Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Death Stalks Door County: A Dave Cubiak Door County Mystery by Patricia Skalka

Patricia Skalka turned her favorite vacation site into the next chapter of a lengthy writing career when she launched the Door County mysteries. Door County is a peninsula on the northeast edge of Wisconsin, jutting into Lake Michigan and bordering Green Bay. With multiple state parks and a long coastline, it is a tourist haven and a mecca for artists. Her protagonist Dave Cubiak joins the ranks of fictional park and wildlife rangers such as Mike Bowditch, Venus Diamond, Joe Pickett, and Anna Pigeon.

The series debut Death Stalks Door County (University of Wisconsin Press, 2014) finds former homicide cop Cubiak three months into his new job as a park ranger and not liking it much. Chain smoking and drinking vodka to get through the day, he’s determined to stay a year to satisfy the commitment he made to the friend who helped him get the job.

A week away from the beginning of the annual Independence Day festival, the formal kick-off of the tourist season, the body of a young man is found at the foot of a sightseeing tower. The coroner rules the death accidental but in the following week five more deaths occur. The village and town mayors and administrators are anxious to hide this sudden increase in the local mortality rate. Tourism is the primary source of revenue for the county, and July and August are peak earning months. No one can afford to frighten the campers and day trippers.

Cubiak’s background gets him pressed into investigating, since the county sheriff is ineffectual. His instincts as a homicide cop say the killer isn’t through but no one wants to hear his requests to trim down the celebration. He sees the annual parade as particularly worrisome, an invitation to a sniper. In a particularly memorable scene, he assigns troopers to key observation points over the parade route. When he checks to make sure everyone is in place just before starting time, no one is. A search turns them all up at the annual pancake breakfast with the sheriff, who sees annual tradition as more important. Cubiak is apoplectic.

I have seen multiple recommendations for these books and I can see why. This story is first of all an ode to what must be an exquisitely beautiful region of the Midwest. The descriptions of Door County are lyrical; it’s clear Skalka loves the area. Next, the complicated plot is finely developed and executed. The characters are original and thoughtfully sketched. Highly recommended, especially for fans of police procedurals and of mysteries with strong outdoor settings.

 

·         Publisher: ‎ University of Wisconsin Press; 1st edition (May 19, 2014)

·         Language: ‎ English

·         Hardcover: ‎ 246 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎ 9780299299408

·         ISBN-13: ‎ 978-0299299408

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2022

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.