Book ~ "Closing Time" (2020) Brenda Chapman

From Goodreads ~ It’s late summer and a restless Officer Kala Stonechild has taken her foster niece, Dawn, on a canoe trip at Pine Hollow Lodge in the wilderness north of Sault Ste. Marie. But the getaway turns deadly when a teenage girl goes missing on her way home from an evening shift at the lodge’s restaurant.

After the girl’s body is found between the lodge and the nearby town of Searchmont, Stonechild reluctantly agrees to help with the investigation. She’s teamed with Clark Harrison, an officer she worked with during her last posting in northwestern Ontario. As the investigation heats up, Stonechild’s past threatens the close bonds she’s forged back home. Will she return to her life in Kingston, or will the rekindling of an old relationship lure her away for good? 

Kala Stonechild is a police officer living in Kingston, ON, and taking care of her teenage niece, Dawn, while Dawn's mother is in prison.  Kala has been feeling restless lately and has some life decisions to make ... while she likes the life she's made for herself in Kingston, she has also been missing her old life, living in northern Ontario with no responsibilities for anyone but herself and her dog.

Kala and Dawn rent a cottage on a lodge in northern Ontario so Kala can show Dawn the joys and simplicity of life away from the city.  Days spent hiking and on the lakes are interrupted when Rachel, a teenager who was working at the restaurant at the lodge where Kala and Dawn are staying is murdered.  The area is served by one police officer, who Kala had worked with years before, and he asks for her help.  As Clark and Kala start investigating, they find that Rachel wasn't the good girl her mother wanted her to be and there are many who could have killed her.

This is the seventh (and final) in the Stonechild and Rouleau series and I enjoyed it.  Though it is part of a series, it works as a stand alone and you don't need to have read the previous ones to read this one (there is enough background given).   It's always nice to read a book that is happening in Ontario (these characters live in Kingston and this story happens in northern Ontario and the author doesn't hide this fact).  I liked the writing style and found the storyline interesting.  It is written in third person perspective with the focus on the various characters wherever the action was happening.

While I'm sorry to see this series come to an end, I look forward to reading future books in this series and by this author.