a counselor who recently returned to Trafalgar from Vancouver--are not cooperating with the police. Molly's mother takes the baby home to care for him until the next of kin can be located. The baby disrupts life in the household.A controversial development courts Sergeant Winters' wife Eliza to star in an advertisement for the planned resort. Officials launch an investigation into Trafalgar's role in illegal trafficking. The ending provides some hints of what might be to come in the series. This is a solid police procedural on the cozier rather than noir side. I listened to the audio version.
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LibraryThing member ffortsa
Not as exotic as it sounds, this is the second book (I think) in a series about a constable in Western Canada by the name of Moonlight (her parents, needless to say, were hippie draft-dodgers who are scandalized that she is a cop!). This one focuses on the young runaways and drug-addicted in the
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town, and developers who want to capitalize on the landscape. My only complaint is that the tie that binds is sort of from left field. Show Less
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2009
DDC/MDS
| 813.6 |
ISBN
1590585968 / 9781590585962
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