Review: Desolation Canyon by P.J. Tracy

★★★★

This second installment in the series finds Detective Maggie Nolan investigating the unusual death of a man found in Swan Lake, the pond at the exclusive Bel-Air hotel. Interestingly, it is Maggie herself who finds the body after finally deciding to have a cocktail with her homicide colleague, Remy Boudreau. The initial assumption is suicide but soon, it is revealed to be death by poisoning – and not just any poison…….nerve gas.

At the same time, Sam Easton (my favourite character from the first novel) is embroiled in a different mystery. Sam’s friend Lenny, has helped Marielle and her daughter escape from a health retreat called Children of the Dessert. When they disappear from Lenny’s boat and there are obvious signs of foul play, Sam and Lenny start out to try and find them.

P.J. Tracy again does a wonderful job of bringing together an interesting cast of characters who are all drawn, unknowingly at first, into the same complex mystery. Once again it is Tracy’s ability to weave together numerous sub-plots in ways that are easy to follow but still complex enough to keep the reader engaged in trying to figure out how they all fit. Along with the mystery of the poisoned man and the missing/abducted mother and child, we find out that Remy has a long-lost sister that he has been trying to locate for years, Maggie’s mother decides to work through her grief over the loss of Maggie’s brother in Afghanistan by attending healing classes at the Children of the Dessert retreat (yikes!) and, an unsolved child abduction from years ago becomes relevant again.

What I enjoy about all of P.J. Tracy’s books is her ability to bring together all of these characters and all of these sub-plots into an engaging mystery that effortlessly pulls you through the story.

I recommend to readers who like police procedurals with a slight twist in that the police work with civilians who have specialized skills that add value to the investigation.