Patricia SkalkaBesprekingen

Pretty good mystery and fast paced storytelling.

Sheriff Dave Cubiak finds himself in a murder investigation that has several possible suspects. The author has a fabulous ability to translate her vision into the reader's mind with viivd imagery and an intriguing storyline. I found myself reading every free second I could. I love the personality of Sheriff Cubiak. I look forward to reading more of his adventures.

A look at poems through history inspired by objects–earthly and celestial–reflecting the time in which each poet lived.

Six deaths mar the holiday mood as summer vacationers enjoy Wisconsin’s beautiful Door County peninsula. Murders, or bizarre accidents? Newly hired park ranger Dave Cubiak, a former Chicago homicide detective, assumes the worst but refuses to get involved.

After tracking a clever killer in Death Stalks Door County, park ranger and former Chicago homicide detective Dave Cubiak is elected Door County sheriff. His newest challenge arrives as spring brings not new life but tragic death to the isolated fishing village of Gills Rock. Three prominent World War II veterans who are about to be honored for their military heroics die from carbon monoxide poisoning during a weekly card game. Blame falls to a faulty heater but Cubiak puzzles over details. When one of the widows receives a message claiming the men “got what they deserved,” he realizes that there may be more to the deaths than a simple accident.
Investigating, Cubiak discovers that the men’s veneer of success and respectability hides a trail of lies and betrayal that stems from a single, desperate act of treachery and eventually spreads a web of deceit across the peninsula. In a dark, moody tale that spans more than half a century, Cubiak encounters a host of suspects with motives for murder. Amid broken dreams, corruption, and loss, he sorts out the truth. Death at Gills Rock is the second book in Patricia Skalka’s Dave Cubiak Door County Mystery series.

This crime series is set in Door County, Wisconsin and focuses on Sheriff Dave Cubiak, formerly a Chicago homicide detective who moved north to start his life over. His wife and daughter were killed by a drunk driver four year earlier, and Dave drank himself into losing his job over it. He still has a long way to go to overcome his grief and guilt.

As the story begins, the county is rocked by the simultaneous death of three octogenarian hometown war heroes, men who apparently died from carbon monoxide poisoning in a cabin in Gills Rock. Dave, sheriff for over a year now, heads up the peninsula to investigate and finds things might be more complicated than they seemed at first, and that the deaths might not have been accidental.

As secrets come out and the pieces fall into place, Dave has to decide what needs to be revealed about the past, and what should stay buried. The decision would be clear if it were only a matter of law, but in this case, it’s also a matter of more lives potentially being ruined.

Evaluation: The story behind the deaths is interesting, but the main character of the book is definitely Door County, beloved by tourists and this author alike. Wisconsinites will especially appreciate the exploration of the setting.½

Death Stalks Door County: A Dave Cubiak Door County Mystery by Patricia Skalka is the first book in a multi book series. Published in 2004, author takes readers to the peninsula that juts out between Lake Michigan and Green Bay.

Dave Cubiak is a man living with incredible grief. His wife and daughter were killed and he knows that he is responsible for their deaths. Not directly, but indirectly, and that grief is all encompassing and wide ranging.

“He found it unsettling how quickly life returned to normal for those on the outskirts of loss. For a week after Lauren and Alexis died, he’d failed to pick up the morning newspapers from the front porch, not because he forgot but because everything commonplace seemed superfluous. His perspective had been so altered by death, he could not comprehend a world in which someone would continue to drop a daily paper at his door. He was only beginning to understand that for those not directly touched by it, death was a transient event (pages 60-61).”

The former Chicago homicide detective left the force and came up to the Door County to be a park ranger. He promised his former homicide partner he would give the job a year and he intends to uphold that promise despite the grief, the massive alcohol intake, and the ongoing annoying stupidity of others including his boss, Otto Johnson.

He wanted to leave death behind. At least, that was the plan. Then three months into the job, in late June, he hears a sharp wail nearby while out running one morning as he tried to flush the toxins from his system. He investigates and finds his boss, Park Superintendent Otto Johnson, at the base of Falcon Tower. It appears that somebody took a header off the multistory fire watch tower.

It soon becomes clear that the deceased is Lawrence Wisby. As Cubiak is forced to explain to his boss, Sheriff Halverson, and Doctor Bathard, the deceased is the brother of the man that killed his wife and daughter by driving drunk and running them down with a car. That makes him a suspect as far as the Sheriff is concerned.

An intense and highly atmospheric story, Death Stalks Door County: A Dave Cubiak Door County Mystery by Patricia Skalka is a complicated and often intense read. Grief plays a major role in the book almost to the point of an actual living and breathing character. Issues related to that aspect of the book leads to considerable backstory as well as a deep resonance with this reader. The ongoing current day mystery is complicated and far ranging and resulted in a considerable surprise when the killer was finally revealed.

Intense, complicated, and very atmospheric, Death Stalks Door County: A Dave Cubiak Door County Mystery by Patricia Skalka is a very good read.

Death Stalks Door County: A Dave Cubiak Door County Mystery
Patricia Skalka
http://www.patriciaskalka.com/
University of Wisconsin Press
https://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/5315.htm
May 2014
IISBN# 978-0299299408
Hardback eBook (eBook and paperback formats also available)
246 Pages

Material supplied by the good folks of the Dallas Library System.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2021

Six deaths mar the holiday mood as summer vacationers enjoy Wisconsin’s beautiful Door County peninsula. Murders, or bizarre accidents? Newly hired park ranger Dave Cubiak, a former Chicago homicide detective, assumes the worst but refuses to get involved. Grief-stricken and guilt-ridden over the loss of his wife and daughter, he’s had enough of death.
Forced to confront the past, the morose Cubiak moves beyond his own heartache and starts investigating, even as a popular festival draws more people into possible danger. In a desperate search for clues, Cubiak uncovers a tangled web of greed, betrayal, bitter rivalries, and lost love beneath the peninsula’s travel-brochure veneer. Befriended by several locals but unsure whom to trust or to suspect of murder, the one-time cop tracks a clever killer.

Door County (WI) Sheriff Dave Cubiak is at it again. This time he is enjoying lunch with a friend when a scream alerts him to a murder at a medical convention held elsewhere in the lodge. Soon he is embroiled in solving not one, but two, murders. He also uncovers stories of young patients taken from their families, promised a cure, and never seen again. The two mysteries seem to be related. With the help of his able deputy, and his friend the retired coroner, he (of course) solves all the riddles. I love Skalka's characters, plots, and the Door County background.

It took me a little longer than desired to get into this book, but once I did I couldn't wait to see how it ended. A very good murder mystery set close to home. (It even had a nice shout out to my aunt and cousin's current one-stop sign town!) i definitely enjoyed the book and would read the next book in the series.

Great read. Promises to be the first in a series about this fictional detective. Love the Door County backdrop. Didn't figure out who the murderer was till the end.