The Man From Spirit Creek by Barbara Kyle

Liv Gardner comes to Spirit Creek, Alberta to start a new job as a paralegal for the town's lawyer. In reality, she is the co-owner and in-counsel for Falcon Oil, a company she shares with her fiance, Mickey Havelock. Someone has been sabotaging the company's progress in town. The prime suspect is Tom Wainwright, and Liv makes it her mission to befriend him and find the evidence necessary to put him behind bars. However, she soon discovers that things aren't quite what they seem.

I found the first third of the book quite slow. Having said that, the rest of the book was full of fast-paced action with lots of twists and turns in plot and development. This book has a bit of everything: crime, murder, romance, suspense, but it is also educational. I also found the ending more realistic than other books.

I did have some issues with Liv's character. Liv "stiffened in revulsion" over a young man drooling in his wheelchair, but she gets angry when others don't know how to react to her own sister's challenges. Liv graduated from a prestigious law school, but seems to accept a lot of things in blind faith. A couple of times Liv describes incidental characters as being a "beefy native" and a "chunky native" which bothered me a bit.

I received an advance review copy of this book for free, and I am leaving this honest review voluntarily.