Detective Constable Edward Reekie is drafted in at the last minute to assist Detective Inspector Victoria Montgomery-Porter, know as Bigtoria due to her size, escort a dying prisoner who is being released to live in a small village. This is no ordinary village as all the inhabitants are ex-prisoners who can't live in normal society due to the hideousness of their crimes. A snow storm blows in and the village is cut off from outside help which causes more problems than could be predicted as someone has murdered one of the villagers. As the senior officers present Bigtoria heads up the investigation, but without any outside technical help. However, she is not a very communicative type, in fact some would call her a stuck up arrogant bitch, and life for DC Reekie is hell.

He really regrets being a policeman. He hates Bigtoria. He hates the village. He hates the snow. He's tired. And he smells.

The start of this book is rather depressing and I wondered what I was getting myself into. But as it went on it got better and felt like an old fashioned country house crime mystery. Then things changed again. There are lots of twists and turns in this book and it's best to go with the flow and hope things turn out for the best and not as was indicated by the start. In in the end I really really enjoyed this. It's not straight forward but that's what makes it good.