Book ~ "Fatal Harvest" (2024) Brenda Chapman

From Goodreads ~ Eleven-year-old Matt Clark is staying in the outlying village of Ashton for the summer while his parents work out their separation. He’s been told to keep his head down and to stay off social media. Labour Day has come and gone and Matt believes he’ll be home soon, completely unaware that someone has been posting his photo and location on one of the sites and trouble is on its way.

Detective Liam Hunter gets the call - a double murder and a missing boy. While he spearheads the investigation, true crime podcaster Ella Tate undertakes her own search for the killer with mixed results. Meanwhile Homicide and Major Crimes is undergoing a major upheaval and the top position is up for grabs as Hunter’s partner struggles to keep her job.

Eleven-year-old Matt has been spending the summer in a small town outside of Ottawa with Devina and Stu, friends of his mother's. He comes home after fishing with his buddy, Jimmy, to find them murdered and there's a man still lurking about. He panics and takes off into hiding. When Devina and Stu's bodies are found, the police wonder about Matt. Did he kill them? Was he kidnapped or also murdered?

Police officers Liam Hunter and Rosie Thornburn investigate. In the meantime, there are internal changes and tension happening within their department which could be distracting. Liam usually works on the sly with Ella Tate, a true crime podcaster, exchanging information on cases, though they didn't spend a lot of time together in this story.

I have read quite a few of this author's books and enjoy them. This one is written in third person perspective depending on where the action was. Though it is the third in the Hunter and Tate series (and I've read the first two), you can read it as a stand alone but I'd recommend you read the first two first so you'll have the background of the characters. The whodunnit was an interesting twist. I like that it is set in Ottawa, ON, and the author doesn't try to hide it.