Blue Deer Thaw

Alcohol and art, love and death. When a woman freezes to death in a snowdrift, Jules follows the mystery of her death back to the newly renovated Sacajawea Hotel, where he’s cataloging antiquities for the owner. What seems like a simple alcoholic tragedy plays out as a more complex story of family greed and revenge; for Jules, it means both love and tragedy. Set March 22 to September, 1995.

Blue Deer, Montana, is a nice place to visit — and a beautiful place to die…
The small town of Blue Deer, Montana, is most famous for its breathtaking landscape and numbingly cold winters. But unless something changes, soon the small town will be known as the murder capital of the American West. Bodies have begun to pop up in the oddest places — a head is found poking out of a snowbank, a naked body floats by in the river, and a woman freezes to death just steps from her own front door.

Reluctant Sheriff Jules Clement doesn’t mind the arctic winter, but he’d rather be doing anything other than hunting for clues to the multiple murders. And clues are surprisingly difficult to come by in a town as cozy as Blue Deer, where everyone knows way too much about everyone else. More difficult yet, the investigation means he must work closely with Deputy Caroline Fair, whose charms tend to interfere with his concentration. As the list of suspects grows, so does their mutual attraction, a desire that just might generate enough heat to defrost this most chilling of Blue Deer winters.