Book Review: Dead Hot Mama

Reviewed By: Kat - RAM - Wisconsin

Dead Hot Mama     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Victoria Houston
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Police Procedural
Series: Loon Lake Fishing Mysteries # 5
Berkley Prime Crime: 2004; 291 pages

It’s Christmas time and Loon Lake is frozen over; little ice-shanty towns dot its facade, and snowmobiles break the silence as they zoom over the trails. Doc Osborne is expecting a quiet holiday with his family and Police Chief Lew Ferris.

Scratch that idea. First, it’s a body on the ice, then it’s bodies under the ice! To make matters worse, the local coroner is fired and the mayor wants his idiot nephew in the position. As the body count rises, it becomes evident that someone has found a unique way to profit from death, and it ain’t pretty.

As Doc and neighbor Ray Pradt (fishing guide, lure developer, gravedigger, and all-around oddfellow) do their best to help Lew sort it all out, the seamier side of the Northwoods and the world of New Technologies collide in an unexpected fashion.

In the fifth installment of the Loon Lake series, Houston has really hit the mark. Although I have enjoyed all of her books, this one really grabbed me. Its complex plotlines kept me on the edge of my seat but didn’t lose me, and her characters have evolved in that way that people do, for the better.

Originally posted in Crimespree Magazine #1, June/July 2004.

Kat - RAM - Wisconsin

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Kat - RAM - Wisconsin