Otter Slide Resort has just begun to open for winter retreats, so it is empty except for the Hofstead employees and the owners.  Each employee thinks he or she would make the best new president, and when Hofstead is found dead on the frozen lake, his head cracked on a giant wooden loon, local sheriff Palmer Knutson and deputy Orly Peterson first rule his death a tragic accident. 

A lack of footprints and tire tracks begin to make the sheriff suspicious, but how to flush out a culprit when everyone has the same motive?   

A northern take on an English village cozy, Murder Under the Loon has potential, but uninteresting characters and a solution that will leave readers wondering how certain connections to the past were made, adding up to a less than satisfactory outing.  Hofstead’s employees and their spouses are, for the most part, conniving and jealous of other employees and there is not a lot to like about any of them.  While it is not necessary to like a character for one to be considered a good character, these men and women are just petty and often childish. 

A second subplot about a bombing at a university many years prior offers some substance to an otherwise uninteresting murder and ensuing investigation.

--Jennifer Monahan Winberry