In the Winter Woods

This is a murder mystery taking place in small town Vermont in the middle of winter. Declan, a well-known but declining writer running from NYC to try to get his next best seller out, is a bit of a snob. He spent his summers with his family at this cabin but now that both his parents have passed, the cabin is left to him and his sister and is Declan's last place to go with his money and fame running low.
Declan wasn't a character I really cared for and couldn't relate with. The central relationship was also a bit of an insta-romance with a small town cop-not-cop (with the writer jumping on recent anti-police rhetoric that hardly felt realistic for a small Vermont town). I found myself much more interested in solving the murder and felt Declan's self-insert into the investigation and the town's business was more annoying than helpful. I think Adler was going for a “Castle” (the TV show) type set-up but it fell flat.
There's also no more than a few stolen kisses in the entire book which made Declan's constant knobslobbering frustrating in the end.
This book might be interesting to readers just dipping their toe into M/M and interested in murder mystery plots, but those looking for a more intense experience will be disappointed.