Charlotte MacLeod's The Corpse in Oozak's Pond (Book Beginnings & Friday 56)

I just completed Susan Elia MacNeal's Mr. Churchill's Secretary, which was amazing and teased this past Tuesday ... so now to move on to my next book! I picked it out as the first book for the 24in48 Winter 2017 Readathon, but I'm not sure I'll be able to bring myself to wait until Saturday to start it in earnest. After all, it's a Peter Shandy and I'm head over heels for the odd man. Once I get started on a MacLeod book I typically fly through them. It may be done by the time the Readathon begins!

Amazon Description

 The rural town of Balaclava greets Groundhog Day as an excuse for one last cold-weather fling. The students and faculty of the local agricultural college drink cocoa, throw snowballs, and, when the temperature allows, ice skate. Oozak’s Pond is not quite frozen this year, though, and as the Groundhog Day celebrations reach their peak, the students see someone bobbing through the ice. The drowning victim is long past help, though; he’s badly decomposed and dressed in an old-fashioned frock coat with a heavy rock in each pocket.

 

First on the scene is Peter Shandy, horticulturalist and, when the college requires it, detective. But solving this nineteenth-century murder will take more than Shandy’s knack for rutabagas. Relying on his wife’s expertise in local history, the professor dives into a gilded-age mystery that cloaks secrets that remain potent enough to kill.

Friday 56 (share from the 56th page or 56% mark) is hosted at Freda's Voice 

& Book Beginnings (share the first few sentences) is at Rose City Reader.