An icy cold murder and a library patron collide in Holly Danver’s second Lakeside Library Mystery.

A glowing wood stove, a cozy log cabin, and shelves full of books are all Rain Wilmot needs to ride out the Wisconsin winter, now that she’s made her family’s Lofty Pines library her year-round home. But the warm-hearted librarian’s blood runs cold when local man, Wallace Benson, is found dead during the annual Ice Fishing Jamboree.

After Benson’s body is found in his ice shanty, Rain recalls that she recently saw the victim in her library, borrowing a few cookbooks to prepare for the fishing tournament’s communal “chili dump.” She later finds these same books returned to the library’s drop box, with an enigmatic note from Benson to Rain.

As Rain seeks to understand the message, the prime suspect becomes Rain’s friend Nick, who was the last person to see Wallace alive and who returned to the Jamboree with a nasty cut on his hand. The knife found in his tackle box only makes Nick’s troubles worse. But Rain keeps fishing for other suspects. Was the killer Danny, who lost his arm to a logging accident involving Wallace? Or Danny’s bitter father, whose dreams of retirement were dashed by his son’s accident?

With the help of her friends Julia and Jace, Rain sets out to hook the real culprit and clear Nick’s name. But can her sleuthing skills protect her from a killer who’d like to take her out of circulation?

When Wallace Benson is found dead in his ice fishing shack yards from the library, his hysterical wife Tina accuses Julia’s husband, Nick.  Rain and Julia are, of course, 100% sure that Nick is innocent and so go about solving the murder. When Nick is arrested they double-down on their investigation and, yet again, solve the murder.

I was sort of hesitant about the series after the first book and this book had an even harder time holding my interest. I usually read a cozy mystery of this type in a day, two at the most; but here I found myself putting this one down and not thinking about it for days on end and when I did pick it up I found myself skimming through the pages.  While Rain’s constant introspection about her late husband is mentioned considerably less in this book she still is internally whiny to a degree I find unusual in a cozy mystery and thus I just cannot make myself find her an interesting or sympathetic character.  Julia is, by turns, juvenile and reckless - not traits I’d think employers would value in a teacher. And Ryan proclaiming he was willing to take a bullet to the chest for Rain when he has spoken to her a total of perhaps five times for less than ten minutes each time.... I’m sorry, that doesn’t really fly in even the cheesiest romance.  Easily the most interesting characters are Marge and her dog Rex who are mentioned so infrequently that she might as well not exist.

Possibly, most annoying to me, is that Rain and Julia both act stupidly in so many cases and deliberately illegally in others. They repeatedly go to confront potential murderers and leave their cell phones at home or in their vehicle. Here they enter the suspected murderer’s home, having found the front door open and when the murderer returns instead of just saying “Oh thank goodness you are alright. Considering the murder and the assault on Seth we were worried something bad had happened to you when we found the door open and you did not answer our calls”, no… instead they hide and make it clear that the person is a suspect and that they have searched the house. Further, at least for me, the murderer was pretty obvious.  I was pretty sure of the murderer’s identity a third of the way into the book - and I was right.

I am sure there is an audience for this series but, unfortunately, after two outings I have come to the conclusion this series is not for me. ~~ Stephanie L Bannon

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