Death Is Relative — Ronald W. Weiss

The universally loathed and despised manager of the Lodgepole Mountain Resort in Montana has been found dead on a ski-lift chair. Retired Detective Hugh Winslow is asked to help Sheriff Beatrice find the murderer. Hugh reluctantly agrees, and with the help of his photographer wife, her adventurous aunt Kate, and his two Malamute dogs Wolfie and Queenie, he winds his way through an intricate web of deception hidden under the veneer of polite small-town society.