Cold Tracks

Frank Carver & Ginny Trask Mysteries #1

by Lee Wallingford

Blood Leaves A Deadly Trail

Tired of the violence of big-city crime, former narcotics agent Frank Carver trades the streets of Seattle for the penny-ante stuff of Oregon's Neskanie National Forest. Work is wonderfully, refreshingly dull for the forest's new law enforcement officer. No shootings. No bodies. No murders.

Until the corpse of Nino Alvarez, an immigrant worker, is found in the woods by fire dispatcher Ginny Trask. Ginny, in light of her connections in the area, is soon deputized by Frank.

Something fishy is going on at Holiday Acres, an enormous Christmas-tree farm Alvarez once managed. Ten thousand dollars is missing. Unsettling visitors from California appear. A prime suspect becomes the second victim. And Ginny's nine-year-old daughter is threatened. It's hardly surprising that the investigation reveals a nightmare of blackmail, illicit passion and secrets explosive enough to kill for...

Genres: Mystery, Procedural

252 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Lee Wallingford is an elementary school librarian and teacher. She lives in Milton-Freewater, Oregon, but spent six years with the Forest Service in the Oregon Coast Range, where, like her heroine Ginny Trask, she spent many days fighting wildfires.-- book jacket

Reviews

[Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars
A quick read, and a well done debut mystery, that takes place in an Oregon National forest. It had a cozy style to it, then did some searching. Noella Lee Wallingford is her real name, and only wrote one other Frank Carver/Ginny Trask story. Not sure why she gave it up.

[Kathy KS · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this first volume in this series about an ex-Seattle cop who takes a job as a US Forest Service officer. When a former employee at a Christmas tree farm in rural Oregon is found dead, Frank is assigned dispatcher Ginny as a deputy investigating the death. Ginny is familiar with the residents of the rural community.

I'll be looking for the next volume in the series.

[Georgia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book very much because it was about Oregon! It touches all the interesting aspects of Oregon; climate, especially storms and rain; fires; Bigfoot or also known as Sasquatch; rivers and land!🥸

[Paula · Rating 3 out of 5]

Frank Carver is tired of being a big city cop and has moved to a small town in Oregon where he can fish and take it easy and work in a quiet place.

A dispatcher for a fire service discovers a body in a wooded area and Frank is called in to investigate. Ginny is recruited to be his deputy because she knows all the people of the town.

I would have given this book 3.5 stars if I could, and I'll try another.