Dead for the Winter: A Mystery - Hardcover

Thornton, Betsy

3.48

29 ratings by Goodreads

9780312333195: Dead for the Winter: A Mystery

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312333196 ISBN 13: 9780312333195

Publisher: Minotaur Books, 2004

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After a lonely spell, where only her work as a victims advocate in the small desert town of Old Dudley, Arizona, keeps her busy, Chloe Newcombe meets Terry Barnett. He is the most attractive man she has known since she and her lover mutually parted, and she is enjoying his company. Terry tells her she's easy to talk to and that he needs to confide in someone. But when she finds out he is married, she writes him off and decides to forget about him. Then she goes out one night on assignment and wishes she had listened. Terry has been murdered.

Unbeknownst to her, there has been a witness to each of her encounters with the dead man, and the bulldog sheriff would very much like to hold her as a suspect. Eventually, her involvement with Terry and a problem with one of her cases affects her work, and her boss encourages (in reality, orders) her to take a vacation. With her job and reputation in danger, Chloe plunges herself into finding Terry's killer in order to prove her innocence.

She seeks out the people he has left behind: his widow, who has gone into hiding; his estranged brother, who commissions Chloe's help; and an intimidating therapist with an ax to grind. But most intriguing of these is a "phantom" from Terry's past whom he mentioned just before his murder. Chloe's investigation leads her on a search for this woman who disappeared twenty years ago---a woman no one missed until now. As the details of Terry's life reveal his family drama and the unspoken fears leading up to his death, Chloe finds herself entangled in a story of obsession and betrayal.

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About the Author:

Betsy Thornton lives in Bisbee, Arizona, where she works for the Cochise County Attorney's Victim Witness Program as a victim compensation advocate and a victim advocate. This is the fourth book in her series of the adventures of amateur sleuth Chloe Newcombe.

From Publishers Weekly:

At the start of Thornton's fourth intricate puzzle to feature Chloe Newcombe (after 2002's Ghost Towns), the Cochise County, Ariz., victim's advocate is assigned to assist artist Heather Stephens after Heather's husband, carpenter Terry Barnett, is found dead in his burning barn. The problem is, Chloe hired Terry to make a bookcase for her and in the process was attracted to him. During dinner across the border in Mexico, Terry told her he was married, and she refused to see him again. Chloe's concern for Heather, when it becomes clear that Terry was shot first, drives her to try to unravel some highly tangled relationships in search of the killer. Did his wife tire of his infidelities? Was there a dissatisfied client? What of his estranged brother in Ohio? Terry went back there for a time to care for his dying mother and contacted a childhood friend. Herself a victim's advocate, Thornton writes what she knows. She takes great care in describing this community whose members are bound together in spite of their need for independence. In showing more than one type of victim, the author doesn't shy away from the possibility of failure on Chloe's part. She keeps Chloe and the reader just a bit off kilter right up to the closing teaser about her heroine's future.
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