In the Shadow of the Glacier by Vicki Delaney

In the Shadow of the Glacier by Vicki Delany is somewhat like a marshmallow. It's easy and fun to ingest the characters-they're sweet and quite believable. When you're through, it leaves you wanting more.

Set in a small mountain town in British Columbia it tells a story which includes many elements known to make a good mystery. There's the murder of a rather flamboyant newcomer, a string of bicycle thefts, two main characters who are hiding major secrets from us and each other (those unfortunately were not explained very well) and various problems for several of the more prominent couples.

The mystery revolves around an American draft dodger who settled in the bucolic mythical berg of Trafalgar and left land and money to the area with a caveat: it must be used to create a garden honoring draft dodgers and their quest for peace.

This sets the normally tolerant residents to taking very explosives different views on the matter. The main opponent of the garden, the flamboyant newcomer is found bludgeoned to death in an alley.

The hunt for the killer is on by another newcomer, big city Detective John Winters and his very green assistant Constable Moonlight (she prefers Molly) Smith. Throughout the investigation, they are also trying to figure out the reason behind a rash of mountain bike thefts. Are these related?

Egging the duo and the community on is a very irritating muck-raking TV "journalist" Rich Ashcroft who has enlisted the naïve local reporter Meredith Morgenstern.

To find out the rest, I highly suggest getting a copy of In the Shadow of the Glacier by Vicki Delaney. Coming in at a bit over 300 pages, I was so entertained that I read the book almost non-stop in one afternoon. It went by as quickly as eating the aforementioned marshmallow.