Wolf Hollow (A Lew Ferris Mystery)

If you are looking for a new mystery series and like the great outdoors, this might be what you’re looking for. Lew Ferris is police chief in the small town of Loon Lake in northern Wisconsin. When her brother’s body is found near a loon nest he is monitoring, it soon comes out he was murdered, and Lew finds out he was about to help file a lawsuit to protect the river from mining. Wealthy landowner Grace McDonough has a mining company interested in her land. She and her pervert son, though, are soon also found murdered, and as the bodies stack up, Lew is facing personal loss and professional landmines.

Victoria Houston is following up her nineteen-book Loon Lake series, which focused more on Doc Osborne than Lew Ferris, with a new series with the same cast of engaging characters, the same setting, and wonderful fly-fishing lessons while moving the focus to Lew Ferris. This book stands on its own, but it makes one hanker for future volumes and maybe a dip into the earlier series. The writing is crisp, the dialogue is snappy, and the story is very compelling. This is a winner.