Celine herself is really the subject of this book, even though it purports to be a detective story. If you read it as a detective novel, you'll find the breaks in the story, which fill in the details and background of Celine's life, distracting. But there are reasons to empathize with Celine, who is older and in poor health and clearly a survivor, a woman in a man's world of crime detection and outdoorsmanship. The details of the settings, especially those in the isolated West of mountain dangers and inclement weather, paint pictures that place the reader in the center of the action. Themes of family life explore both pain and pleasure, from childhood to middle adults and to the elderly. Memories are conjured of one's own family strengths and failures.