Negative image: a Constable Molly Smith novel

2019 recipient of the Derrick Murdoch award from the Crime Writers of Canada

As the mountain town of Trafalgar, British Columbia, shakes off a long hard winter, famous photographer Rudolph Steiner arrives to do a feature on mountain tourism. Steiner is accompanied by his assistant and his sexy young wife, but he has another reason for the visit: to re-connect with the woman who left him 25 years ago to marry another man. That woman was a young, beautiful, naïve, internationally known super-model. Today Eliza Winters is no longer young, and definitely not naïve, but she is still beautiful and married to Trafalgar City Police Sergeant John Winters.

When Steiner is found shot in his luxury hotel room, suspicion falls upon Eliza who had, inexplicably, visited Steiner there. John Winters is forced into the most difficult of dilemmas: loyalty to his job or to his wife. As the RCMP dig into secrets hidden by both Steiner and Eliza, Winters slowly comes to realize that he doesn't know his beloved wife as well as he thought.

Meanwhile, Constable Molly Smith has her own troubles. A series of break-ins has the peaceful town in an uproar, her overprotective boyfriend from the Royal Mounted Police is fighting with her colleagues, and a vengeful stalker is watching her every move. When tragedy strikes at the heart of her own family, Molly can't even turn to her mother for help.