14 Degrees Below Zero isn’t so much about solving how a crime was committed, but so much as why it was committed. The novel opens with the crime in progress, then retreats several days to follow the events that led up to it.

The story is one of a triangle between Jay, her father, Lewis and her boyfriend, Stephen. Jay struggles as a young single mother, forced to give up on college when she got pregnant and trying to find her place in the world. Her struggle is paralleled by Lewis, her More...

I read this yesterday while taking 2 flights out to Seattle. The Minneapolis references
were fun, especially from Uptown and the Lakes, where my first apartment was.
It was a quick easy read. The character development was good. I love the way he describes the painfully cold winters that Minnesota natives never seem to adjust to. I will read more of this author.

Great local mystery but with a deeper,more relateable plot than most mysteries. I enjoyed Skinners sense of reality in the benign characters minds as well as the madman's. He has a real grip on how age,time and environmental circumstances can take shape and move the plot forward. I highly recommend this book.