(On all detectives having upsetting pasts) I think books need to be about interesting people, and it's possiblethat people with "upsetting pasts" are, all other things being equal,more interesting to us as readers than those without. That said, offthe top of my head I can only think of Matt Scudder that fits thedescription. Who else is there?

(On Alex's emotional baggage)I get the impression that before the book opened he had more or lessdealt with the situation by running away to the cabin, by burying thepast, he'd forgotten all about it. The guilt wasn't part of his day today life any longer.

Seeing a dead body (and a rather gruesomely executed one at that) andgetting involved in a murder case has brought the buried past to lifefor him in the present day. Added to that is that the murderer of hispartner seems to be involved in this series of murders too. That'spretty frightening stuff to come up against so long after the firstevent.

I don't think that he should blame himself for the past, I can't see howhe or Franklin could have done anything different. But I can see thathe would blame himself, wouldn't anybody wonder if they had just donesomething slightly different that day then perhaps everything would haveturned out different? (I'll stop that train of thought before I driftinto chaos theory and bore you all to death...)

I think "running away" was a reasonable thing to do. It didn't soundlike he had much going for him in Detroit, his job was kaputt, his wifehad left him; I think going and living in his fathers cabin in (notquite) the middle of nowehere was a fair response to the situation. Itseemed to have worked out fairly well up until now.

I don't really think he needs any "help". He's certainly got problemsbut I don't think they are insurmountable or long lasting. I think oncethis case is over he'll be ok again, and probably better off than beforesince I hope some of his demons, to do with Rose, will be exorcised bythe end of the book.

I like him so far, he seems like a decent man and he didn't exactly askto get tangled up in the situation he's in.

The murders had better have something to do with Rose else I'm going tobe mightily annoyed at the amount of flashbacks to the Rose case thatwe're getting! I don't think Alex is obsessed, just upset and scared bythe connections to his shooting.

I think it's a setup of some kind, but I can't figure out who would knowenough to do so as Alex doesn't think he's told anyone. Maybe he's beentalking in his sleep to Sylvia. That seems like a reasonable guess tome, and she's nasty enough that i don't mind her murdering people.

(On how I would catch the killer)
Oh, set up a trap with me as the bait, lure the killer in to it, thenget them to confess all by professing to know exactly what happened whenI don't. No, perhaps not. I'll gather everybody within a hundred mileradius into my cabin and recreate the crime - the murderer will be soupset by the errors I make that they'll have to pipe up to correct meand then I'll have them. No, can't see that working either! Damn, it'sback to detective school for me I'm going to get myself killed at thisrate.

(On sense of place) From the snowy pic on the cover I thought the book was going to be niceand cool and an escape from the summer sun, but I haven't really got anysense of place or chilliness from the book. Apart from the log cabins,which sound rather pleasant, I haven't got an image of any of theoutside places in my head.