Unreasonable Doubt: A Constable Molly Smith Mystery

Why would the recently exonerated Walter Desmond, who spent 25 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit, even consider going back to the scene of the crime, his hometown of Trafalgar, British Columbia? The truth is that he wants to know why he was framed—but then again truth isn’t easy to come by after all this time, as shown in Delany’s absorbing eighth Constable Molly Smith mystery (after 2014’s Cold Stone). One of his two arresting officers is dead under what becomes a suspicious circumstance, and the other, a retired curmudgeon, wants nothing to do with the police now that this cold murder case has been reopened. Walter’s enjoyment of his newly free life is short-lived with the onset of a series of violent attacks on local women. Though the conclusion is a bit lightweight, Delaney does a good job providing an unsavory view of old-boy small-town cop cliques, reminding us that some people don’t get what they deserve. (Feb.)