A Day In The Life Of…Molly Smith by Vicki Delany

Shift work is tough on the body, never mind the social life.

Molly Smith is 27 years old; she’s trying to make her way as a brand new police officer in the small British Columbia town where she grew up. As she says in In the Shadow of the Glacier, the first book in the series, It was hard, sometimes, to be a cop in a town where a substantial number of the residents had seen you performing as Number Two Wise Man in the Grade Three Christmas pageant.

Even after three years on the job, she’s still having trouble adjusting to the continuing shift changes – days one week, afternoons the next, then nights. If it’s eleven pm, is it bedtime, or time to do a round of the bars? And with a boyfriend who’s also a cop, it can be difficult to co-ordinate schedules. Although they do try to get their days off together so they can go hiking or kayaking or skiing, get away from the job and other people.

The three to three shifts are the worst. Three o’clock in the afternoon can be a pretty boring time to be patrolling the streets of Trafalgar, B.C. Walking the afternoon beat on Front Street in Trafalgar, British Columbia, was one of the most boring jobs on earth. Until the bars got busy, and on a Tuesday they’d be quiet now that university students and summer visitors had headed back home, the most exciting thing that might happen would be a little old lady trying to parallel park her little old car and scratching the parking meter. [Among the Departed]

It’s easy to settle into the routine, walking the beat, giving directions to wandering tourists, telling drunks to head off home, moving along kids who’ve outstayed their welcome at the coffee shop, or transients on park benches, attending fender benders or helping people who’ve tripped on their own shoelaces and cracked their head on the pavement.

Easy to forget that your life can be on the line in an instant.Easy to forget to keep training, to remain fit and fast. Easy to forget all they taught you at police college. Easy to forget… until one day it’s three am and you’re falling asleep on your feet, thinking about bed, when a man who has a serious problem with women beats up his wife or girlfriend… and the answering officer happens to be a young, blond, pretty female officer.
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You can read more about Molly in Among the Departed, the fifth book in the “Constable Molly Smith” mystery series.  The first book in the series is IN THE SHADOW OF THE GLACIER.

The life and times of Molly Smith is written by Vicki Delany who is the author of many critically acclaimed crime novels including the Constable Molly Smith series, a traditional village/police procedural set in the Interior of British Columbia from Poisoned Pen Press, the Klondike Gold Rush series set in the Yukon in 1898 from Dundurn, and standalone novels of gothic suspense also from Poisoned Pen Press. Visit Vicki at www.vickidelany.com on Facebook: www.facebook.com/vicki.delany and Twitter @vickidelany. She blogs at One Woman Crime Wave (http://klondikeandtrafalgar.blogspot.com)

** Vicki has generously offered to give away one copy of AMONG THE DEPARTED. To enter, please leave an e-mail address in your comment. One entry per person and is open to anyone with a U.S. or Canadian mailing address. Deadline to enter is August 31st at 6pm EST. The winner will be chosen using a random number generator and contacted via email for mailing instructions. **

Books are available at retail and online booksellers.