DOOR IN THE RIVER by Inger Ash Wolfe

This is the third book in a series that follows Inspector Hazel Micallef in Port Dundas, Ontario. I had not read the first two in the series, but was not in the least lost; rather, I determined I'd have to download the first two in the series immediately.

A DOOR IN THE RIVER begins with a mysterious death: A local man is found dead outside a native cigarette shop on reservation land. It is determined that he died of a bee sting - but he certainly died at night, and bees are not nocturnal. This investigation (in cooperation with reservation authorities, which adds a frustrating twist) leads to a massive crime operation.

Hazel is a fantastic protagonist: "The force of her will and her peculiar way of building evidence for a case was something to see. He understood why she'd driven Ray Greene crazy. And in the end you had to agree with her! There was no way you were going to make your own logic as internally consistent as hers. Supposedly this was "instinct". He'd never really seen it. Too bad she wielded it like a mallet." I really love her. She's stubborn and sometimes rude, but she gets the job done. Her job is complicated by the necessity of cooperating. She's also affected by a decision to consolidate police departments, which means a colleague with whom she has a thorny past will be her superior.

The mystery itself certainly kept me guessing, though it strained credibility at times. The crimes are particularly brutal and disturbing, almost too much for my sensibilities. But Hazel kept me reading. Recommended for mystery/police procedural fans. The first in the series is THE CALLING, followed by THE TAKEN. I'll be reading both.

Source disclosure: I received an e-galley of this title from the publisher.