Cruelest Month

Winter is starting to loosen its grip on Cedar County along the shores of northern Lake Michigan. The first hints of green are becoming visible on the edges of the receding snowpack. On the inland lakes, the layers of ice that started forming in late November and December are slowly subsiding. The search for morel mushrooms is still three or four weeks off. But this year there is other treasure to hunt. Vincent Fox, an octogenarian, has self-published a book, Al Capone’s Michigan: The Secret Lost Treasure. Following the descriptions in the book, some of the locals are beginning to scour the beaches with shovels and metal detectors. When Fox suddenly goes missing, Sheriff Ray Elkins and Detective Sue Lawrence are confronted by a complex web of fact and fiction to sort through, and along the way they discover new information to a decades old unsolved murder. Praise for Aaron Stander’s mysteries: This is a well-crafted, cerebral police procedural that should easily satisfy fans who’ve enjoyed reading about Elkins in other books. —Lansing State Journal Stander once again demonstrates his deep understanding of the geographic area and total fabric of northern Michigan. And he successfully melds this within a natural ability to tell a good yarn. —I Love a Mystery Newsletter With a protagonist as deep and textured as Ray Elkins and a backdrop as varied as this resort community, Stander has created a high-quality mystery series. —Foreword Magazine Stander’s Cedar County with its haunting sand dunes, woodlands, and Lake Michigan—alternately raging and serene—shape and shade every character on the canvas. —Northern Express