Snow Creek by Gregg Olsen

 

"I think of how I'd dreamed of a big case as I waded through the property crimes that marked my routine. I'd wanted more than anything to make something so very wrong, right. And now this. In the mostly undisturbed magnificence of the Pacific Northwest is a spate of murders, dark and ugly as any could imagine."

     -Detective Megan Carpenter, from the novel

I selected this from Amazon First Reads and at first, I liked it. The setting was interesting, a very isolated area of the Northwest with cultlike characters, two of which turn up missing. When the missing woman is found dead, Detective Megan Carpenter at first speculates the husband killed her and took off. She couldn't be more wrong. 

After a while multiple characters come into play, and I found it hard to keep up with who was who. Not only that, it becomes clear that Megan has a mysterious past of her own. 

The novel was well-written and kept my interest for quite a while, but I found the ending very dissatisfying as the author leaves so much unresolved. I surely prefer a murder mystery that stands alone and does not try to impel you to read a sequel. This one only rates a 3. I likely will not read another in this series, but I won't rule out others by the author.