Winter Witness by Tina deBellegarde

When I started reading this book, I was a little spaced out regarding the time and place in which this story was placed. It takes a slow meandering route through the town, its various inhabitants on its way to the actual mystery. I could feel the weight of the winter atmosphere, the small nitpicking that everyone engages in.
Although the book begins with discovering a murdered nun, the progression of the narrative focuses on how everyone deals with it while showing us the parallel police investigation, almost as an aside. The characters grew on me, and I was invested in the narrative.
As our leading lady, we have a recently widowed lady trying to live without her husband while juggling financial difficulties. She is only now venturing into the small-town community and gaining a place for herself. Since she is the only one who feels the second death in town is connected to the first and holds pieces of the entire puzzle, she sets out to figure things out. There are two reasons I rated the book the way I did. The first is because I found the pacing a tad too slow (but remained persistently atmospheric) and arrived at the conclusion just before the final reveal and did not really ‘like’ it. I did not feel like my emotions were invested in the right place for the ending. Also, I intend to pick up the next when available, and I want to keep this as a base rating because I have higher hopes for the next.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.