If Snow Hadn't Fallen by S. J. Bolton, a Mysterious Review.

Review: S. J. Bolton's novella If Snow Hadn't Fallen is set on a cold night near the home of Detective Lacey Flint. A young Pakistani pre-med student has been doused with petrol and set afire, burning to death while five men in grotesque masks circle about him, poking him with sticks to keep him from leaving the spot. Lacey sees what's happening and calls for backup. As the men scatter, she covers the burning man with her coat in an effort to smother the flames. But she is too late.

As Lacey struggles to understand why someone would do something so horrific, she tries to learn more about the victim, Aamir Chowdbury. Though his family won't talk about him, something Lacey finds curious, she does discover that he had recently moved out of his family's home into his own apartment and pretty much kept to himself and didn't seem to have any enemies. Could this simply be a senseless hate crime? Or might there be a deeper mystery to Aamir's murder? With no clues to go on, Lacey has to break a few rules to get to some answers.

The storyline in If Snow Hadn't Fallen is set between the events of the first two books in this series and is written in a manner that provides a transition — mostly from a character development perspective — from one to the other. As such, it works well as an interesting, thought-provoking stand-alone story, and a well-plotted one, but it also assumes the reader has a passing familiarity with the character of Lacey Flint. Even so, those who haven't read the first book in this series will be taken with Lacey, a funny, benevolent and compassionate person, one who isn't afraid to bend a few rules to get her job done.

Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of If Snow Hadn't Fallen.

Acknowledgment: Minotaur Books provided an eARC of If Snow Hadn't Fallen for this review.

Awakening
Minotaur Books (Hardcover), June 2009
ISBN-13: 9780312381141; ISBN-10: 031238114X

Lost
Minotaur Books (Hardcover), June 2013
ISBN-13: 9781250028563; ISBN-10: 1250028566

If Snow Hadn't Fallen

A Lacey Flint Novella by S. J. Bolton