Death at Gills Rock: A Dave Cubiak Door County Mystery

by Patricia Skalka

Overview

Dave Cubiak is back!

After tracking a clever killer in Death Stalks Door County, park ranger and former Chicago homicide detective Dave Cubiak is elected Door County sheriff. His newest challenge arrives as spring brings not new life but tragic death to the isolated fishing village of Gills Rock. Three prominent World War II veterans, about to be honored for their military heroics, die from carbon monoxide poisoning during a weekly card game.

Blame falls to a faulty heater but Cubiak puzzles over details. When one of the widows receives a message claiming the men "got what they deserved," he realizes that there may be more to the deaths than a simple accident.

Investigating, Cubiak discovers that the men's veneer of success and respectability hides an intricate web of lies, betrayal, and treachery.

In a dark, moody tale that spans more than half a century and hopscotches across the peninsula, Cubiak encounters a host of suspects with motives for murder. Amid broken dreams, corruption, and loss, he sorts out the truth.

Death at Gills Rock is the second book in the Dave Cubiak Door County Mystery series.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780299304546
Publisher:	University of Wisconsin Press
Publication date:	05/23/2017
Series:	A Dave Cubiak Door County Mystery
Pages:	248
Sales rank:	360,386
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Patricia Skalka is a former freelance staff writer for Reader's Digest specializing in human interest and medical stories. She has worked as a magazine editor, ghost writer, and writing instructor. A native of Chicago, she lives in the city and takes time off at her cottage in Door County, Wisconsin.

Editorial Reviews

"Death at Gills Rock is a well wrought, tightly plotted mystery with a nuanced, brooding detective, set on the gorgeous waterfront of a frigid Wisconsin peninsula."
—Hallie Ephron, New York Times best-selling author of Night Night, Sleep Tight


"Skalka takes us back to Door County—this mystery is even better than the first."
—Mary Logue, author of the Claire Watkins mystery series


"A compelling, complex whodunit saturated with long-ago sins and festering hatreds. The author skillfully uses as her backdrop an outwardly idyllic corner of Wisconsin."
—Robert Goldsborough, author of Archie in the Crosshairs, a Nero Wolfe Mystery


"An expertly crafted, impressively researched novel with a gripping, multilayered plot; colorful, well-drawn characters that leap right off the page; tight, punchy dialog; and a pace that grabs you by the throat and doesn't let go."
—Michael Norman, author of Haunted Wisconsin


"Intricate plot and well-developed characters." —Booklist

From the Publisher

04/27/2015
Angst-laden former Chicago homicide detective Dave Cubiak uncovers long-buried secrets in this quietly memorable regional police procedural, the sequel to 2014’s Death Stalks Door County. Now the sheriff of Door County, which occupies the peninsula between Green Bay and Lake Michigan, Cubiak is bothered by inconsistent details at the scene where three prominent locals, heroes from WWII, have died in an apparent accident in isolated Gills Rock, “a blip of a town at the tip of the peninsula.” Cubiak studies the people involved more than the physical evidence, peeling back decades of deception by the dead men; their “heroism” may have hidden a wartime murder, and they have injured many people since then. He eventually arrives at a solution that may not be legally proper but serves justice. Skalka write with unusually rich detail about her story’s setting and with unflinching empathy for her characters. (June)

Publishers Weekly

★ 05/01/2015
After tracking down a killer in Death Stalks Door County, former Chicago homicide detective Dave Cubiak returns as the newly elected sheriff of Door County, WI. When three popular World War II vets die from carbon monoxide poisoning during their weekly card game just before the fishing community of Gills Rock was going to honor them, Dave suspects something is amiss. He notices that the door to the cabin where the men were found was bolted shut. When one of the widows receives a message telling her, "They got what they deserved" his suspicions are verified. VERDICT In her atmospheric, tightly written sequel, Skalka vividly captures the beauty of a remote Wisconsin peninsula that will attract readers of regional mysteries. Also recommended for fans of William Kent Kruger, Nevada Barr, and Mary Logue.

Library Journal

2015-04-02
A Wisconsin sheriff lets his conscience be his guide. Dave Cubiak is haunted by his past. Still not over the death of his wife and daughter, the former Chicago cop has retreated to Door County, become sheriff, and started to make a new life for himself when a case that will test all his resources shocks the area. Three World War II heroes about to be honored by the Coast Guard are all found dead, apparent victims of carbon monoxide poisoning while playing cards at a cabin on the Huntsman property. Terrence "Big Guy" Huntsman, Eric Swenson, and Jasper Wilkins, local boys from the small town of Gills Rock, all enlisted together. A fourth friend, Christian Nils, lost his life in their heroic attempt to rescue 170 men stranded in the frigid waters of the Aleutian Islands. The three surviving friends have all become wealthy businessmen whose deaths would be written off as an accident if not for Cubiak's feeling that something's not right. When a neighbor of Big Guy's shoots her husband dead and confesses to the crime, she avers that they all deserved what they got and then clams up. But she sets Cubiak on the road to some nasty discoveries and a growing list of suspects. Realizing that the heroes were anything but heroic and the suspects more deserving of sympathy than he assumed, Cubiak has some big decisions to make before he puts paid to the case. The second installment of this first-rate series (Death Stalks Door County, 2014) provides plenty of challenges for both the detective and the reader.

Kirkus Reviews