The Blue Water Mysteries: Book 1
Publication Date: February 10, 2026
Victoria Treadwell, dispatcher for the sheriff’s office, is driving to work in a snowstorm when she sees a car fish-tailing behind her. Horrified, she watches at the car swerves off the road. When she heads back to help, she finds the driver bent over the steering wheel and barely breathing. In the back seat is a tiny child in a pink snowsuit. Victoria calls for an ambulance and then dials her boss, Pete Manstead, Undersheriff, of Charlevoix County. The ambulance arrives and the paramedic tries to shock the woman’s heart back into rhythm, but the driver, who they learn is named Carly Yellowwood, is dead. From the autopsy, Pete finds Carly died of a drug overdose, although she didn’t use drugs. The coroner lists the cause of death as murder. Pete sends his deputies to visit Carly’s neighbors and learns she has been seeing two men. One is her ex-husband, Joe Yellowwood, a Native American living on the nearby reservation. No one knows the second man. Since Carly Yellowwood was divorced and has a new boyfriend. Pete believes its a crime of passion. Victoria, who hopes to adopt Carly’s motherless child, thinks the motive is far darker.
When Victoria Treadwell, dispatcher for the sheriff’s office, witnesses a car swerve off the icy road. The driver is later declared dead from a drug overdose, though she is not a drug user in author Lyn Farrell’s In the Dead of Winter
Clearly, the author researched Native American culture extensively and wove it into the fabric of the story. Native characters aren’t common in media, and it was refreshing to read a positive depiction of life on the reservation.
The police scenes seemed to come to life on the page, along with the realistic jargon and dialogue. The author paints a vivid tableau of the freezing cold, making the chill seep right into my bones.
The writing, dialogue, pace, and plot of the book were solid and kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough.
With a solid plot and realistic characters, In the Dead of Winter hits a solid home run, and I am eagerly awaiting the next book in the series!
Lyn Farquhar—pen name Lyn Farrell—holds a Ph.D. from Michigan State University and is an experienced author, having published the seven-book series (the Mae December mysteries) with Epicenter Press and four books in the Rosedale Investigations series. She has also published one women’s fiction book. To date, eight of her books have been picked up by a secondary publisher, Harlequin. Sales to date from both primary and secondary publishers are approaching 50,000. Lyn worked for Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine for 35 years before retiring to pursue her dream of becoming a published fiction author. Lyn is the mother of two, has six stepchildren, and twelve grandchildren. She loves gardening, playing with her Cavalier King Charles spaniels, and is always on the lookout for paintings by her famous artist grandfather, Eugene Iverd.
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