A review by canadianbookworm
A Door in the River by Inger Ash Wolfe

3.0

This is the third book in the series featuring OPS officer Hazel Micallef. Here, Hazel is back living with her mother after recovering from back surgery. She is worried about her mother's health, but also her own future. There are plans for the local OPS office in Port Dundas to become a regional centre, with Ray Greene in charge, an officer who had previously worked under Hazel. Hazel is an angry woman, and not a diplomatic one. She tends to be aggressive in her encounters with others, and I found this made her a less sympathetic character for me. But she has a good eye for crime, as shown in the case here.
A local man is found dead, seemingly of a heart attack after an insect bite, but Hazel finds questions around the death. When she digs deeper, she finds her instincts right. This death occurred on the nearby reserve and Hazel immediately butts heads with the reserve police force. Doing her own investigation, she ignores jurisdiction and permissions and forges ahead with the case.
Her small squad shows enthusiasm and gets involved, with one young officer, Wingate, taking large risks to help the victims identified as the investigation moves forward. With the investigation unveiling illegal gambling, prostitution, and human trafficking, we see both local involvement and the international nature. Getting inside the head of one of the human trafficking victims and seeing how the experience affected her attitude toward life was eye-opening.