These are my comments from an email book group discussion. They seem out of context because that’s exactly where they are…

(On all detectives having upsetting pasts) I think books need to be about interesting people, and it’s possible that people with “upsetting pasts” are, all other things being equal, more interesting to us as readers than those without. That said, off the top of my head I can only think of Matt Scudder that fits the description. Who else is there?

(On Alex’s emotional baggage) I get the impression that before the book opened he had more or less dealt with the situation by running away to the cabin, by burying the past, he’d forgotten all about it. The guilt wasn’t part of his day to day life any longer.

Seeing a dead body (and a rather gruesomely executed one at that) and getting involved in a murder case has brought the buried past to life for him in the present day. Added to that is that the murderer of his partner seems to be involved in this series of murders too. That’s pretty frightening stuff to come up against so long after the first event.

I don’t think that he should blame himself for the past, I can’t see how he or Franklin could have done anything different. But I can see that he would blame himself, wouldn’t anybody wonder if they had just done something slightly different that day then perhaps everything would have turned out different? (I’ll stop that train of thought before I drift into chaos theory and bore you all to death…)

I think “running away” was a reasonable thing to do. It didn’t sound like he had much going for him in Detroit, his job was kaputt, his wife had left him; I think going and living in his fathers cabin in (not quite) the middle of nowehere was a fair response to the situation. It seemed to have worked out fairly well up until now.

I don’t really think he needs any “help”. He’s certainly got problems but I don’t think they are insurmountable or long lasting. I think once this case is over he’ll be ok again, and probably better off than before since I hope some of his demons, to do with Rose, will be exorcised by the end of the book.

I like him so far, he seems like a decent man and he didn’t exactly ask to get tangled up in the situation he’s in.

The murders had better have something to do with Rose else I’m going to be mightily annoyed at the amount of flashbacks to the Rose case that we’re getting! I don’t think Alex is obsessed, just upset and scared by the connections to his shooting.

I think it’s a setup of some kind, but I can’t figure out who would know enough to do so as Alex doesn’t think he’s told anyone. Maybe he’s been talking in his sleep to Sylvia. That seems like a reasonable guess to me, and she’s nasty enough that i don’t mind her murdering people.

(On how I would catch the killer)
Oh, set up a trap with me as the bait, lure the killer in to it, then get them to confess all by professing to know exactly what happened when I don’t. No, perhaps not. I’ll gather everybody within a hundred mile radius into my cabin and recreate the crime - the murderer will be so upset by the errors I make that they’ll have to pipe up to correct me and then I’ll have them. No, can’t see that working either! Damn, it’s back to detective school for me I’m going to get myself killed at this rate.

(On sense of place) From the snowy pic on the cover I thought the book was going to be nice and cool and an escape from the summer sun, but I haven’t really got any sense of place or chilliness from the book. Apart from the log cabins, which sound rather pleasant, I haven’t got an image of any of the outside places in my head.