SNOWED UNDER

When the main character in Feliz’s sixth Maggie McDonald Mysteryagrees to help ready a friend’s Lake Tahoe ski cabin for sale, slipping over a frozen body buried in the snow outside the garage isn’t part of the plan. Dev Bailey, always known as a “chill guy,” is now an ice-cold corpse. He had been missing for months, leaving behind his pregnant wife, Leslie, and their two preschool kids. Dev was a neighbor of Maggie’s friend Tess Olmos. She enlisted Maggie in her capacity of professional organizer to help clean her vacation home before listing it for sale. Contrary to public opinion that Dev was “everyone’s favorite neighbor,” it appears someone felt otherwise, as his autopsy reveals broken bones, bruises, and death by head injury. Maggie soon comes up with a list of possible suspects, including Leslie’s ex-lover,the unlikely named businessperson Walter Raleigh; former class clown and current snowplow driver Ryan Stillwell; and gruff shopkeeper Jens Zimmer, “who can’t get along with anyone for more than a few minutes.” Even the deceased’s younger sister, Amrita, working as a nanny for the Bailey children, seems dodgy, especially because of her recent baffling behavior. Feliz’s mysteries are always a welcome read. The cast of characters she’s created—Maggie and her family, friends, neighbors, and dogs—slides easily in and out of the series’ half-dozen mysteries. Unlike the first five books, this story takes place in the frosty mountains, four hours away from Maggie’s Silicon Valley home. The author nails the terror of driving in blizzard conditions, the joy of snuggling under puffy quilts, and the winter desire for “food, fire, a little booze.” Particularly charming are the ways Maggie finds to entertain Dev’s young children when she offers to babysit. Although a crime is the hook for the book, friendship and neighborliness are its core.

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